Six people get ready, book a table, travel across town and are refused at the door because of one person's trainers.
Nobody was told. The policy exists, it is enforced consistently, and it appears nowhere a customer would look before leaving the house.
The checklist
Publish these and the pavement argument stops happening.
1. Whether there is a dress code
Plainly. Many venues have one for certain nights or after certain hours and never say so anywhere a customer would find it.
2. What is specifically not permitted
Named items rather than a vague standard. Smart casual means different things to everybody and cannot be complied with.
3. When it applies
After a particular time, on particular nights or for particular events. Customers arriving at seven should know whether it changes at nine.
4. What identification is accepted
Named documents, specifically. A group turned away because one person brought the wrong form loses an entire evening over something publishable.
5. Whether everybody is checked
Regardless of apparent age, so that older members of a group bring something too. It catches people out constantly.
6. The age policy by time
When under eighteens can be present, until when, whether they must be eating and whether they must be accompanied, which is the ground in age policy and entry questions venues answer repeatedly.
7. The group size position
Whether large groups are admitted, whether they must book and whether single sex groups are treated differently. It is frequently enforced and rarely published.
8. Whether there is an entry charge
When it applies, what it costs and whether it can be avoided by arriving earlier or booking.
9. Whether booking guarantees entry
Because customers assume a booked table means admission regardless of anything else, and it usually does not.
10. Bag and search policy
What is checked, what is not permitted and whether there is a cloakroom. Customers want to know before they carry something.
11. The accessibility position
Step free access, accessible toilets and whether a wheelchair user needs to arrive at a particular entrance. It belongs with the entry information.
12. Whether dogs are permitted
And in which areas, because it determines whether somebody comes at all.
12b. Say what happens to a booking that is refused entry
A table booked with a deposit and a group turned away at the door is where a policy becomes a complaint. Stating in advance whether a deposit is returned, whether part of a group can be admitted and who decides means everybody knows the position before an argument starts on the pavement.
12c. Publish the busy times and last entry
Groups arriving at half past eleven to find a queue or a closed door have wasted an evening on an assumption. Naming the last entry time, the nights that fill early and when a booking becomes essential lets people plan around the venue rather than gamble on it.
13. Be consistent and explain the reason
A policy applied to one person and not another is what produces the confrontation. Publishing the reason makes enforcement easier for the door staff.
14. Answer the question before they leave the house
At eight in the evening, on a phone, which is exactly when these are asked, as in dress code, age and entry questions nightlife venues get and dress code, kids and dogs, the small questions that decide visits, alongside the offer handling in how to handle discount and coupon questions with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish the dress code specifically, accepted identification, the age policy by time and the group position, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for hospitality venues answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.