Private-hire enquiries, June
14
Phone, WhatsApp and the website form, one queue
A WhatsApp message lands, the bar's capacity and the licence limits are checked in seconds, and a costed proposal goes back the same evening — deposit terms included. Confirm it, and the function sheet writes itself. Reviewed by Eleanor Marlowe, Owner
One brain, three doors. The same agent that answers the phone (UC1) reads the WhatsApp and web-form queues (UC15). An enquiry at 21:14 gets a real answer at 21:17, not a callback on Thursday.
It asked the two questions that matter. Exact date and seated-versus-standing drive everything downstream — capacity, minimum spend, package fit. It never quotes before it has both.
The pencil hold is real. "Pencilled until Thursday" writes a soft hold into the events diary with an expiry. Nobody double-sells the back bar in the meantime.
Fits 30 standing with seats for the relatives. Two of Tommo's six rotating taps pour directly into this room.
Too small for 30 anyway; the check rules it out on capacity before it even reads the diary.
Exclusive hire displaces a full Friday of dinner covers, so it carries a $14,000 minimum spend and needs Eleanor's sign-off.
The licence is a hard ceiling: 80 persons under the venue's licensed capacity, staff included in the headcount at 8. The agent reads it as an unbreakable constraint, not a preference — see what happens below when someone asks for 120.
| Line | Detail | Per person | Pax | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canapés — the long list | Eight pieces per guest across the evening; includes a passed oyster round and a birthday plate for the table. | $52 | 30 | $1,560 |
| Taps & pours, 2.5 hours | Tommo's six rotating taps, two house wines, a birthday spritz on arrival, and softs. Spirits on consumption. | $58 | 30 | $1,740 |
| Minimum-spend adjustment | Packages total $3,300 against a $3,600 Friday floor. The $300 gap is carried as a bar-tab credit on the night — not a surcharge. | — | — | $300 |
| Total | All food, packaged beverage and room hire. Prices include GST and service. | $3,600 |
$1,080 (30% of minimum spend) confirms the date. Payment link in the quote; the pencil hold expires Thursday 09 July if unpaid.
Full deposit refund to 14 days out. 50% between 13 and 7 days. Inside 7 days the deposit is forfeit. Date moves are free, once, subject to availability.
Confirmed guest count and dietary list due 72 hours before. Charges apply to the confirmed count or attendance, whichever is higher.
"Company mid-year party, ~120 people, standing, drinks and snacks, first Friday of August. Can you do exclusive hire? Budget isn't the issue, the date is."
It did not quote 120. There is no discount, package or minimum spend that makes 120 lawful in an 80-person licensed room, so the quoting engine never gets the chance to try. The refusal happens at the constraint layer, not in the wording of a reply.
licensed_capacity_max = 80 (incl. staff of 8) — requested 120 standing → quote generation blocked; escalate with alternatives. Licensed capacity is data the agent can read but never negotiate.An honest reply — "we're licensed for 80 in total, so a single session for 120 isn't something we can do" — plus a draft counter-offer for Eleanor to approve, never sent unsupervised:
Option A — two sessions, same night. Exclusive hire 18:00–20:30 and 21:00–23:30, 60 guests each, full venue, indicative $9,800 per session against the $14,000 single-hire floor pro-rated.
Option B — 72 guests, one session. Full venue, guest list capped at 72 to leave licensed headroom for staff, $14,000 minimum spend.
Eleanor sees the enquiry, both drafts and the capacity arithmetic in one card, and decides whether the room wants this party at all. The agent finds the shape of a deal; a human decides to make it.
This is the UC1 phone brain wearing an events hat: the same conversational core, reached through UC15's channels (phone, WhatsApp, web form), with three new organs bolted on — a capacity checker that reads the events diary and the licence limits, a quote composer that assembles priced packages against day-part minimum-spend floors, and a function-sheet generator that turns a confirmed quote into the one-page document kitchen, bar and floor actually run from. Every quote passes a rules gate before sending; anything over the auto-send threshold, touching exclusive hire, or triggering a guard goes to a human first.