Reducing No-Shows at Free Events: A Bold Approach

Back view of people sitting in rows of chairs in a conference room. One of the chairs is empty and has a sign "No-Show Fee" hanging on the back.Liz Latham, co-founder of Club Ichi and a brilliant event marketer, recently shared an intriguing idea she plans to test to increase attendance at her free events.

Having registrants not show up has become a big problem for the meeting industry, especially for free events. Not long ago, registrants would reliably attend events they signed up for, barring unforeseen circumstances—a far cry from today’s reality. Price incentives for early registration worked, and predicting attendance rate and attrition was a science, not an art.

Those were the days!

Today, with the multiple impacts of easy online registration, FOMO rivalry, and more choices for events than ever, it’s far more likely that registrants don’t appear on the day.

For event conveners, this is at best dispiriting and at worst financially disastrous.

So anything we can do that might reduce the uncertainty and percentage of no-shows is worth considering.

Liz’s idea

Liz noticed a relatively new trend, that you may have experienced too. Some restaurants, fitness programs, hair salons, dentists, doctors, and other types of businesses have begun to charge a fee if a customer doesn’t show up for an appointment.

So Liz is considering taking credit-card information at registration time, and charging a “no-show fee” to the card if the registrant doesn’t attend.

Although this idea may be new to the meeting industry, the above links show that many appointment-based businesses routinely use this approach.

No-show fees aren’t needed for paid events, which can have cancellation policies that offer partial refunds, compensating, at least financially, for no-shows. Rather, Liz is thinking of testing no-show fees for the many free events she organizes, where attendance rates are often well below 50% of registrations.

Could no-show fees work for the meeting industry?

Pros: From a meeting organizer’s perspective, the implementation of a no-show fee may deter folks registering who only expect to attend if nothing better shows up at the time of the meeting. This minimizes waste by better aligning logistical preparations with actual attendance. Implementing no-show fees can also benefit registrants who do show up, since the promoted event size (including, optionally, a list of registrants) is more likely to be accurate.

Cons: Requiring credit card information at registration may frustrate those confident they’ll attend and adds security and logistical challenges for organizers. In addition, the organizers will need to create a refund policy for no-shows with a defined and legitimate reason (such as a death in the family, travel disruptions, etc.), and implementing this could be cumbersome.

Your thoughts?

Do you think implementing no-show fees at free events is an idea worth exploring? Have you tried or experienced no-show fees at a meeting? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

8 thoughts on “Reducing No-Shows at Free Events: A Bold Approach

  1. I think that taking credit card information for free events has a number of problems. It might act as a deterrent to those leery of giving out their credit card numbers with people wondering why someone would need that for a free event. Additionally, it creates a security issue. Those numbers must be kept safe. How much of a fee would be imposed for no shows? Better to have a small fee instead.

    1. I hear you, Caro, but small fees don’t seem to be much of a deterrent in preventing no-shows these days. And, of course, the event organizers would have to take a credit card for those too, so the security issues would be the same.

      This approach intends to get those who are about to sign up on a whim for a free event think first about whether they are OK being charged for something they may well not attend.

  2. It’s a great idea and should be an SOP for the event industry. Let’s test it. See what people think. I wonder what an appropriate amount will be to deter no shows.

  3. I think this is a great idea (as noted by others, providing you have a registration system able to keep the data safe). I’ve tried to implement this at some association/non-profit events with mixed results. Much of the pushback actually comes from leadership and not the attendees themselves. The fear is that it will chase people away. However, I’d make the case that (in a business or professional setting) potential attendees would be willing to provide credit card info if it’s very clear that they will only be charged if there’s a no-show AND that card data will be properly destroyed at X point after the show.

  4. I am familiar with a program to counteract this in the opposite way. They charged attendees to attend and they were given a refund or credit related to the event as a refund. In this case the group hosts trainings & demos for suppliers and retail outlets. They found this plan to work and have continued it.

    1. That’s an interesting approach, and I can see how it could work. A downside is that folks have to first pay and then get a refund when they attend, which is somewhat irritating since, presumably, nearly everyone will have to do this. Getting a credit if they attend seems a little more problematic since, after attending, they may not want to or be in a position to use it.

    1. Deb, I’m assuming you’re responding to Ian’s suggestion, and you make a good point! The original proposal only charges folks if they don’t attend, so multiple fees aren’t an issue.

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