Open Forum

It would be great to get your thoughts on how to low down the "no show" rate for group reservations.  We currently have a 6 month reservation period to the day you want to visit.  Each month, my "no show" rate seems to be high, for example.  I had 467 group reservations for the month of June 2015.  312 groups came to the Museum and 155 were "no shows" which I could not effectively put out to other school groups who wanted to come to the Museum in June.  I know some Museum's have lowered there group reservation to a 3 month period and it has helped.

Any ideas would be welcome!

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Dana Carroll
Director of Museum Services
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington DC
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After a group is booked and they receive their confirmation, is there any outreach prior to their visit? I would suggest an email  2-3 months prior to their visit to serve as a reminder of their visit and share tips/helpful hints they may want to know.   You could even include an 'If your plans have changed...' type message and encourage group leaders to alert you if they no longer need their reservation. This could then be repeated closer to their DOV as well, with a slightly different message or a review of how to check in when they arrive.  I find that trying to keep in close communication with group leaders prior to their visit can make a difference!
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Melissa Fleming
Membership and Group Sales Manager
The Franklin Institute
Philadelphia PA
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Melissa

We do have an outreach prior to the visit, but I like your idea 2/3 months out for confirmation.  Will put this into practice. Thanks much.  Dana

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Dana Carroll
Director of Museum Services
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington DC
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Hi Dana,

it doesn't happen to us often, but last minute cancellations or no-shows groups (most of our groups are schools) are charged 50% of the total reservation amount unless they book another tour in the following month. 

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Julie Guinard
Museum Curator
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center
Montreal QC
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Hi Dana,

At the Transit Museum we require all classes to pay a $50 deposit when they book their trip. It's a relatively new policy and so it was a bit of a transition for teachers who have been coming to the museum for a long time, but it has helped reduce the number of no-shows to nearly zero. We keep the deposit if they don't show up the day of their trip or if they cancel less than 2 weeks before their scheduled program. The week before their visit our Reservations Coordinator calls all groups to remind them of their trip details. I agree with Melissa that staying in touch with teachers is important.

At the end of August we open up reservations for the rest of the calendar year. After that we work on a 3-month basis, meaning once Oct hits we start booking for Jan, when Nov hits we start booking for Feb, and so on.

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Elyse Newman
Education Manager
New York Transit Museum
Brooklyn NY
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Hi Dana,

We used to have a very big problem with no show groups. We actually enacted two policy changes for paying groups (grant-funded groups have always lost grant eligibility for the next year if they no-show) three years ago to combat this:

1) While groups can make reservations as far as a year out, we send reminder emails out starting four weeks in advance of the group visit. These emails get sent weekly until we hear back from the group (usually in the form of receiving a payment). Any group we have not heard back from within two weeks of the visit gets a phone call to make sure they are still planning to attend.

2) We require payment in full (either a check, a credit card payment, or a purchase order) two weeks in advance of their visit. If the group no-shows, we keep their money. If they cancel at least 48 hours out, there is no cancellation fee. If a group cancels within 48 hours there is a 50% cancellation fee  and if they no-show we keep everything.

We have gone from having no-shows daily to having maybe two groups no-show a month. I hope this helps!

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Courtney Clark-Rankin

Advanced Sales, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
Cincinnati OH
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