Filling off-peak dates

Every empty weekday and winter date is revenue a venue never recovers, but careless discounts teach clients to wait for a deal. Learn how to find the buyers who want off-peak dates, design offers with clear fences, calculate what a lower-priced booking contributes and promote it within the rules.

Read the transcript

Filling off-peak dates.

A venue's calendar is perishable.

A Saturday in June sells itself a year ahead, while a Tuesday in February may never sell at all, and the rent, staff, heat and insurance cost the same either way.

Map your peaks and valleys.

Start with a year of your own booking data.

Mark each date as booked or empty, and colour the calendar by demand.

Find the buyers who want those dates.

Off-peak dates are not second best for everyone.

Many buyers actively prefer them, and your marketing should speak to those buyers directly rather than shouting a discount at everyone.

Design offers with fences.

A fence is a condition that lets a price-sensitive client get a lower price while a full-price client would not want to meet it.

Fences protect your peak rates because the clients who would happily pay for a June Saturday cannot use the off-peak offer.

Worked example: what an off-peak booking is worth.

The figures here are illustrative.

Larkspur Hall charges a 6,500 dollars room fee for a summer Saturday, with a food and beverage minimum through its catering partner.

Promote off-peak dates without cheapening the brand.

Name the package after the experience, not the discount. A Winter Friday Wedding or a Weekday Gathering, not a Slow Season Sale.

Give it its own page. Show photos taken in the season or at the time of day it covers.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Identify the event types and buyers most likely to book your off-peak dates
• Design off-peak packages with fences that protect your peak prices
• Calculate the contribution of an off-peak booking and present its price honestly

A venue’s calendar is perishable. A Saturday in June sells itself a year ahead, while a Tuesday in February may never sell at all, and the rent, staff, heat and insurance cost the same either way. Filling off-peak dates is not about desperation. It is about finding the clients who prefer those dates, giving them a reason to choose you, and doing it without teaching your peak clients to wait for a discount.

Map your peaks and valleys

Start with a year of your own booking data. Mark each date as booked or empty, and colour the calendar by demand. Most GTA venues see a pattern like this one, though yours will differ.

Then list the empty dates you could realistically sell. A venue that hosts 60 Saturday events a year may have 150 weekday and winter dates sitting empty. Even a small share of those is meaningful income.

Find the buyers who want those dates

Off-peak dates are not second best for everyone. Many buyers actively prefer them, and your marketing should speak to those buyers directly rather than shouting a discount at everyone.

• Couples planning smaller or budget-conscious weddings, who would rather have a Friday in your venue than a Saturday somewhere they like less.
• Couples planning winter weddings for the look of the season, holiday timing or family travel.
• Corporate teams needing meetings, training days, kick-offs in January, or holiday parties moved into January when budgets are fresh.
• Cultural and religious communities whose celebrations follow their own calendar, including Lunar New Year, Eid, Diwali, Nowruz and many others.
• Social hosts planning showers, milestone birthdays, celebrations of life and anniversary lunches on weekdays or Sunday afternoons.
• Creative producers looking for locations for photo shoots, film and television production, music videos and styled shoots.
• Community and arts groups needing space for rehearsals, workshops, recitals and fundraisers.

Design offers with fences

A fence is a condition that lets a price-sensitive client get a lower price while a full-price client would not want to meet it. Fences protect your peak rates because the clients who would happily pay for a June Saturday cannot use the off-peak offer.

1. Day and time fences. The offer applies only to Fridays, Sundays, weekdays or daytimes.
2. Season fences. It applies only from January to March, or in July and August for weekday events.
3. Booking window fences. It applies to dates within 90 days that are still open. Use this carefully, because clients learn to wait.
4. Package fences. It includes a set menu, a fixed layout or shorter hours instead of a lower rental fee for the full package.
5. Size fences. It applies to events below a certain guest count, such as micro-weddings under 50.

Prefer offers that add value over offers that cut the price. A winter wedding package that includes a hot chocolate bar, a late-night snack and the ceremony room at no extra charge feels generous, and it does not put a lower number on your rate card.

Worked example: what an off-peak booking is worth

The figures here are illustrative. Larkspur Hall charges a $6,500 room fee for a summer Saturday, with a food and beverage minimum through its catering partner. A couple asks about a Friday in February for 120 guests and says their budget for the room is $2,800.

The owner works out the venue’s direct costs for the event: staff for set-up, service and clean-up, about $900; heating, power and cleaning, about $250; and a share of credit card fees and supplies, about $150. Direct costs total about $1,300. At $2,800, the booking contributes $1,500 toward fixed costs and profit, on a date that would otherwise contribute nothing.

She checks three more things before agreeing. Will it displace a higher-paying event? In February, almost certainly not. Will it hurt her peak prices? Not if the offer is fenced to winter Fridays and published as a winter package. And is $2,800 above her floor? Her rule is that no booking may contribute less than $1,000, so yes.

She publishes a Winter Friday package from $2,900, all-in before HST, including the room, the ceremony space and an extra hour. The next winter, it books nine Fridays, which contribute about $14,400 that the venue would not have earned.

Promote off-peak dates without cheapening the brand

• Name the package after the experience, not the discount. A Winter Friday Wedding or a Weekday Gathering, not a Slow Season Sale.
• Give it its own page. Show photos taken in the season or at the time of day it covers.
• Tell planners first. Planners often have clients with flexible dates. Send them the off-peak calendar each quarter.
• Use your list. Past corporate clients, social hosts and planners who have agreed to hear from you are your best audience.
• Post availability, not desperation. A short post that says three Friday dates remain this winter, with a photo of the room set for a winter wedding, creates a little urgency without a discount banner.

Measure what the offers do

Track every off-peak booking separately for a full year: the date, the package, the price, the direct costs and the contribution. Track one more figure that most venues miss: how many clients who asked about a peak date moved to an off-peak one, and how many peak clients asked for the off-peak price. The first number tells you the offer is working. The second tells you a fence is leaking.

Review the results each spring and autumn. Keep the packages that fill dates at a healthy contribution, tighten the fences on any that are drawing peak clients down, and retire the ones nobody books. Over two or three years, the off-peak calendar becomes a planned product line rather than a scramble.

In Canada and the GTA

Price claims must be honest. If you advertise an off-peak package as a saving against a regular price, such as regular $6,500, winter Fridays $2,900, the Competition Act’s rules on ordinary selling price apply. A supplier stating its own ordinary price must have sold a substantial volume at that price or higher within a reasonable period, or offered it in good faith for a substantial period. The Competition Bureau’s tests are, in summary, that more than 50 percent of sales were at that price or higher within a reasonable period, usually within a year, or that the price was offered in good faith for a substantial period, usually within a year, immediately before or after the promotion. Comparing a Friday package with your Saturday rate as if it were the same product is risky. It is simpler to advertise the package at its own price without a comparison. The Bureau’s page on ordinary selling price explains the tests.

All-in package prices. Since June 23, 2022, drip pricing has been treated as a false or misleading representation. If your package has a mandatory service charge, cleaning fee, security fee or administration fee, include it in the advertised package price. Only HST, at 13 percent in Ontario, may be added on top. If a SOCAN music fee or similar charge is passed on to every renter, it is a mandatory fee and belongs in the price; SOCAN says venue operators are responsible for the licence at receptions in rented venues and may pass part of the cost on to renters. See the Bureau’s drip pricing guidance.

Emailing past clients and planners. Under CASL, a client who bought from you has an existing business relationship for two years from the purchase, and someone who inquired has one for six months from the inquiry. Planners whose published business emails carry no statement refusing commercial messages can be contacted about matters relevant to their role. For a lasting list, collect express consent. Every message needs your identification and an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribes must be processed within 10 business days.

The GTA’s off-peak calendar. January to March is the quietest period for many GTA venues, but it is also when corporate teams hold kick-offs and when many couples get engaged and start touring. Lunar New Year banquets often fall in late January or February, and Ramadan, Eid, Diwali and other celebrations move with their own calendars from year to year, so check the dates each year and market to those communities several months ahead. July and August weekdays are quiet for corporate work as people take holidays, but can suit summer camps, community groups and film shoots. Toronto’s film and television industry is a steady source of weekday bookings for venues with distinctive interiors; list your venue with the municipal film office where one exists, and with location services.

Weather and travel. Winter weather in the GTA can deter guests travelling from outside the city. Offer practical reassurance in winter packages: on-site or nearby parking, a coat check, snow clearing, a back-up plan for severe weather and nearby hotel rates for guests who would rather stay overnight. Venues near transit, including GO stations and subway lines, should say so prominently.

Pricing pressure. GTA venue costs, from rent to staff wages, are high and rising, and off-peak packages must still cover direct costs with a margin. Review your floor contribution every year so that a busy winter does not become an unprofitable one.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the official source or a lawyer for your own situation.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)