Free tools Planning calculators

Venue feasibility calculator

Find the number of monthly bookings your venue needs to cover its costs.

  • Free to use
  • 5 simple steps
  • About 2 minutes
Choose your starting point
Let’s get started

See how many bookings you’ll need

Bring your own numbers or explore an example. We’ll guide you through each input and show how it adds up.

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Start with a simple exampleAn 8,000 sq ft venue

Sample figures for twelve markets, not current research.

Not sure yet? Start with the numbers provided and change them as you go.

How this calculator works and what comes next

Before you commit to the space

See the bookings behind the business

A space can look right before the numbers do. Bring monthly rent, fixed costs, and the income from each event into one view, then see the booking volume needed to cover those operating costs.

  1. 01

    Start with the monthly overhead

    Multiply the venue’s square footage by its monthly rent per square foot. Add the recurring costs you expect beyond rent.

  2. 02

    Work out what each event contributes

    Enter an average rental fee and the share spent delivering that event. What remains contributes toward your monthly overhead.

  3. 03

    Translate the gap into bookings

    Divide monthly overhead by the contribution from each event. See the average and the whole bookings needed to cover a typical month.

A worked example

Four bookings cover the example month

A 6,000 sq ft space at $2.50 per sq ft costs $15,000 in monthly rent. With $12,000 in other fixed costs and $8,000 left from each $10,000 event, the break-even point is 3.375 events. That means four whole bookings in a typical month.

Monthly operating costs$27,000
Contribution per event$8,000
Bookings to break even3.4 events

Illustrative default inputs. Your result uses the numbers you enter above.

Bring the plan into ShoSoft

Make every booking easier to run

When you move from exploring a venue to operating one, ShoSoft keeps your calendar and event details together as the business grows.

Start with the Free plan · Add modules as your venue grows

ShoSoft, in action. Your spaces, holds, and booked events in one calendar

Good to know

Questions about venue feasibility

The assumptions behind the answer, explained.

It adds monthly rent and other fixed costs, then divides that total by the rental fee left after the cost of running an event. The result is the average number of monthly bookings needed to cover the costs you entered.