How to choose a great speed dating venue

The venue you chose for your speed dating event will make or break your success so you must get it right. Over the years I’ve learnt to spot a good one so hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and choose the right place the first time!

When selecting your venues there are several factors to consider and all must come together to ensure your chosen venue offers a balance between being appealing to your potential client and being a good space for a speed dating event.

Who is your market?

The first factor to consider is the target market for your event. If you intend to run an event for people in their 30s living in a busy city, you’ll need to find somewhere where this demographic feels at ease and comfortable. As an example, young successful professionals usually favour bars with smarter décor over traditional pubs or dive bars so look for a venue your target market already frequents.

An older demographic might feel at home in a more cosy and traditional setting such as a restaurant, a wine bar or a private members club. It’s important to choose somewhere your target market already frequents or would if they knew about it. The prices your venue charges matter so bear this in mind. Bars and venues have a target market too so find a place whose market aligns well to the one you seek to target.

Whichever style of venue you select you’ll want somewhere well run, with a reasonable standard of décor and facilities. The type of place you chose reflects on you as the organiser. Top tip: We’d always recommend checking out the toilets, both men’s and women’s. It’s a great overall measure of any establishment.

If you’re considering running your event at a non-hospitality venue, that’s fine but you’ll need to look into requirements such as bringing in refreshments and comfort facilities.

What are you looking for in a location?

Getting to your chosen location must be easy. If you’re in a city, you’ll want your location to be a short, safe walk from a well-connected public transport station that’s accessible to people coming from a large radius. If you’re in the countryside, it’s good if your venue is located off a major road with well-lit and easily accessible parking close at hand. You need to consider that most people will arrive at your venue alone and at night so they need to feel confident of their safety when leaving.

The easier your venue is to get to, the broader its appeal will be.

Searching for venues

If you don’t know your target area well nothing beats hitting the streets. Wander around the nightlife area on a quieter night of the week but when everywhere is open. Visit multiple venues in person and in most cases you’ll find somewhere that will work well – quite often you’ll find places which are not listed online or who don’t shout about having private spaces available for hire.

Of course, it’s worthwhile to use Google Maps to create a shortlist in advance. Using terms like “Bars in X” in the maps search box will highlight places and give you an instant shortlist. You may find venue search and event listing websites useful too but it’s advisable not to approach the same venue used by a competing speed dating event as you’ll want to differentiate your event from any competition.

Finding the right event space

The first factor which should inform your venue shortlist is your requirements for space and furniture. The ideal speed dating venue would offer individual tables for two for every couple at your event. In practice, it’s very difficult to find a perfect venue so compromises will often need to be made. For example, where a venue offers a few tables for 2 and some larger tables for 4 or 6 it’s acceptable to sit 2 couples at larger tables. The key is finding somewhere that can seat everyone in couples which isn’t too cramped, with low ceilings which can impact the acoustics.

Ideally, your venue will have easy access to a bar for refreshments and its own toilet/restroom facilities at hand. You’re looking for somewhere reasonably spacious where couples will not be too close together when they are dating.

When a venue is too small and cramped people will feel the need to speak loudly to be heard. This can quickly result in a multiplying effect, quickly creating a very noisy and therefore unpleasant experience for your clients.

However, keep Goldilocks in mind here as a too big space can cause your event to become lost. Aim for somewhere just right. You need to seat everyone in comfort allowing enough space to comfortably move between tables.

If I could choose an optimal amount of space per couple it would be around 4 square meters or a 2m x 2 m space per couple. Therefore, if you are looking to accommodate 20 people, you’re looking for somewhere roughly 40 square meters (or 430 sqft) in size as a basic rule of thumb. A few square feet either way will make little difference. Google will tell you how to work out the rough square footage of any room.

Ideally, you’d choose a space that’s made up of one space rather than multiple interconnected spaces.

Speed dating shouldn’t be a spectator sport so you should be looking for a venue with a private area which can be cordoned off away from the general crowd or, even better, a private space you can hire for your event. Most clients will not want to be overlooked some will refuse to take part if they are.

Venue negotiations and booking

When you’ve found what you believe to be the perfect spot for your event it’s now time for the tricky bit. The overall success and profitability of your event hinges on you striking a good deal with your venue.

The best way to negotiate with venue owners and managers is face-to-face. Arrange a meeting at the venue to discuss what you intend to do in their space and who it’s for. Tell them about the number of people you intend to attract to your event.

The terms offered to you will depend heavily on the time and day of the week you intend to run your event. Choose a busy weekend evening and you could be met with a hire fee or a minimum spend requirement – perhaps both. A minimum spend is a set amount of money spent at the bar that venues want to receive in exchange for giving you exclusive access to the space.

To consider the viability of a minimum spend you need to divide this amount by the number of people you hope to attract to your event which will give you a figure per head.

Minimum spend/number of guests = spend required per head

Then look at a rough average price of the drinks in the venue and divide the per head number by the cost per head giving you a number of drink purchases needed per head. You then need to decide if your group are likely to drink this much before, during and after your event! It’s important to note that on average people drink less than you might think.

Should the group not reach this spend, you as organiser will be liable to pay the shortfall so please exercise caution in agreeing to these arrangements. Agreeing to the wrong spend can be a costly business.

In an ideal world, you will want to come to an arrangement which benefits both you as the organiser and the venue and therefore there is no hire fee or minimum spend in place. The arrangement you are seeking should be a partnership and if it’s seen as such you have a greater chance of securing a good deal.

Work with the venue manager to discover on which nights of the week they are looking to improve trade and you may discover they are very keen to work with you. The key to this partnership is working closely with the venue, keeping in regular contact about your booking numbers and the marketing you are doing.

The best venues want to have speed dating as part of their regular event calendar. They will mention the event to their regulars, allow flyers and posters to be put up and mention your event on their social media pages and email updates too. A venue partnership on the right terms will be great for your events.

Venue finding isn’t easy but when you finally find the right place, and you will, it’s the foundation of a great event. We wish you all the best of luck. There are plenty of great venues out there if you know how to find them.