Meeting and Event Executives

Hey everyone,

I wanted to open up a discussion about something I've been noticing across the board lately, and it's starting to feel unsustainable: the outrageous increase in Food & Beverage prices for events. It feels like every quote I'm getting is significantly higher than even just a year ago, and the justifications are often vague at best.

On top of that, the service fees seem to be creeping higher and higher (25-30%), often without a clear breakdown of what exactly they cover. And now, I'm starting to see a new line item pop up on proposals: an "event fee." (7-10%!) What is that supposed to cover on top of everything else?

Has anyone else been experiencing this? I'm curious to hear if this is a widespread issue or if I'm just having a run of bad luck with quotes.

What kind of percentage increases are you seeing for F&B?
Are the service fees becoming less transparent?
Has anyone else encountered this new "event fee," and if so, what explanation were you given?
What strategies are you using to try and mitigate these costs for our events?

When you add the various fees and then tax, you're talking about 35-50% on top of the increased F&B prices. This is really impacting our budgets and making it increasingly challenging to deliver the quality of events we want without breaking the bank. Let's share our experiences and any potential solutions we've found. We are canceling events and shifting to virtual again. 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

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Christina Read (she/her)
Senior Director, Events & Conferences
PPFA
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Hi Christina,

You bring up such a good issue and definitely an active, hot topic for us internally.  We actually just decided this week to make significant changes in our F&B offerings at our annual conference this year due to cost.  This will downgrade what our attendees have come to expect so we'll do some pre-messaging but its simply becoming unsustainable. I've spoken to senior members of two of the major hotel chains on options and ideas to help contain costs but have not gotten any paths to solutions.  I'd love to hear from other planners as well on how they control their F&B budgets. 

Thanks for asking the question. 

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Andrea Rouse
Senior Director, Conferences and Events
Merchant Advisory Group
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Original Message:
Sent: Apr 29,2025 10:36 AM
From: Christina Read
Subject: Anyone Else Seeing INSANE Increases in F&B, Service Fees, and Now an "Event Fee"?!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to open up a discussion about something I've been noticing across the board lately, and it's starting to feel unsustainable: the outrageous increase in Food & Beverage prices for events. It feels like every quote I'm getting is significantly higher than even just a year ago, and the justifications are often vague at best.

On top of that, the service fees seem to be creeping higher and higher (25-30%), often without a clear breakdown of what exactly they cover. And now, I'm starting to see a new line item pop up on proposals: an "event fee." (7-10%!) What is that supposed to cover on top of everything else?

Has anyone else been experiencing this? I'm curious to hear if this is a widespread issue or if I'm just having a run of bad luck with quotes.

What kind of percentage increases are you seeing for F&B?
Are the service fees becoming less transparent?
Has anyone else encountered this new "event fee," and if so, what explanation were you given?
What strategies are you using to try and mitigate these costs for our events?

When you add the various fees and then tax, you're talking about 35-50% on top of the increased F&B prices. This is really impacting our budgets and making it increasingly challenging to deliver the quality of events we want without breaking the bank. Let's share our experiences and any potential solutions we've found. We are canceling events and shifting to virtual again. 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

------------------------------
Christina Read (she/her)
Senior Director, Events & Conferences
PPFA
------------------------------