Bars, Restaurants and Hotels have been offered the chance to make this year count as one of their best: by capitalising on the winning combination of the FIFA World Cup and Christmas 2022!
Customers are already planning (and booking) their seats for Christmas and this year’s World Cup– with around 30% saying that they intend to enjoy the spectacle in the venue of their choice. Competition for bums on seats is set to be fierce, with those operators failing to plan and market their venue missing out on the most lucrative time of the year for pre-booked sales.
We all know that this is one of the most challenging times to be in the hospitality business. Bars, Restaurants, and Hotels are continuing to struggle against a background of rising costs for energy and consumables, as well as the delayed impact of VAT. Wages are going up: hard enough for larger companies but crippling for independent venues struggling to attract customers against local competition as well as rising inflation. Against this backdrop Operators should already be planning and marketing their venue according to their customer profile.
There is evidence to suggest that customers are also keen to visit a venue within their locality rather than travel as they used to pre- Covid. For them, the experience is everything – and this includes the way they are treated from first enquiry right through to the venue itself. Venues who go out of their way to offer a first-class service and an experience with this in mind are the ones already booking in customers and securing their brand reputation through word of mouth and customer loyalty.
Here are 5 of Bums on Seats’ Top Tips for Christmas:
CORPORATE & GROUP MENUS
Think about menus that work well for larger parties and office parties. Make sure these are beautifully presented in PDF format to send to enquiries and your usual corporate customers.
GIVE THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS
Make sure you have gift voucher options set up and create Festive Gift Boxes for online e-commerce.
CREATE A CHRISTMAS WEBPAGE
A landing page to include all content, visuals, and menus. This means web traffic can be tracked and all your marketing activity performance measured.
THINK DAY N’ NIGHT
Daytime experience bookings have replaced last night trade and consumers expect to pre-book.
PREMIUMISATION AND EXPEREINCE
Add value with layered pricing and luxury bolt on extras.
We want to help you sleigh the competition this Christmas, so have launched our latest campaign; ‘Ready, Set Christmas’; along with a wealth of industry experts.
Alongside this we’re also offering Christmas Health Checks and Christmas Sales Training.
Find out more:
Anthony@bumsonseats.org.
