Enough with the jargon!

PartyPlace

PartyPlace

— 3 min read
Enough with the jargon!

Part 1/2

No, it’s not just you. Reserving bars and restaurants in NYC for large groups, parties, or events is hard. If you try to book a spot for a larger group, you’ll learn that Resy and OpenTable aren’t any help for groups over six.

Until Party Place, to secure the right venue required endless searching, countless phone calls or emails, and a whole lot of frustration. Most people start with a basic Google search– "places to have a party in NYC” or “best birthday bars near me" –or get lost in a maze of Instagram or TikTok posts for the Top 5 places for birthdays.

Yet even with a long list of cool options, you're far from done. More often than not, if you call you’re told the manager isn’t available or you’re asked to email someone else. If you find an email on the venue’s website and reach out, half the time, you get no response. And when you do hear back, the price is too high, or the venue is already booked.

On average, it takes party hosts 2-5 weeks to secure a venue, with anywhere from 10 to 40 emails exchanged before reaching an agreement. In other words, this process is frustrating and many parties end up un-thrown.

Why is that? It boils down to three things:

  1. Sticker Shock: You didn’t realize how expensive it would be to reserve the place you had in mind.
  2. Availability: Your perfect venue is already booked for the date you wanted.
  3. Confusing Lingo: The back-and-forth with venues is filled with jargon—terms like “minimum spend,” “cash bar,” “open bar,” “private,” “buyout,” “semi-private,” and more. What do they even mean?

All you wanted was a clear idea of what you’re getting and how much it will cost, but booking a bar or restaurant in NYC—something that should be straightforward—has become an unnecessarily complicated and confusing process.

At the end of the day, bars and restaurants are not set up to make “large party reservations” because these bookings can disrupt their regular flow of business, impacting the revenue they’d normally earn from regular reservations, walk-ins, and their usual operations. 

To ensure they still make at least as much as they would during normal operations, venues developed two main types of packages for party or event hosts: 

💡
Minimum Spend: The party host agrees that the group will collectively spend a minimum amount on food and/or beverages over a specified amount of time.
💡
Drink and/or Food Package: Guests are offered a selection of food and/or beverages for a specified time, usually for a set fee per guest. This fee is often agreed upon and paid by the host in advance.

Seems straightforward, right? 

Well, not quite.

What’s still not clear to anyone trying to book a venue is who pays (if at all), what they pay, and when it’s due?

Next week, we’ll break down what it really means to reserve a bar or restaurant in NYC for any event or get-together, and how with Party Place this whole process can take less than 5 minute.

Thanks to everyone who came to our happy hour!

This week, we hosted our first happy hour at The Folly with Dirty Water Hard Seltzer, and it was an incredible night of great drinks, awesome vibes, and even better company.

See photos from happy hour

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