Here are 5 reasons a singles event might be cancelled
There are many reasons that can lead to Single & Mingle cancelling a singles event, and we’re experienced enough now, to predict whether an event is going to be a good one for you, or not.
If we know an event won’t be a great one, we won’t run it.
So why might we cancel an event? Here are just a few…
- Lack of bookings
- Uneven mix of ladies & gents
- Technical difficulties
- Venue staffing
- A host can no longer make it
Let’s look at each of these in more detail 👇
1. Lack of bookings
The most common reason we might cancel an event is due to a lack of bookings.
We have a certain standard we like to meet at our singles events, and one of those standards is to have a minimum of 18 bookings (for our heterosexual events at least).
Let’s say we have 18 people booked on, but on the night, a handful of them don’t show up, we could be left with 10-14 people in the room – and that’s ok. We can live with that. We know that we’ve left home having hit the minimum number of bookings needed for an event to be a success.
Now, let’s say 12 people have booked on, and a handful of people don’t show up, we might be left with fewer than 8 people. It wouldn’t feel ethical for us to run an event knowing that this might be the case.
We’d much rather have enough people for you to meet, than to take your money, “make do” on the night, and provide a sub-standard experience – you deserve more than that.
I’m sure you’ll agree.
2. Uneven mix of ladies & gents
Again, this only really applies to our heterosexual singles events, but is something we must keep a close eye on, on the lead up to an event.
Take the above situation of 18 people – let’s imagine that 20% of bookings are from men, and 80% of bookings are from women, or vice versa.
We know from experience that there will be a lot of disappointed people in the room, which will only discourage people from attending future Single & Mingle events, or any other singles events for that matter.
In situations where we see an imbalance of ladies and gents, we shake up our marketing to try and attract more of the people we need, to balance things out a little.
And although we don’t guarantee an even mix of ladies and gents, know that lots of effort goes on behind the scenes to try and get the split as close as possible.
3. Technical difficulties
This has only happened once – in January 2023.
We had an event (one of our busiest ever) at a venue that’s no longer operating. We arrived at the venue to set up, luckily around 5.30pm (for a 7pm event) and were told that the power was out in the space we were due to be using.
We were told as we arrived, which is far from ideal.
Obviously panic kicked in and I spent a good half an hour frantically calling venues asking if they could accommodate us.
Although I managed to sort a venue, the electrician fixed the issue and the power was up and running again – so we continued to run the event at the original venue.
Reality is that these things happen.
4. Venue staffing
We work with some amazing venues, and we can’t thank them enough for partnering with us to create the safe and welcoming environment that people know and love at our events.
But they’re running a service just like we are.
Venues need to know whether to put staff on or not, which means they need to know as soon as possible how numbers are looking for an event (hence why we sell early bird tickets).
We can’t wait until the very last minute to tell a venue that we don’t have enough people booked on to run a successful event, because that then affects their team, and isn’t fair on them.
We therefore keep venues updated on numbers on the lead up to an event, and generally try to make a call whether an event goes ahead or not, 1-2 days before an event is due to take place.
Some venues require us to confirm numbers up to a week before an event. So please do book on as soon as possible to help us work in harmony with our venue partners 😉
5. A host can no longer make it
This hasn’t happened yet, but know that we’d do everything in our power not to cancel an event due to hosts not being able to make it anymore.
We had a situation recently where one of our hosts had broken her foot a few days before an event. She was still going to host the event (bless her), but on the morning of the event, the venue needed to change the location of our event from their downstairs bar to their upstairs bar. This meant that the host we had lined up for the night, could no longer host – she couldn’t make it up the stairs. Luckily we were able to find another host in time.
We have to remember that we’re all human and things happen.
Cars break down.
Childcare falls through.
People get ill.
We aim to have two hosts to take care of you at our singles events. If one ends up not being able to make it for whatever reason, the other host will be there to welcome you. If both hosts end up not being able to make it, then that’s just bad luck, but we’ll still do everything in our power to run an event.
What happens if a singles event is cancelled?
In the unfortunate situation of an event being cancelled, we’ll ask if you’d like to transfer your booking to a future event of the same value, and/or issue a refund.
We run an honest service and are very transparent if we need to cancel an event, and try to give you as much notice as possible.
Although we’d never see you out of pocket in terms of your ticket fee, do consider waiting until nearer the day of an event to book any transport or accommodation, as this is obviously a cost we can’t refund.
So, just to wrap up…
Shit happens!
We want all of our events to go ahead. We want people to have a great time. But sometimes it can feel like the world is against us.
We apologies in advance if an event you’re due to attend is cancelled – but we’d rather do that and you have your money back, than you turn up and be dissatisfied.
Thank you for your understanding
The Single & Mingle Team
