What’s the Price? (Part 2)

Let’s pursue what we talked about in Part 1.   Let’s say you have your contract with the venue in hand, and you have determined the baseline cost per person, depending on room occupancy.  You are hoping for 50 women to attend.  The contracted room price is $80 per night, $160 for two nights.  This is divided by the number of ladies in each room.  Additionally, the meal price is $60 per person for 4 meals.  **In this example, the room price includes the 7% city tax you pay even if you are exempt of state tax.  Meal prices are inclusive of all service charges:

• One-per-room = $160 plus meals ($60) – $220  **Guest speaker would be offered a private room
• Two-per-room = $80 each plus meals ($60/each)  =  $140 per person
• Three-per-room = $55 each plus meals ($60 each) = $115 per person
• Four-per-room = $40 each plus meals ($60 each) = $100 each

How do you come up with the actual cost of registration?  All other retreat costs will be estimated and divided by your projected number of women attending (50):

• Guest speaker travel (local – possibly gas and to meals ($80), private room and meals ($220), honorarium ($400) = $14/person
• Promotion,booklets, nametags ($200) = $4/per person
• Remembrance gift ($50) = $1/per person
• Decorations ($50) = $1/person
• Built-in expenses ($250) = $5/person

How do you come up with the actual cost of registration? Actual cost for each person would then be figured at the base cost of the retreat plus $25/person.

If you do not have any budget money to work with and the retreat is totally self-supporting, you now have your budget for guest speaker, booklets, name tags, remembrance gifts and decorations. If more than your budgeted number of people attend, then you find yourself flowing in the black, which is a good place to be on the balance sheet!