How to price private dining with minimum spends and room hire

Private dining is usually priced with a minimum spend on food and drink, a room hire fee, or both. A minimum spend suits rooms that would otherwise fill with ordinary covers, because it protects the revenue you give up by closing the room to walk-ins and other bookings. Room hire suits spaces that cost money to open, staff and turn around whatever the guests order. Either way, start from what the room earns on a normal night in the same slot.

Deposits, cancellation terms and the treatment of service charge also decide whether a booking stays profitable once plans change, and those terms need to be in writing before the host pays anything.

What is a minimum spend for private dining?

A minimum spend is the amount a booking must reach on food and drink. If the party spends less, you charge the difference, either as a top-up on the bill or as a room fee. State in writing what counts towards it. Food and drink are the usual basis, and it is clearer to leave room hire, flowers, AV and service charge outside it. Say whether the figure includes VAT, so the host knows whether a £2,000 minimum spend means £2,000 or more once tax is added.

How do you calculate a minimum spend?

Work from displacement: what the space would take at the same day and time without the private booking. Take the covers the room would seat on a normal service, multiply by the average spend per head for that service, and adjust for how often the slot fills.

Say a private room seats 14 and is used as overflow on Friday nights. If it turns twice on a typical Friday at an average spend of £65 a head including drinks, it takes around £1,820 a night (14 × 2 × £65). A Friday minimum spend below that means the private booking earns less than the room would have done without it.

Then adjust for the work involved. A private menu, a dedicated server and setting up the room cost more than ordinary service, which supports a higher figure. Quiet nights point the other way: a Monday minimum can sit well below the Friday one and still beat an empty room. The same logic gives you different minimums by day and season, with a separate rate for December.

When should you charge room hire instead?

Room hire fits when the space doesn't earn from normal covers or when the booking needs extra work: a separate events room, a daytime meeting, a room that needs AV, or an exclusive-use takeover where you close to the public. It also suits bookings where the food and drink order is small compared with the time the room is held, such as a two-hour presentation with coffee.

A combined model, room hire plus a lower minimum spend, covers both cases. The fee pays for setup and staff time, and the minimum protects the revenue.

Check the VAT treatment before you set a room fee. HMRC's VAT Notice 709/3 says that providing a room in a hotel, inn or similar establishment for catering is taxable, at the standard rate since the temporary reduced rate ended on 31 March 2022, while hiring a room for a meeting is generally exempt unless the venue has opted to tax. Tea, coffee and biscuits can be treated as part of an exempt meeting room hire, but a meal or buffet is a separate supply of catering. Ask your accountant how your own room charges should be treated.

How much deposit should you take for private dining?

The deposit secures the date and covers part of your loss if the booking falls through. You can take a fixed amount or a percentage of the minimum spend, then ask for a further payment once numbers and the menu are confirmed.

For bookings from consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires contract terms to be fair. The CMA's guidance on unfair contract terms (CMA37, updated in July 2026) says a genuine deposit can be kept in full if it works as a binding reservation and you make clear at the earliest opportunity that a deposit is required and exactly when it would be non-refundable, with those circumstances kept clear and narrow. It adds that such a deposit will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price, and that a larger prepayment is more likely to be unfair because it may amount to a disguised penalty. The fairness test applies to consumer contracts; for company bookings, clear written terms matter just as much in practice.

What cancellation terms work for private dining?

A common approach is a sliding scale tied to how hard it would be to resell the room: the deposit refundable well in advance, part of it retained closer to the date, and a larger charge inside the final week or two. CMA37 says a sliding scale of cancellation charges can be acceptable as long as there are no circumstances in which the charges are likely to be disproportionate or punitive. Relate each step to the loss you would suffer and to whether you could realistically rebook the room.

Your written terms should cover:

• The minimum spend or hire fee, what counts towards it, and whether VAT and service charge are included
• The deposit amount, when it is due and when it becomes non-refundable
• The deadline for final numbers and menu choices, and what happens if numbers drop
• Cancellation charges for each notice period
• Arrival time, last orders and when the room must be cleared
• Decorations, outside suppliers and damage

How should service charge work on private dining bills?

Decide whether service charge is added to the minimum spend, the final bill or both, and put it in the quote. Service charges are covered by the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 alongside tips: since 1 October 2024, employers must pass tips and service charges to workers without deductions, other than permitted ones such as income tax. The government's statutory code of practice on tips confirms that this includes service charges added to the bill automatically.

Show service charge as its own line on the proposal and on the final bill, so the host can see how the total was built and what has gone towards the minimum spend.

How do you present private dining prices?

Publish a starting point on your website, such as minimum spends by day and a sample menu, and send a written proposal for each enquiry. A short table of minimums by day and season answers the obvious first question and filters out enquiries that won't fit the budget. Keep the proposal, the terms and the deposit request together so the host can confirm in one step. If hosts sign your terms electronically, our guide to whether e-signatures are legally binding in the UK covers the law.

Managing private dining in Tiquo

Tiquo can give private dining requests their own enquiry pipeline, tracked from first contact to confirmation, with a printable Function Sheet for each enquiry. Staff can create the proposal or contract on the enquiry and send it for e-signature, and booking flows can take a deposit when the booking is made, so the terms, the signature and the payment end up on the customer's record.