All-in pricing is coming to events

Our legal team says all-in pricing kicks in on March 15, so I’m reworking proposals to bake the 23% service charge and 8.875% tax into the per-guest rate — clean numbers on the first page, no asterisks. For those who’ve switched, how did it affect guest perception and upsells at the tasting?

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We switched in January and the biggest lift came from printing tasting menus with every upgrade shown as an all‑in per‑guest add (e.g., bar premium +$18 with the 23%+8.875% already baked in) so it matches your “clean numbers on the first page, no asterisks”. Small caveat: we added a one‑line note that the service charge isn’t a gratuity to avoid assumptions, and when we rounded to $195 per guest for a March 15 rollout, pushback dropped.

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Switching to all-in pricing can definitely simplify things, but I’ve heard it might lead guests to expect more upgrades that they’d otherwise skip. @EventPlannerGuy mentioned they saw a spike in tasting menu sales after making the change — could be worth a shot! Have you thought about how it might affect your overall margins?

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