Most venues have a comp policy in their head and a different one at the door. The gap is rarely deliberate, it grows month by month, and it is usually costing more than any single line on the P&L. Here is how to find your real number.

Ask an owner what their comp policy is and you get a clear answer: industry people, a few regulars' guests, the occasional apology.

Ask the door what actually happened last Friday and you get a longer list. Not because anyone is dishonest — because every individual decision was reasonable at the time.

⚠️ A comp policy that lives in someone's head is not a policy. It is a habit, and habits drift in one direction only.

The short version

Comps almost never shrink on their own. Each one is defensible; the total is not
The cost is not the entry — it is the seat, and who could not have it
Before writing rules, count what you are actually giving away for one month
Give the door a number, not a judgement
The expensive comps are the repeat ones, not the one-offs

Why it drifts

Each decision at the door is made alone, under time pressure, by someone who does not see the total.

At the door it is	On the month it is
"He's with the promoter"	Eleven promoter guests
"She's industry"	Nine industry entries
"He had a bad night last week"	Four apologies
"It's the manager's friend"	Every Friday, the same four people

⇒ Nobody made a bad call. The total was never anybody's job.

One — count before you legislate

Do not write a policy first. Count for four weeks.

Every non-paying entry: date, name if known, reason, who approved it

⇒ Four weeks is enough. You do not need a system; a clipboard works.

What to expect

Most venues find between 2 and 4 times what they guessed
And find that 30-50% of the total is a small group of repeat names

⚠️ The repeat names are the finding. One-off comps are the cost of doing business. The same eight people every week is a standing arrangement nobody ever agreed to.

Two — price the seat, not the entry

The entry fee is the small part.

A comp takes a seat for the evening
That seat's average spend on that night …7,000
Plus service cost: staff time, stock, breakage

Entry given up …2,000
Seat given up  …7,000
⇒ true cost per comp, on a full night …around 9,000

⚠️ On a night where you turned nobody away, the seat cost is near zero. On a night with a queue, it is the whole cost.

⇒ Which means: a comp on a Tuesday is cheap and a comp on a Saturday is expensive. Most policies do not distinguish, and most of the comps happen on Saturday.

Three — the rule that actually holds

Judgement at the door fails under pressure. A number does not.

Weak  …"Use your judgement on industry people"
Good  …"Six comps a night. After six, full price or manager approval."

⇒ A cap converts an argument into arithmetic. The door does not have to decide who deserves it, only whether the count is used up.

Make the cap smaller on your busiest night

Tuesday …no cap needed
Friday  …six
Saturday…three

⚠️ This is the opposite of what happens naturally, which is why it has to be written down.

Four — the three categories worth separating

Not all comps are the same thing, and lumping them together hides the one that matters.

One   industry reciprocity …you go free at their venue, they go free at yours
Two   service recovery      …something went wrong, you are fixing it
Three relationship          …promoter guests, staff friends, regulars' guests

One   …check it is actually reciprocal. Often it is one-way
Two   …should be rare and should fall over time. If it is rising, look upstream
Three …this is where the drift lives

⚠️ If category two is not falling, comps are a symptom and the policy is not the fix.

Five — the conversation with the repeat names

This is the part everyone avoids, and it is usually easier than expected.

Weak  …stop comping with no warning. He finds out at the door
Good  …tell him first, in private, before the next visit

"You've been a good friend to this place. From next month I have to
 put everyone on the same footing — but I'll always look after you
 on the table."

⇒ Give something back that costs less than the seat. A better table costs you nothing on a night with room.

⚠️ Never let someone discover it at the door. That is what turns a policy change into a lost relationship.

Six — the door needs cover

The person at the door will wear every refusal. Give them a sentence that is not theirs.

"I've got a house limit of three tonight and it's gone — I can do
 the reduced rate, or I can put you on the list for Tuesday."

⇒ An alternative, every time. A flat refusal makes an enemy; a refusal with a Tuesday makes a customer.

The numbers to keep

One   non-paying entries per night, by category
Two   repeat names and how often each appears
Third whether you turned paying customers away that night
Four  service-recovery comps per month, as a trend

⚠️ Three decides whether any of this matters. Comps on a night with empty seats are close to free.

A sheet for the door

────────────────────────────────────
  Comps tonight

  Cap …Tue none ／ Fri 6 ／ Sat 3

  Log every one: name, reason, who approved

  Categories
    industry (is it really reciprocal?)
    service recovery (should be rare)
    relationship (watch for repeats)

  When the cap is gone, offer the reduced rate
  or a night with room. Never a flat no.
────────────────────────────────────

Common objections

"Comps bring atmosphere, a full room sells itself"

⇒ True up to a point, and that point is well before Saturday. Cap the busy nights, keep the quiet ones open.

"Industry reciprocity is how this business works"

⚠️ Check it is reciprocal. Count how many of your staff actually go free at their venue. Often the traffic is entirely one way.

"I can't refuse the promoter's guests"

⇒ Then price it into the promoter deal. Guests are part of what you are paying for, so they belong in that arithmetic, not in the comp count.

"Counting them will upset the door staff"

⇒ Counting is not blaming. Most door staff are relieved to have a number instead of carrying every decision personally.

"Our comps are under control"

⇒ Then four weeks of counting will confirm it cheaply. If you are right, you have lost nothing.

This week

One   put a sheet on the door: date, name, reason, approved by
Two   count every non-paying entry for four weeks
Three sort by name and find the repeats
Four  note which nights you turned paying customers away
Five  set a cap per night, smaller on your busiest night

Doing it by hand, or on a screen

The four-week count is a clipboard. Spotting the repeat names across months is not.

By hand …a door sheet, then someone tallying names at month end
On screen …entries recorded against customer records, so repeats surface
           by themselves and can be seen against what they spend

⇒ tasteck records entries against customer records, so a comp can be read next to that person's spend history — which is what separates a valuable relationship from a standing freebie.

⚠️ A comp logged only as "industry" with no name teaches you nothing. The name is the whole point, because the finding is always the repeats.

Wrapping up

Comp policy drifts because each decision is reasonable and nobody owns the total
Count for four weeks before writing any rule
The cost is the seat, so comps are cheap midweek and expensive on Saturday
Give the door a cap, not a judgement — and a smaller cap on the busiest night
Separate industry, service recovery and relationship. The drift is in the third
Tell the repeat names privately, before the next visit

Nobody ever decided to give away thirty seats a month. It accumulated, one defensible decision at a time.

Comp Policy — Who Actually Gets In Free