Find solutions for attendee noshow

[loicknuchel]

It's a known problem for every meetup orga or venue manager that real people present at the event are much less than RSVP ones (between 40% and 70% I think, depending on a lot of factors).
And, in the same time, it is not unusual to have people in the waiting list that doesn't come because they don't have a reservation (which is expected but sad when room is only half full).
To address that, orgas do over booking (between 20% and 50% places than room capacity) but it's not satisfying because it's still hard to estimate the number of real attendees and it introduce a risk of over capacity of the room.

The goal of this issue is to discuss potential solutions to lower the gap between RSVPs and attendees (knowing it will always exists).

1. Improve communication

1.1. Send an (automated) email one week and one day before the event to ask attendees to update their status if needed

2. Tracking

Know who is present so you can take actions based on statistics

2.1. Ask someone to do the checking at the door

2.2. Ask attendees to register themselves at the beginning of the event

It can be through flashing a QRCode or a 4 digit code displayed on the first slide, or through a geo location at the event

3. Use tracking info to take actions

3.1. Display attendance percentage in user profile

If it's visible enough, it will annoy user to have this bad percentage to they will be more strict about RSVPs.

3.2. Allow group orga to set an attendance percentage threshold to RSVP to their events

Here a different possible implementations:

• low percentage attendees can't book a reservation to the event (because they probably will not come)
• the start RSVP date can be linked to the attendance percentage, for example the 80-100% can RSVP the first day, 60-80% should wait the second day, 40-60% the third day and so on
• low percentage attendees can RSVPs but are added to a "fill list" which is accepted just a little while before the event if it remain some places

What is your opinion on the different solutions? Which ones are interesting enough to be tested?