It’s a strange phenomenon that affects this month of December. Christmas meals are being prepared, New Year’s Eve parties are organized, end-of-year party drinks or drinks to celebrate the new are the subject of invitations. With often the same question: how many will there be? Who will really come? What rate of no show (unforeseen absence) should we anticipate? People who don’t answer, those who will cancel a few days in advance, those who answer ” I will try to come “ as if we were going to award them a good point for the intention, and those who simply do not come. These are equations with too many unknowns that must be solved.
On a subject like this, many interlocutors asked to be anonymous: either event organizers who do not want their customers to know how many of their guests are missing out, or guests who do not want let their cardboard apologies be known to those who still invite them.
“We have gone from organized premeditation to anarchist spontaneity”, summarizes Bernard Boutboul, consultant for the restoration
Invitation professionals continue to try to put a number on things. A rate of no show normal, it’s 30%, we explain in the events, 10% for a seated dinner. The bigger the event, the more cancellations. “As soon as it’s ‘open doors’, the no show, it’s a festival. People think their absence will go unnoticed”, notes Sophie Ribault, from the Woki Toki agency. And if the event is free, the absentee rate goes up. “When there is no monetary implication, cancellations go from 20% to 50%, notes Olivier Lazzarini, marketing director of Théâtre Mogador, about the private events organized there. Unfortunately, when it’s free, people think it has no value… For a privatized event with show, there is no no show. It all depends on the carrot! »
A major champagne brand admits to doing a job of estimating the ratio for its events according to different options (free entry, free entry by reservation, paid entry, etc.). However, here are even these outdated figures, so much our ability to go back on our commitments exceeds all that we have known.
Acute “annulosis” crisis
“At one time, for an end-of-year meal or a company Christmas tree, we knew exactly who would be there several days in advance. From now on, the same day, the estimates can go from forty-two to thirty, no one knows who will come and with whom. We went from organized premeditation to anarchist spontaneity »sums up Bernard Boutboul, restaurant consultant.
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