Venue Selection

The menu price is roughly two-thirds of the real price, and the ranking by menu price is frequently not the ranking by final cost. This skill gets to the real number and checks the things that ruin a room.

When to use

• Any hosted event: dinner, roundtable, owned event, suite
• Comparing options for a private dining room
• A venue has been proposed and nobody has read the contract

Inputs

• Reads: workspace/events/<event>/decision.md, workspace/events/<event>/budget.md, the format plan
• Needs from user: the city, the date, the headcount including your team, the budget position, and any exclusions

Workflow

1. Set the requirements before looking at anything

Note the exclusions explicitly too. Cuisine, chains, anywhere the guests have obviously been to a vendor dinner already, and anywhere a specific stakeholder has ruled out.

2. Build a shortlist of five to seven

Sources: the co-host's or partner's preferred vendors (frequently the best option and it saves days of work), private-dining directories, hotel event teams, and asking the account team where their customers actually go.

A note on prestige. A famous restaurant is not automatically the right answer. Guests at this level have been to the famous ones. A room they have not been in, or one with genuine character, frequently outperforms a familiar three-star.

3. Compute all-in per head for every candidate

Menu per head
+ beverage package (per person per hour x contracted hours)
+ reception cost per head, if arrival is separate
= subtotal
+ service charge or gratuity (%)
+ coordination or administration fee (%)
+ tax (%)
= ALL-IN PER HEAD

Put the all-in number in the comparison table for every option and rank on it. Show the per-head figure even when there is no cap, so the number is visible rather than hidden.

Expect the stacked add-ons to add a third or more. A cheaper menu at a venue with heavy add-ons routinely loses to a more expensive menu at a venue with light ones.

Label your pricing basis. Verified from a quote, verified from a published kit, or estimated. An estimate presented as a quote is how budgets get missed.

4. Read the contract before signing

• Minimum spend, and whether it covers food and beverage only or includes room hire
• Final headcount date, usually three to seven business days out. After it you pay for the guaranteed number
• Attrition terms
• Cancellation schedule, usually a sliding scale by weeks out
• Deposit and payment terms
• Overtime charges if the room runs past the contracted end
• Outside vendors allowed or not, for photography, AV, gifting
• Insurance requirements. Ask at booking, not at payment
• Corkage, if you are bringing anything

5. Verify before you commit

• Walk the space if at all possible, at the same time of day as your event. Noise and light change completely between lunch and 7pm
• Confirm any negative you have read. Closure rumors, renovation reports, and review complaints are frequently stale or recycled. Ask directly
• Verify the contact details are real. Booking pages and third-party listings carry dead or wrong addresses. Use the venue's own booking system or phone line
• Get the quote in writing, itemized, with the add-ons broken out

6. Hold a backup

Hold a second option informally until the contract is signed. Private rooms in good restaurants go quickly in peak season and a date change is much easier when the alternate is already warm.

Output

• Writes: workspace/events/<event>/venue.md with the requirements, the comparison table with all-in per head, the recommendation with reasoning, and the contract terms to negotiate
• Prints: the ranked comparison, the recommendation, the pricing basis per option, and the open verification items

Rules & quality bar

• All-in per head for every candidate. Never compare on menu price
• Label the pricing basis. Verified or estimated, stated
• Ask whether the private room has its own kitchen
• Confirm the room is genuinely private and that nothing else is booked in it
• Read the final headcount and cancellation terms before signing
• Verify contact details through the venue's own channels. Third-party listings carry bad data
• Walk the space at the event's time of day where possible
• Hold a backup until signature

Related skills

• Reads: event-budget, the format skill
• Feeds: event-logistics, run-of-show
• See also: docs/operations-runbook.md section 5, docs/field-notes.md note 4