When your restaurant is hired for a private event, it can be a very lucrative opportunity. But how do you go about improving your private events bookings?
To help you on your way, check out the following a guide for busy restaurants .
A Guide for Busy Restaurants
Five Tips to Improve Your Private Events Bookings: A Guide for Busy Restaurants
1. Hire an Event Manager
When you are running a busy restaurant, it can be challenging to find the time to come up with effective ways of getting more private events bookings. So, it could be a good idea to hire an event manager to handle that part of your business for you. By hiring a manager who solely deals with private events, you can much more easily promote your restaurant as an event venue and get more bookings.
The manager should handle all of the elements concerning private events bookings, from marketing your venue to creating promotions.
2. Use Specific Venue Management Software, e.g. for Wineries and Breweries
Whether you hire an event manager or not, your business should make use of venue management software to create greater efficiency and profitability and ensure all day-to-day operations run smoothly.
You should look at software solutions that are tailored to your specific needs. For example, if your restaurant also has a winery or brewery, you can use winery event management software to help you streamline how you manage private event bookings.
Specific venue management software gives you a centralized platform where you can easily do things like track bookings and billings, and much more.
Not only does venue management software help you to save valuable time. It also enables you to simplify processes, increase referrals, manage timelines, and create amazing customer experiences.
3. Create an Event Page
One of the simplest and most effective ways of improving bookings for private events at your restaurant is to create a specific event page on your website.
When you create a specialized page that mentions all of the key services and packages that you can provide at your venue, in addition to listing your contact details, links to your social media platforms, and customer reviews, you can promote your private events services more and reach a larger audience. Quite simply, if you want to get more bookings for private events, you must focus your efforts on promotion.
Also, while online promotions are crucial, do not overlook “real-life” promotions. Try things like leaflet drops with local businesses and residents.
4. Consider Your Target Clients and the Types of Events You Could Put on
A great way of gaining more bookings for private events is to consider who your target clients are. Your restaurant is probably already catering for private parties of people celebrating things like birthdays and engagements, but you should think about other groups that could use your space for private events.
Corporate events are often held at restaurants, and companies tend to have larger budgets to spend, so consider targeting local offices with your promotions. Depending on the size of your restaurant, you could even consider putting on things like wedding receptions.
Evaluate the space you have, consider the needs of businesses and local people in your vicinity, and come up with a list of specific types of events your restaurant can put on and a list of your target clients.
You will then be able to promote your private events much more effectively and gain more bookings.
5. Put on Your Own Events
Another option is to put on your own events. That enables you to get more bookings and also showcase your restaurant to potential future clients. You could run a weekly wine-tasting event, a cookery class, or a culinary quiz, to name just a few ideas.
