Chapter 29 — Exercises

Thirty-two problems. Items marked with a dagger (†) have worked solutions in the Answers to Selected Exercises appendix — attempt them before you look.

A. Recall and definitions (1–7)

1. Define banquet event order and state, in one sentence, the single thing it is for.

2. † Name the three things an event gives a restaurant that à la carte service does not. Then name the one widely repeated claim about event margin that this chapter says is false.

3. What is a guaranteed count? What is the restaurant's reciprocal obligation?

4. Distinguish a food and beverage minimum from a site fee. What does each one price?

5. † Define displacement in the event context, and explain why it is the cost most event businesses never compute.

6. State the difference between a mandatory service charge and a gratuity, and name one consequence that follows from the distinction.

7. Bellwether has no private dining room. What does it sell instead, and how many seats does that remove from the dining room?

B. Pricing and minimums (8–14)

8. † Using §29.3's schedule: a client wants the banquette 40-top on a Friday in October. State the minimum, the site fee, and the approximate covers displaced.

9. The Monday minimum is 28% of the Saturday minimum for the same room and the same food. Explain the logic in two sentences, and state what you are actually selling in each case.

10. † A client asks for a Saturday buyout and offers \$7,000. The Saturday minimum is \$9,000 plus a \$1,000 site fee. Using the displacement method, compute roughly what the restaurant would forgo by accepting — Saturday does 123 covers at a \$46 check and roughly 40% contribution — and state whether you take the deal.

11. Convert the \$3,000 flagship event to a per-head price at 40 guests, then at 30 and at 50. What happens to the restaurant's economics at each count, and which number should the salesperson be protecting?

12. † A December Friday buyout carries an \$11,000 minimum and a \$1,500 site fee. Compute the gross, then estimate the displacement against a normal December Friday you believe would have sold out. State the contribution and whether the premium is justified.

13. Design a three-tier per-head package structure (call them A, B, C) for Bellwether at \$62, \$75, and \$92 a head. Specify what changes between tiers, and make sure each tier can hold a 27% food cost.

14. A client's guest count falls from 40 to 32 four days out. The guarantee was given at 40. State what you bill, what you set for, and what you say to the client.

C. The BEO and the contract (15–20)

15. † Write a BEO for a 24-guest Wednesday dinner in the banquette run: 6:30 arrival, plated, two courses plus dessert, beverage on consumption to a \$500 ceiling, \$2,400 minimum. Include every field §29.4 specifies.

16. The BEO in §29.4 instructs the bar to notify the captain at \$750 against a \$900 authorization. Explain what that single line prevents, and what the captain actually says.

17. † Bellwether's three-payment structure on a \$2,400 minimum produces \$600, then \$1,200, then the balance. For the worked event with a \$3,916.20 estimated total, compute the balance due. Then state why the chapter insists the balance be charged the night of the event rather than invoiced.

18. A client cancels a \$4,000 Friday event 40 days out. Using §29.5's schedule, state what they forfeit and what you have already collected. Then state what you offer them instead, and why.

19. † Explain the "set for 42, billed on the guarantee or the actual, whichever is higher" rule. Why is the overset not billed, and what failure is it insuring against?

20. A client wants to strike the cancellation schedule from the contract. Draft the two sentences you say in response, without using the words "policy" or "unfortunately."

D. Costing an event (21–27)

21. † Rebuild §29.7's flagship Thursday event assuming food cost comes in at 30% rather than 27%. What happens to contribution, and by how much?

22. The two worked events differ by 25% on the gross and 99% on contribution. Name all three causes and rank them by size.

23. † Compute the contribution on a \$3,600 Friday banquette event: 40 guests, food \$2,480 at 27%, beverage \$1,120 at 22%, direct labor \$710 against a 22% service charge, rentals \$180, cleaning \$95, coordination \$112, breakage 1%, and displacement of 30 covers.

24. §29.7 puts coordination at 3.5 salaried hours per event regardless of size. Compute the annual cost across 14 events, express it as a fraction of a manager's working year, and state what that argues for.

25. † Work the buffet-versus-plated comparison at 40 guests, then at 90. Show the crossover logic and state which format Bellwether's room can actually support.

26. An operator says events run at 60% contribution. Diagnose the most likely error in their model and state the one line item they have omitted.

27. † Take the thin Tuesday event (\$2,400, \$713 contribution). Identify the two changes that would most improve it without raising the price, and quantify each.

E. Off-site, selling, and the Business Plan (28–32)

28. List the three things that change when food leaves the building, and name the one that carries legal exposure.

29. † A regular asks Bellwether to cater a 60-person party at their home. State the five questions you must answer before quoting, and the one condition under which you should decline.

30. Fourteen events is one every twenty-six days. Explain how that number changes what "selling events" means, and name the two sources you would work first.

31. † Business Plan extension. The plan books 14 events at \$3,000 = \$42,000, contributing \$14,218 (33.9%). Recompute total contribution if the mix shifts to 10 thin weeknight events and 4 stronger ones. State the dollar difference and what it implies about who should be answering the phone.

32. Business Plan extension. §29.9's Hospitality callout argues an event is "forty first visits." Using Chapter 23's \$220.80 guest lifetime value, compute what converting two guests per event across 14 events is worth, and compare it to the events' \$14,218 of direct contribution. Then state honestly why this number should be treated as an upside rather than banked in the plan.