Holiday Party RSVP Tips: Make your Holiday Party RSVP Process Easy

Whether you are an office manager planning a corporate holiday party, or simply looking to gather a group of friends to celebrate, streamlining your holiday party RSVP process can make planning your holiday party much less of a headache. Online holiday party RSVP platforms now exist to let you collect your info digitally. However, there are a few key things to remember when planning to collect your holiday party RSVP online:

Tip #1: Holiday Party RSVP Wording

Using clear and direct holiday party RSVP wording can make sure you collect all the info you need, as well as help to increase your responses and make the planning process easier. The best ways to make your wording effective include:

• Tone of the event – If your event is formal or casual (or in between), have your wording match the tone. For a casual event, feel free to throw in silly responses (“You snow I’ll be there”/”Bah Humbug!”). For a formal event, stick to the traditional. Wording like “Gladly Accepts”/”Declines With Regret” or other traditional wording works best for formal events.
• RSVP By Date – Including a date for response is a small but important element of holiday RSVP wording. In order to collect guest info promptly for planning purposes, be sure to include a date that will gather your guest information in a timely fashion. Otherwise, you may not know how much food or materials to order until it’s too late. If you are worried about how long it will take guests to RSVP, visit RSVPify’s response calculator to get an estimate for your event.

Tip #2: Pick the Ideal Online Holiday Party RSVP Platform

While a number of online RSVP systems exist, picking out the right one for your event should focus on a few key areas:

• Ability to collect RSVPs from both mobile and desktop devices
• Ticket selling platforms – key if you plan to collect fees or donations, or even sell raffle tickets!
• Excel spreadsheet functionality, to let you export data and share with others. Also helpful for organizing the event itself, communicating with vendors, etc.
• Check-in features: platforms that allow for custom QR codes to check in guests digitally, or mobile check-in

Tip #3: Get Your Invitations Out Early!

This one might seem like common sense. But, often event planners forget to leave enough time for collecting attendance information. Especially with bigger events, giving your guests enough time to respond can be a key element of holiday party etiquette. It can also ensure you get your event on guest calendars early enough, given how busy the holiday season can be. Unless you know event attendance is assured, we recommend giving yourself at least a month before your event to notify guests and collect information. For a bigger event (especially with expenses due to the venue or a big catering order), this is key.