Which venue is actually cheapest per head?
Eleven venues quoted for the same 220-guest day, with every line the invoice will eventually carry. Rank them on the hire fee and rank them on cost per head and the order comes apart.
Words on this sheet
- Venue: The place an event is held. A venue line is what hiring it costs, usually a fixed amount whatever the turnout.
Operations Starter Statistics free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Rank the Venues on What They Cost You
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
Ranked on cost per head, where rank 1 is the most expensive:
- Most expensive
- $205.00 a head, rank 1
- Cheapest
- $160.45 a head, rank 11
- Its room
- 3rd dearest of the eleven
- The 50th percentile
- 5 dearer and five cheaper
Read the output the right way round before anything else: Rank and Percentile puts the largest value at rank 1, so on a cost column rank 1 is your most expensive venue and the shortlist reads from the bottom. The venue that wins has the third most expensive room on the list and a catering minimum as low as any on it. The one with the second cheapest room finishes fourth most expensive per head at $186.36, because it carries the highest catering minimum and the second highest staging bill. A shortlist where everything clusters at one percentile has not actually been narrowed.
The model
One row per venue with hire fee, catering minimum, staging, service and extras. The all-in column adds them up and the cost per head column makes a 300-seat room comparable to a 240-seat one.
| Venues | 11 |
| Guests | 220 |
| Cost lines each | hire, catering minimum, staging, service, extras |
| Ranked on | all-in cost per head |
| Rank and percentile | calculated |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
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- When does the next unit of stock stop paying?How Much Safety Stock Do We Actually Need?
- How much stock does a longer lead time cost you?When Should We Reorder?
- What does a 95% promise cost, in units?What Stock Level Holds a 95% Service Level?
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Statistics in Google Sheets.