Frequently Asked Questions
THE BASICS
What is a virtual experience?
A private, live-hosted event led by an expert host. Every experience comes with a curated kit shipped to each participant ahead of time, so your whole group is working through the same thing together while the host guides them. It is live, not pre-recorded.
What kinds of experiences do you offer?
A wide range. Chocolate, coffee, cheese and charcuterie, craft beer, spirits and cocktails, wine, and food pairing experiences, plus team-building formats like trivia, escape rooms, and interactive games. We also build fully custom experiences around a theme, a product launch, or a holiday.
Every kit is made to order, so if you want to combine formats or build something that does not exist on our site yet, that is a normal request rather than an unusual one. Tell us what you have in mind.
How long is an event?
Flexible. Forty-five minutes is our most popular format. We can run up to two hours, and we have filled slots as short as five minutes inside a larger agenda. Tell us the window you need and we will build to it.
How many people can attend?
Anywhere from two to five hundred. Our standard maximum is 500 participants, and we can go beyond that for an additional fee. There is no minimum as long as the host fee is covered, so small executive groups work just as well as large all-hands events.
What platform do you use?
Zoom by default. If your organization prefers Teams, Google Meet, Webex, or something else, set up the meeting link on your platform and our host will join it.
Can we record it? What about AI notetakers?
Your call. We allow recording and AI notetakers by default. If you would rather not have them in the session, tell us ahead of time and we will note it for the host.
PRICING
How much does a virtual experience cost?
Two components:
The kit. Generally starting around $70 per person and running upward of $500 per person depending on the experience and what is inside. This covers materials and domestic ground shipping. Per-kit pricing is listed on each experience page.
The host fee. A flat rate per event, set by the host you select. It does not scale with headcount. See hosts and their fees.
Custom swag, expedited shipping, international shipping, and optional insurance are quoted separately.
Can you give me a total for my event?
Yes. Send us four things and we will quote it properly: approximate headcount, your target date, the experience or price range you have in mind, and where your participants are located including anyone outside the US. Submit an inquiry.
What is not included in the kit price?
The host fee, custom swag, expedited shipping, international shipping and duties, optional shipment insurance, and any reship fees caused by incorrect addresses.
PLANNING AND TIMELINE
What is the recommended lead time?
Two weeks from payment and delivery of shipping details is our standard, and six to eight weeks is comfortable, giving room for registration, custom swag, and address collection.
Inside two weeks, get in touch anyway. We can often make it work using expedited shipping options, though nothing is guaranteed and it is assessed case by case depending on the experience, your participant locations, and carrier availability. Expedited shipping carries an added cost, and we always confirm that cost with you before booking anything.
What are the key deadlines?
Counted back from your event date:
| Deadline | When |
|---|---|
| Custom swag | 35 days before |
| Logo and personalized note | 21 days before |
| Shipping details for all recipients | 14 days before |
Between November 17 and December 31, the shipping details deadline moves to 21 days before your event to accommodate holiday carrier volume.
What happens if we miss the logo or note deadline?
There is usually some wiggle room using expedited shipping, and we will always check with you first rather than making the call ourselves. That said, expediting adds cost, so hitting the deadline is the cheaper path. If expediting is not workable for your timeline or budget, kits ship without the branding. We would rather your kits arrive on time plain than arrive late branded.
Can we change our event date?
More than two weeks out, no change fee. We will work with you to find a new date. Within two weeks of the event, the hosting fee is forfeited because the host has already held and prepared for the slot. We will make every effort to reschedule you, though we cannot guarantee recovery of the forfeited hosting fee. Email hello@priorityexperiences.com as early as you can, because the earlier we know, the more options exist.
Can we cancel?
Handled case by case, and we are flexible as long as we have not already ordered custom swag or custom kit items on your behalf. Once those are ordered, those costs are committed. Get in touch and we will work through it.
Can we change our headcount after booking?
Yes, up to the 14-day shipping deadline. That is exactly why we invoice kits after shipping details are finalized rather than at booking: you pay for your confirmed final count, not an early estimate. After that deadline additions are still possible but incur expedited shipping fees.
SHIPPING
How does shipping work?
Send us your recipient list with each person's name, email, full address, and phone number. We ship kits directly to participants and email tracking to each of them once shipped.
If collecting addresses is a headache, we can build a Google Form or registration page and send it to your participants for you. Ask early.
One distinction worth knowing: most kits are invoiced and shipped directly by us. For some experiences the kit is billed and shipped by the partner supplier instead, usually a winery, roaster, or producer. In those cases we connect you directly with the supplier and their shipping terms govern that shipment. We tell you upfront which arrangement applies to your experience, and we stay involved either way.
Are delivery dates guaranteed?
No, and we would rather be straight with you about that than have it surprise you later. Once a kit leaves us it is in the carrier's hands, and delays from high volume, weather, mechanical issues, and other factors outside our control do happen.
What we do instead: we ship with buffer built into our deadlines, we send tracking directly to every participant, and we watch deliveries in the run-up to your event. If something looks like it will not land in time, you hear it from us early enough to have options. Lead time is the best protection there is, which is exactly why our deadlines sit where they do.
Where can you ship?
Broadly across the US, into Canada, Europe, and other international regions. Domestic US ground shipping is included in the kit price. Tell us where your participants are and we will confirm coverage.
How does international shipping work? Who pays customs?
We quote international shipping case by case, because cost varies significantly by destination and kit contents. Our quote includes both shipping and duties, so no surprise charge lands on your participant at the door. We need destination countries and kit counts per country to price it.
For some international destinations we build a closely matched kit with equivalent products and ship it domestically through a local partner. That skips the border entirely, which means no customs delay and no risk of a package stalling in clearance, and we work to keep pricing close to the US equivalent.
Are there places you cannot ship alcohol?
This only applies to experiences that include alcohol. Many of our experiences do not, and those ship anywhere we ship.
For the ones that do, dry state and county laws vary by product, so it depends on the specific experience, but our coverage is wide. Kentucky and Mississippi are the two that come up most often.
Nobody gets left out. For restricted addresses we send a non-alcoholic version, a mocktail kit, all the ingredients so the recipient can BYOB, or a comparably priced snack package. Everyone joins the same live experience.
One legal note on alcohol experiences: shipments are sold in California and title passes to the buyer there, meaning you authorize us to engage a carrier to deliver on your behalf. Interstate alcohol shipping laws vary by state and change regularly, so confirming that alcohol can lawfully be imported into a given state is ultimately the client's responsibility. We flag restrictions we know about and will always help you work around one, but we cannot make that determination on your behalf. When in doubt, ask and we will talk it through.
Will someone need to sign for the delivery?
Sometimes, depending on the experience and destination. Alcohol shipments are the usual trigger, and carriers apply signature requirements and local or state regulations at delivery regardless of what anyone would prefer. If your experience requires it we flag it during planning so you can tell participants to be available, since a missed signature attempt means redelivery and a delay.
Can we add participants at the last minute?
We will try. Expedited shipping fees apply:
| Timing | Fee per kit |
|---|---|
| 5 to 9 days before | $25 to $45 |
| 3 to 4 days before | $40 to $75 |
| 2 days before (overnight) | $95 to $175 |
Exact cost depends on kit and destination, and expedited options are limited by carrier availability and region. International expediting is much less flexible. Email shipping@prioritywinepass.com as soon as you know, copying whoever helped you book. We confirm cost with you before expediting anything.
What if we sent you a wrong address?
If a package returns to us because the address was incomplete or incorrect, reshipping costs apply: return shipping, which varies by carrier, plus a reship fee matching the original shipping cost.
The usual culprits are missing apartment or suite numbers, wrong zip codes, and misspelled street names. If you are unsure about an address, send it over and we will verify it before shipping. That costs nothing.
Can we change an address after the kit ships?
There is a $30 address change fee that the carrier charges us and we pass straight through. And in-transit changes are not guaranteed, since they depend on carrier policy and where the package sits in the network. If you spot a bad address, tell us before it ships.
A kit arrived damaged. What now?
Contact us within 24 hours of the delivery date with photos of the outer package and the contents plus a description of the damage. That 24-hour window is a condition of coverage, so report it even if the recipient has not opened the box yet. We file the carrier claim on your behalf and walk you through it. Carrier claims take two to four weeks and some carriers require seven or more images.
If the shipment was insured, we reship at no cost once the claim is approved, sent via ground shipping. If it was not insured, the reship cost falls to you.
Should we insure the shipment?
Insurance is optional at 5% of your total event price, excluding expedited shipping costs. It covers replacement for damage, loss, or delivery to an incorrect or incomplete address, and it means we file the claim and reship at no cost to you once the claim is approved.
Two limits worth knowing upfront. Replacement kits ship ground, and expedited shipping on a replacement is not covered by the insurance, so a kit lost close to your event date may not arrive in time even when it is insured. And to qualify for coverage, issues must be reported within 24 hours of the delivery date.
Worth it if you are shipping temperature-sensitive items such as chocolate, cheese, or wine in summer heat or deep cold, or shipping internationally. Extreme weather damage to those items is exactly what carriers tend to refuse to cover without insurance.
Does hot weather affect shipping?
It can. For temperature-sensitive items such as chocolate, cheese, and wine, we may require expedited shipping during hot summer months to reduce time in transit. This is assessed by destination and by what is in your kit.
If your event falls in summer, submit an inquiry and talk it through with one of our planners before you finalize the experience. We will tell you what your kit needs and what it costs, so there are no surprises. Start an inquiry.
KITS AND CUSTOMIZATION
Can you handle dietary restrictions and allergies?
Yes. Every kit is built custom, so restrictions are part of normal assembly rather than a special request. Send them with your recipient list, ideally early so we have sourcing time.
We have non-drinkers. What are their options?
Plenty. A lot of our experiences contain no alcohol at all, so the simplest answer is often to pick one of those. If you do want an alcohol-based experience, we have a range of mocktail kits and we can build custom food packages priced to match the rest of the group so nobody's box looks like a consolation prize. Non-drinkers join the same live experience, and our hosts run mixed rooms constantly.
Can we brand the kits?
Yes. Standard branding is a custom logo sticker on the box and a personalized message card inside, and you can put your logo on the inside of the box, the outside, or both. Send it in vector format, 21 days before your event.
Can you source custom swag?
Yes, with 35 days minimum before your event date. If you would rather ship us swag you already have, it needs to reach our headquarters before the 14-day shipping deadline.
Running a series? We can hold your swag inventory, which means the 35-day lead time only applies to your first event.
Are recipes included in the kit?
Not by default. We send recipes to you after the event so you can share them as a follow-up touchpoint, which works better than burying them in the box. Want them packed in the kit instead? Just say so.
HOSTS
Who are your hosts?
Working experts matched to the experience: chocolatiers, coffee roasters, cheesemongers, brewers, distillers, sommeliers, winemakers, and specialists across our other formats. See host bios and fees.
How is the host fee calculated?
A flat rate per event set by the individual host, not a per-person charge. It does not scale with headcount, which is why a two-person tasting is entirely viable.
What if our host becomes unavailable?
Rare, and if it happens we find you a comparable host matched on expertise and experience type, and tell you as soon as we do. Your event date holds.
Can we do a run-through with the host beforehand?
Yes, and we recommend it around two weeks out. Review the agenda, practice transitions, walk the event flow, and tell the host what you want the event to accomplish. They adapt a lot based on that conversation.
RUNNING THE EVENT
How do we get people to actually show up?
Our own events run a 65 to 75% show rate. What gets there: incentivize your sales team, vet registrants so you are attracting real prospects, send reminders and follow up directly by email or LinkedIn to confirm attendance, add a raffle and promote it, book a strong guest speaker alongside the host, build in polls and interactive elements, and give attendees a clear call to action.
One thing worth knowing: roughly 25% of registrants who do not attend still end up doing business. Follow up with the no-shows too.
Can you help with a registration page?
Yes. We need your logo in vector format, a headline (usually the event name), a subheader with your main call to action, and a description of what attendees should expect. Ask six to eight weeks out so registration has runway.
What do participants need on the day?
Their kit, unopened, plus whatever the experience calls for such as glassware or water. We provide an Event Essentials Checklist. Share it about a week out and again the morning of the event.
What should we do on the day of?
Have the meeting link ready, update software early rather than the morning of, close unnecessary programs, test mic and camera with your light source in front of you, mute notifications, keep a backup of your materials, assign a co-host to manage chat and muting, and confirm your AI notetaker policy. Team members, hosts, and speakers should join 30 to 45 minutes early.
PAYMENT
How does payment work?
In stages. A host deposit secures your date and host. Custom kit items and swag are paid at confirmation. The main kit invoice goes out once your shipping information is finalized, which means you are billed on your confirmed attendee count rather than an early estimate. Payment is due before kits ship, unless we have agreed different terms with you in advance.
How long is my date held?
Seven days pending the deposit. After that the slot is no longer guaranteed until the deposit is paid in full.
What happens if we pay late?
Payments not received within 14 days of the event, or by the due date in your terms, incur a 5% late fee on the outstanding balance applied one week after the due date. Balances unpaid 30 days after the event accrue 1.5% monthly interest.
Can we pay by PO or through procurement?
We work with enterprise procurement regularly. Loop us in early with your requirements, because procurement onboarding often takes longer than the event lead time and is the most common cause of a delayed booking.
WORKING WITH US
We found you through Sendoso or Postal. Who do we talk to?
Email Esther at esther@prioritywinepass.com and she will walk you through the details specific to those platforms.
Who do I contact about what?
| Topic | Contact |
|---|---|
| Bookings, general questions, date changes, cancellations | hello@priorityexperiences.com |
| Shipping, addresses, tracking, damaged kits, last-minute kits | shipping@prioritywinepass.com |
| Sendoso or Postal bookings | esther@prioritywinepass.com |
When emailing about an existing event, copy whoever on our team helped you book it.