Event Venue Comparison Spreadsheet | Location Scouting Kit, Weighted Site Scoring, All-In Cost, Venue Hold Tracker, Options Deck | Excel

EVENT VENUE COMPARISON, DONE THE WAY A PRODUCER DOES IT

Five venues come back. Every one of them is defensible. None of them is decisive. That is where most venue searches stall, and not because nobody has a spreadsheet. The criteria were never agreed, the scores have no weights behind them, and the comparison runs on rental rate, which is rarely more than half of what a location costs to use.

This kit is the system for the whole job: agree what the location has to do, work the market, score every option against the same weighted model, cost each one all-in, hold the date without losing the relationship, and present a recommendation a client can approve in one meeting.

WHY WE BUILT IT

The room you choose decides every problem you get to have: power, freight, curfew, permitting, the guest route, the budget. Most venue comparison sheets are a rate card in a table. This is the decision behind it.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE?

Eight of the eleven documents are in no other Producer Shop product. Three are shared: 04 Venue Site Visit Checklist, 07 Master Event Budget and 09 Client Proposal Template also ship in The Everything Bundle, and 04 and 09 are sold on their own. If you own the Bundle or either single you already have those three, and nothing else here duplicates them. This kit is not inside the Bundle.

WHO IT'S FOR

Event and experiential producers, venue sourcing and site selection specialists, brand and marketing teams, location scouts, agencies presenting options to clients, corporate and association planners, and venues quoting their own space. Corporate and experiential work, not weddings.

WHAT'S INSIDE

One ZIP. Sixteen files: eleven documents, a Worked Example folder holding four of them filled in, and a readme.

00 Start Here Guide (Word). What each file does and the order to work in.

01 Scouting Brief and Criteria (Word). The one-page brief, the three-bucket sort for requirements, the disqualifier list that ends a shortlist entry early rather than late, and the weighting table with five event-type profiles.

02 Location Scouting Report (Excel, eight tabs, 95 formulas). Setup names the event and five sites once; every other tab reads from it. The weighted model loads a recommended weight for each of twelve criteria from your event type and leaves every one editable. Site Comparison lays twenty specification rows across five columns and calculates the weighted total, percentage of maximum, rank and leader. Five detail sheets hold the full record, one per site.

03 Venue Outreach and Hold Scripts (Word). How first, second and challenged positions work, five outreach scripts, the information request that saves a week of email, eight negotiating levers, and how to release a hold without losing the venue.

04 Venue Site Visit Checklist (Word). The walk-through, including the things people forget to look at.

05 Location Hold and Option Tracker (Excel, four tabs, 197 formulas). Thirty hold rows with position, date placed, expiry, release notice, challenge status, decision date and rate held. Countdowns run from an as-of date you set rather than from today, so the sheet you show on Tuesday still reads the same on Friday. A calculated summary counts live holds only and flags anything challenged, expiring, expired or with no written expiry. Plus a hold positions reference and a released and lost log.

06 Location Cost Comparison (Excel, 32 formulas). Nineteen cost lines per site, from access days and generators to the rain plan and the deposit genuinely at risk. All-in total, rental as a share of it, variance to your budget, rank on all-in cost, and cost per guest.

07 Master Event Budget (Excel, three tabs, 210 formulas). The full budget, estimated against actual, once the site is chosen.

08 Location Options Deck (PowerPoint, eleven slides). A real slide master with layouts, logo placeholders, slide numbers and speaker notes on every slide: cover, the brief, how you scored it, one slide for each of five sites, a side-by-side, a cost reality page and a recommendation.

09 Client Proposal Template (Word). Scope, timeline and investment, for selling the work in.

10 Complete Your System (Word). What else is in the shop and what you already own.

Worked Example folder. Files 02, 05, 06 and 08 filled in for a 400-guest brand activation across five sites. The numbers reconcile from file to file: the leading site scores 378 of 500, comes in at 332,200 dollars all-in against a 300,000 dollar budget, 830.50 dollars a guest, and holds first position with eleven days on the clock at the decision date. The cheapest all-in is 272,000 dollars, and the site with the lowest rate card is not the cheapest to use. The deck recommends the site that is over budget and shows the three levers that close the gap.

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT

The rate card is not the price. Nineteen cost lines per site means the venue that quotes lowest and the venue that costs least stop being the same assumption. In the worked example, rental runs from 22.8 to 43.2 percent of all-in.

Weights before scores. Choose the event type and the model loads the recommended weight for every criterion. Each stays editable, and the profile weight sits beside the weight you are using, so an override is visible rather than quiet.

Five sites, named once, carried into the scoring model, the comparison, the five detail sheets and the cost sheet.

It behaves. Score cells take 1 to 10, weight cells take 1 to 5, cost cells take numbers, and a missing expiry is flagged rather than ignored. Formulas are protected without a password. Every tab in the three rebuilt workbooks prints on one page.

HOW IT WORKS

Agree the brief in 01 and get the weighting signed off. Set up 02 once. Work the market with the scripts in 03. Walk each site with 04 and fill its detail tab while you are still in the room. Cost every option in 06. Track the holds in 05, and set the as-of date before the client meeting. Present with 08, reading the numbers across from the workbooks.

FAQ

What format? Built for Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The four workbooks use Excel 2007-era functions only.

Do the blank files contain sample data? No. They open clean, with every formula in place and nothing typed. The filled-in versions are the separate files in the Worked Example folder.

Can I change the weights or the criteria? Yes. Choose a profile to load a starting set, then type over any weight. Criterion labels are open cells.

How many sites does it handle? Five, everywhere. Leave a row blank and it drops out of the ranking rather than scoring zero.

Refunds? Digital items are non-refundable, but message me and I will make it right.

COMPLETE YOUR TOOLKIT

Scouting a city you have not worked in? The Event Permitting Atlas covers thirteen US markets with real filing windows. Signed the site and facing the vendor list? The Vendor Management System tracks contracts, deposits and certificates of insurance. Setting up from scratch? The Everything Bundle carries sixteen numbered documents, three of which you own already if you buy this kit.

NOTE

Instant digital download. No physical item ships. The worked example is sample data, not a real event, venue, brand or person. These are working templates, not legal, code or compliance advice. Capacity, occupancy, accessibility and permitting requirements vary by jurisdiction and venue. Confirm with the venue and the authority having jurisdiction.

LICENSE

For your own business use, including client-facing work on events you produce. Not to be resold or redistributed as your own digital product.

THE PRODUCER SHOP

We believe thoughtful systems create extraordinary experiences.