How do I plan meals and check my F&B minimum?

Many hotel contracts say you’ll spend at least a set amount on food and drinks, like $150,000. If your meals come in under it, the hotel still bills the full amount. The Food & Beverage (F&B) grid shows whether you’ll hit that minimum before you finalize menus.

1. Upload your files

Click Food & Beverage. You’ll see three upload boxes:

• Event Agenda: builds your day-by-day meal schedule. Start here. PDF, Word or Excel.
• Hotel Menu: gives Aletheia the menu items and prices to choose from.
• Hotel Contract: fills in the discount, service charge, sales tax and F&B minimum.

2. Check the numbers

Look over the service charge, sales tax and discount, and fix any that are wrong. Your F&B Budget Target comes from the F&B line in your budget.

Under PAX Multipliers (PAX is headcount), tell Aletheia how many of your attendees you expect at each kind of meal, like 80% at breakfast and everyone at lunch.

3. Fill the grid

Each meal gets its own row. Auto-Fill picks from the hotel menu, so upload the menu first. Then click Auto-Fill Grid once and stay on the page while it picks a menu item for every meal and works out the cost. It usually takes a few minutes. If nothing shows up after ten minutes, email support@aletheia.events.

Change any headcount after that and the totals update right away.

4. Read the result

At the bottom you’ll see your food and drink subtotal, the grand total with tax and service charge, and a line like “Under the F&B minimum by $17,220.00.” To close the gap, add a meal or choose higher-priced menu items.

Type the grid’s total into your budget’s F&B line yourself when you’re happy with it. Click Export .xlsx to download it as an Excel file.