Meetup tested a $2 fee to RSVP, apologized for the backlash, kept the test

An online platform where people find, organize and attend local in-person interest groups.

Members would accept paying $2 per RSVP, spreading event costs more evenly between organizers and members without gutting attendance.

Meetup's own CEO letter conceded organizers' frustrations: the subscription cost, the burden of managing food and venue, the challenge of getting members to actually show up — and a product that was not innovating fast enough.

In October 2019 Meetup began charging select members $2 per RSVP, telling them it would 'help more evenly distribute costs between organizers and members.' The test covered a few hundred groups across two US states. Members revolted, calling the fee unfair and tilted toward Meetup's bottom line over its users.

On October 17, 2019, CEO David Siegel published an apology for the 'confusion,' replacing the test's explainer page with the letter. He called it a limited test, said Meetup was not shifting to a 'massive payment change,' and promised advance notice before any major payment change — but confirmed the paid-RSVP test would continue with select users.

Monetization model changes at community platforms are a classic bet: the paying user and the using user are different people, and Meetup tried to close that gap.

The episode shows the failure mode of silent tests — a few hundred groups was meant to be small, but it surfaced as a public apology within days.

The CEO's letter is unusually explicit about the trade-off: keep charging organizers everything, or start asking members to share costs, knowing members have never paid.

A 'limited test' on a few hundred groups still reached the whole community, so ship the explanation with the experiment — an apology that leaves the test running reads as a decision, not a correction.

As of October 17, 2019, the $2 RSVP test was still running with select users. Meetup said it was exploring many options for fairer organizer pricing, promised advance notice before any major payment change, and admitted it had 'lots to improve, including better communication.'