Christmas and the festive season will soon be on us and for the hospitality industry it is perhaps the busiest time of year. Hotels, bars and restaurants can often make a good revenue from the celebrations and Christmas parties that people are now starting to book.
For any bar, hotel or restaurant this is an important time of year to get right. It will be a busy period and if you are not prepared you will be unable to take advantage of the extra revenue this time of year can often provide.
Stocking up for this period is essential. There is nothing more frustrating for both the bar owner and customer to run out of a product. If people can’t spend their money they not only have a bad night – not doing you reputation any good – you miss out on the revenue too.
It’s important to remember that this time of year the types of drink people normally consume can differ. Not only are their festive drinks like the snowball but many people who don’t normally consume alcohol may do so at this time of year.
Drink promotions can often help steer people into the stock you do have but it needs to be carefully planned.
Christmas meals, office parties and busy nights around the Christmas period not only means you will be using more stock but you will also need more bar equipment.
Other bar accessories like Ice buckets need to be ordered to. People are not going to want to drink champagne, or order expensive wine if they can’t chill it, likewise make sure you have enough cork screws and cocktail accessories as they are often consumed at this time of year.
There are two more areas that need to be considered to cope with the extra customer numbers extra staff, essential for these busy times, but also you may wish to consider extra furniture.
It is quite common for some bars to arrange furniture to be aesthetic rather than to get as many people in as possible but at this time of year bums on seats is an important aspect to maximising the revenue – ensure you don’t breach any capacity rules and regulations though.
