F&B minimum

Food and beverage is usually the biggest per-head cost at an event, and an F&B minimum is the venue’s floor on how much of it you have to buy from them. Some venues rent the room cheaply and make the money back on catering. Some ban outside caterers entirely, or allow them and charge corkage. Either way the minimum is committed spend, so it belongs in the budget before registration opens, not after you count who actually said yes.

Two habits keep it from hurting. First, do not overcommit on headcount and do not prepay any earlier than the venue forces you to, because adding a few extra plates is far easier than paying for food nobody ate. Second, know the catering deadline, the date by which you must hand over final numbers, which typically lands around two weeks before the event and lines up with the freeze on your runway. Watch the surrounding lines too, since service charges and taxes stack on top of the food bill and are quoted separately more often than not.

Source: Venue and catering industry practice, listed in published event glossaries as F&B (food and beverage), the usual largest per-head cost line. The DevOpsDays organizing guide supplies the discipline: some venues “might mandate using their catering services,” the catering deadline is “usually a couple weeks or so before your event,” and “don’t overcommit on the number of people coming and don’t do a pre-payment for the venue until you must. The same goes for food: it’s always easier to add a few extra plates as opposed to having too much food ordered.” The stacking of service charges and taxes on catering bills is described by the planners in Whova’s Event Insider venue-negotiation panel.

First used in: 1.6 · The venue: selection to BEO.