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The_Fat_Boy

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how do you handle them?
here is my situation had a girl call last week wanted to have party for 4 yr old daughter wanted to have it at 4pm on saturday, she wanted to know if we could open the buffet for them, i asked how many people were going to be coming she said 30 so isaid ok

i brought in extra wait staff and an extra cook early to be able to handle them

here is the problem only 12 people showed up and only 8 ate they made a huge mess didn’t leave a tip for the waitress and we thru out 5 pizza sbecause we were ready for 30 not 8

how would you handle this
 
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If I recall when my children were having birthday parties the price for the room rental and food was agreed on at the time the party was booked. If the guests failed to show then it was the party host that was out of luck.

I hosted a party for one of my children that turned out to be on the day of the worst storm of the year. I still paid the agreed price for the facility and food. The owner did save on food costs as he had the foresight to not cook the food until we had arived. The next year he gave me a discount for not making an issue over the costs. We were both winners in this case and I refered many friends to him.
 
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you can do it one of two ways, agree with the customer what they want, get paid for it and make it the day they come in. If everyone doesn’t show up that is their problem. Or, you could take the reservation and wait till everyone shows up and take the order then. as for the tip, you could factor in a manditory gratuity
 
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i charge 100.00 clean up fee for kids parties.i wait until the people show b-4 we cook the food.if it is a buffet,they can do only during regular buffet times.i charge a 20% gratuity for groups over 12.
 
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I ask the customer if they want to order before they come in and how much food they want, I will suggest what I think is enough for their numbers but let them make the final call. I tell them what the price will be and to let us know if the number of people is going to change to let us know 1 hour ahead. When they come in we have the food ready when they are done I give them a bill and if all the food isnt eaten they take the leftovers home. If they are unsure what they want I suggest they order when they come in.
 
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I just started doing my brochure for pizza-making parties will be doing on Sundays when we are normally closed…I plan on having a policy of $200 minimum, and taking 1/2 deposit at time of booking…we have already done a few of these and have gone through similar situations and have factored in tip & clean-up into the set price
 
The Fat Boy:
here is the problem only 12 people showed up and only 8 ate they made a huge mess didn’t leave a tip for the waitress and we thru out 5 pizza sbecause we were ready for 30 not 8

how would you handle this
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On THIS particular issue, you got burned, suck it up and move on. That’s not meant to sound mean, just that you shouldn’t expect the customer to make up for it.

An example from my personal experience is that my wife’s Mary Kay director had a party for her unit. Everyone RSVP’d and she tacked on a couple just to be sure she had enough seats. For whatever reason, several people didn’t show. The restaurant tried to charge her for the cost of entress for those who didn’t show. Mind you this was a large restaurant and nothing was made beforehand. The manager and the director came to an agreement on price due to the extra waitstaff involved, but past that, every one of us left with a “bad taste” in our mouths over how it was handled. Needless to say, if I were booking a party, that restaurant wouldn’t have made my list based upon that experience.
 
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The Fat Boy:
how do you handle them?
here is my situation had a girl call last week wanted to have party for 4 yr old daughter wanted to have it at 4pm on saturday, she wanted to know if we could open the buffet for them, i asked how many people were going to be coming she said 30 so isaid ok

i brought in extra wait staff and an extra cook early to be able to handle them

here is the problem only 12 people showed up and only 8 ate they made a huge mess didn’t leave a tip for the waitress and we thru out 5 pizza sbecause we were ready for 30 not 8

how would you handle this
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I had a very successful B-Day promotion that I used to run. Everytime I got an inquiry about B-Day parties I always asked the anticipated number in the party. If it was over some number, say 15, I would give the parent a voucher for 2 free pizzas if they had the party at my place. I’d say at least 50% held the party at my place. Sometimes they’d come, take the two free pizzas, maybe order one or two more, and it was a bad deal for me. But most of the times, they’s be ordering 10 or more pizzas, in addition to the two free ones, to feed all the kids and parents that were there. Overall, it was great for me.

I don’t really have a kid friendly place now, so I don’t get inquiries for parties anymore, but I may try something like this for catering. I hadn’t thought about until now.
 
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Perry:
I just started doing my brochure for pizza-making parties will be doing on Sundays when we are normally closed…I plan on having a policy of $200 minimum, and taking 1/2 deposit at time of booking…we have already done a few of these and have gone through similar situations and have factored in tip & clean-up into the set price
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when u do this with the kids… what else u do? what kind of entertainment do u have?.. I always like the idea of bdays with kids making their own pizza, but then I try to think what else can the kids do to keep busy…
 
I have a Birthday party package where people pick what they want it starts small with just some food and then they can add a cake, goodie bags, decorations themes, games (we suply games and a hostess), kareoke and I also have a Magician and clown that we can hire It starts at about 50.00 and goes up from there with a clown (does face painting and ballon shapes) or Magician it is about 250. depending on how many people. The biggest one I did was for 30 kids and they had the whole package with a magician their cost was 380.00.
 
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Perry:
I just started doing my brochure for pizza-making parties will be doing on Sundays when we are normally closed…I plan on having a policy of $200 minimum, and taking 1/2 deposit at time of booking…we have already done a few of these and have gone through similar situations and have factored in tip & clean-up into the set price
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realized after doing a few more than it was not worth the headaches and no longer do them
 
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