# Hold a banquet guarantee without ghost covers

Harbor by Signalry · hotel job `banquet-guarantee-without-ghost-covers`
https://harbor.signalry.ai/jobs/banquet-guarantee-without-ghost-covers

How and who for the hotel job—verified when attested. Advice unless labeled verified. This brief is a worksheet, not an appraisal and not a quote.

## The job

When sales writes a guarantee the kitchen cannot see and banquet pads the count, I want one BEO number so we stop cooking for guests who were never coming.

**Outcome the catalog names:** One guarantee the kitchen, banquet, and sales can point at. Ghost covers are a fail, not a buffer.

**Desk:** ops
**Urgency on the catalog:** This event week
**Typical budget band (catalog, not a quote):** $6–14k process sprint + any BEO layer
**Typical timeline (catalog, not a promise):** 2–4 weeks to a shared count

## Scoped brief

Pick one number: the guarantee on the BEO. Sales may change it until the cutoff. Kitchen cooks that number, not a padded guess. Cover Line will sit the three desks. Morning Count can watch breakfast; it does not own banquet. An agent may draft the change note. Nobody silently adds ten covers.

1. **Name who may change the guarantee.** Sales until cutoff. Banquet captain after. If both can write, you will cook twice.
2. **Put the cutoff on the BEO, not in email.** Hour and day. A text at 4 p.m. is how ghost covers happen.
3. **Score cooked vs guaranteed vs actual.** Three columns. If cooked always exceeds guaranteed, the pad is the product.
4. **Kill the second count.** Whiteboard, WhatsApp, a chef notebook — pick the BEO. The rest is archaeology.

## When not to buy

Do not buy a banquet CRM if sales and kitchen still keep two spreadsheets. That is a number-owner job first.

## Provider shortlist

- [Cover Line](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/cover-line) — people · Banquet guarantee & BEO discipline. Catalog score 8.4 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Morning Count](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/morning-count) — software · Breakfast and banquet count from occupied rooms. Catalog score 7.9 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Meridian Ops Partners](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/meridian-ops) — people · Demand recovery & occupancy. Catalog score 8.7 (post-job shape, not a verification).

## Success the brief names

- One guarantee visible to sales, banquet, and kitchen.
- Cooked ≤ guarantee + written overage.
- Cutoff hour printed on the BEO.

## Pitfalls

- A guarantee that lives only in the sales CRM.
- Kitchen adding ten 'just in case' after cutoff.
- A banquet system that cannot print the same number sales signed.

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Stable id: `banquet-guarantee-without-ghost-covers`
Source: Harbor by Signalry · https://harbor.signalry.ai
Verified Outcome is not insurance. Do not treat a catalog score as attested proof.