Guest List Cost Calculator

When does a guest list pay for itself?

A free ticket has two sides. On one side are the tickets you might have sold to the people who took those places. On the other side is the money guests spend inside that reaches you. The guest list pays for itself when the second number is bigger than the first, after you add any cost you pay for each person, such as a wristband or a venue per-head charge.

Two facts decide the answer. First, would the place have been sold? At a sold-out show, every place you give away is a ticket you cannot sell, so each guest costs you the full ticket price. At a show that will not sell out, most guests take a place that would have stayed empty, and a free guest costs you close to nothing in tickets. Second, who receives the bar money? If it is not you, the guest’s drinks do nothing for your costs.

The calculator starts from your answer about sell-through: 100% of guests take a sellable place if you will sell out, 50% if you will come close and 15% if you won’t sell out. Change the figure if you know your guests better. A regular who buys for every night would likely buy again; a friend of the DJ would not.

Who receives the bar money, and why it changes the answer

The same guest list can cost a promoter money and make a venue owner money. The difference is the deal. Find your situation in the table and enter the matching figures in the calculator. The ranges are directional starting points, not published benchmarks: use the figures in your own contract.

If your deal has a minimum bar spend and your night is short of it, guests who drink help you reach it, so the calculator will understate their value. To estimate total bar takings for a night, use the bar revenue calculator.

The plus-one creep problem

It starts with “Any chance of guest list?” Then “Can I get a +1?” Then “Actually there’s four of us.” Then “And my friend’s a DJ.” You agreed to one name and four people are at the door. That is why the calculator asks for the average number of people per name. If 20 names become 30 people, every figure grows by half: the places used, the sales you may give up and your per-head costs.

People who don’t turn up do not reduce the cost at a sold-out show. The place was held for them, so it could not be sold. Comp and guest list no-shows commonly run at 25–40%; the no-show rate estimator shows the range for your event type.

Artists, press, sponsors and contract tickets are different from favors

Do not count every free ticket as a lost sale. Tickets that an artist, a sponsor, the press or a partner receive because a contract says so are part of the cost of the booking or the deal, not a favor you chose to grant. Put them in your budget once, alongside the fee, and leave them out of this calculator. Enter only the discretionary names: friends, friends of friends and people who ask.

The exception is when a contract ticket also takes a place you could have sold at a sold-out show. It still costs you that sale, so count it when you plan capacity and your break-even point.

How to set allocations per partner and let door staff check them

In Ticket Fairy, you set this up with a delegation. A delegation gives a team member, sponsor, partner, artist manager or other contact a pool of tickets with a maximum quantity for each ticket type. The partner either issues free tickets straight away or sends invitations that guests redeem themselves, through their own portal with no dashboard login. You can give and remove access at any time, set an expiry date and see who issued each ticket.

Guest tickets are real tickets, so door staff scan them with the Entry Fairy app like any other entry. Staff sign in with their own team login and see whether each ticket is valid, instead of comparing screenshots of messages. After the night, the event summary splits comp tickets from paid sales, so you can see how many places your guest list really used. See the ticket scanning app and night club ticketing pages for more.

A guest list policy you can share

A short written policy makes “no” easier to say and gives door staff a rule to point to. Adapt this template and send it to artists, partners and your door team before the night:

• Cut-off time: names close at 6pm on the day of the event. Late requests buy a ticket.
• Named guests only: each guest is listed under their own name. No “Sam + friends”.
• Plus-one rules: a plus-one is only allowed if it is on the list. Door staff do not add people at the door.
• Arrival time: guest list is valid until a set time, for example 11pm. After that, guests pay the door price.
• Allowance per partner: each artist, sponsor or partner has a fixed number of guests and manages their own names.
• Exceptions: only one named person can approve an extra guest at the door. Everyone else says no.

Common guest list mistakes

1. Counting the guest’s bar spend as your money. “They’ll spend £87 inside” only helps you if your deal pays you part of the bar. Check your hire agreement before you say yes.
2. Treating every free ticket as a lost sale. At a show that won’t sell out, most guests take places that would have stayed empty. Counting them at full price makes a guest list look far more expensive than it is.
3. Forgetting that places run out. At a sold-out show, the opposite is true: every guest, including one who never arrives, takes a place a buyer wanted.
4. Agreeing to names without a number. “Put a few people down” becomes eleven guests at the door. Give every partner a fixed allowance.
5. Mixing contract tickets with favors. Artist, sponsor and press tickets belong in the deal’s budget. Keep them separate so you can see what your discretionary list really costs.
6. Leaving exceptions to whoever is on the door. Name one person who can approve an extra guest, and tell the door team who it is.