How to Control Soaring Coffee Costs at Your Next Meeting

 

Coffee. It’s the drink that meeting attendees love—and meeting planners love to hate. 

While a few cups o’ joe may energize your meeting-goers, they can also add up fast and cost planners big time by an event’s end, effectively busting an otherwise carefully crafted budget.

This has long been a planner gripe, but unfortunately, it’s getting worse. 

Coffee isn’t immune to the skyrocketing F&B costs the industry has experienced in 2024. A recent report from Bloomberg found coffee prices recently surged to their highest since 1997 thanks to supply fears. Climate threats to crops of top growers in locations like Brazil and Vietnam have caused prices of both high-end beans like arabica and the budget-friendly robusta (used to make instant coffee) to rise fast.

These prices will likely trickle down to the venue hosting your next meeting, which Robyn Mietkiewicz, strategic partner at INNOV8 Meetings + Events, is already seeing.

“Coffee prices are fluctuating dramatically and at an all-time high,” she said. “Every hotel really varies too.”

Cutting caffeine probably isn’t a realistic option, though. According to the National Coffee Association, daily coffee consumption hit a 20-year high in 2024, up nearly 40%, revealing that 67% of American adults had coffee in the past day (more than any other beverage, including tap or bottled water).

So, what’s a meeting planner to do to avoid eye-popping coffee costs when the crowd is clamoring for its caffeine fix? With some careful negotiating tips from Mietkiewicz, you can give the people what they want, without breaking your budget.

[Related: Tracy Stuckrath's Essential Meetings F&B Checklist]

Tips for Cutting Coffee Costs at Meetings From Robyn Mietkiewicz

• With varying pricing, we often reference other hotels within the city, or within the chain even, as a negotiation tactic to show pricing when it is too high, and we have a comparable reference point to get it lowered (more competitive).
• We control refills, only on request. (This goes for coffee and wine!)
• Continuous beverages are nice, but providing food and beverage only at structured break times is a great way to reduce costs.
• For a small group, instead of a coffee break, give a gift card to the coffee shop in the hotel. This is way more cost effective than coffee by the gallon.
• Hotels are pushing back on F&B discounts, so we have increased our F&B minimum requirement in order to get this added back (when we know we are already going to spend over what the initial amount was).
• Get a.m. breaks sponsored, which is a great opportunity to save money.

Watch This Webinar With Robyn Mietkiewicz: Negotiating in the New Year