Should you charge for a ticket at all?

A free ticket costs you nothing to give away and that is exactly the problem: it costs the guest nothing to ignore.

Plan on 20 to 30% of confirmed guests not arriving at a free event. For a dinner of twelve that is three empty seats you paid for, and three people who wanted to come and were told it was full.

What a price actually buys

Not revenue. At this size the ticket income is rounding. What you're buying is intent, the moment someone hands over money, they have decided, and the no-show rate drops hard.

A £20 ticket on a £60-a-head dinner isn't cost recovery, it's a commitment device. Say so if you like. People respect it.

When free is right

• You want a specific person in the room and a price would put them off. Senior people often can't expense a small ticket, and the friction is real.
• It's a first event and you need the room full more than you need the signal.
• Your guests are your customers, where charging reads as odd.

If you go free, replace the price with something else that costs a little to say yes to. Which brings us to:

The things that work instead of a price

Approve each guest, if your RSVP tool supports it. It costs a minute per person and changes the relationship, because they applied and you accepted. Attendance rises for that reason.

Ask a question on the form. One box that you actually read: "what are you wrestling with right now?" People who will not write a sentence will not cross London either, and the answers make your seating plan.

Cap it visibly. "Twelve seats" on the invitation does more than any amount of urgency copy, and it has the advantage of being true.

Take a deposit you refund on arrival. This is heavy-handed for a dinner and sensible for a workshop where you have booked a room per head.

If you do charge

Price it against what the evening is worth to the guest, not what it costs you. A dinner where somebody meets two people ahead of them on a problem they have right now is worth well over the price of the food.

And make the refund policy generous and obvious. Someone who can't come should tell you, so you can offer the seat to the waitlist. A no-refund policy buys you £20 and costs you an empty chair and a person who now feels stung.