Longitudinal studies provide possibilities to tailor future wave design to respondent’s preferences, among them mode of interview. Assigning preferred mode to each respondent can potentially be efficient in terms of effort (e.g. number of attempts), and advantageous in retaining respondents. Our study explores whether self-reported mode preference predicts participation in different modes. As part of a longitudinal experimental study called Innovation Panel (UK) we asked respondents about their most and least preferred interview modes (face-to-face (F2F), postal, telephone or web), and to rate the chance that they would participate in the next wave if they are contacted via each mode (except F2F as this was the mode of interview). In the following wave respondents were randomly assigned to F2F protocol or web with F2F follow-up protocol. All three types of questions perform well in predicting participation in web part of the mixed-mode protocol, but less well the difference in participation between MM and face-to-face protocols. We provide an example of cost and quality considerations in assigning difference mode preference groups to MM or face-to-face mode protocols.