Blog
9 Holiday Party Tips to Drive Restaurant Profit
Stephanie Schalow
5 min read
Oct 11, 2024
Stephanie Schalow
5 min read
Oct 11, 2024
The holiday season is fast approaching, and it’s the perfect time to transform your restaurant into a haven of festive delight. Imagine twinkling lights, seasonal decor and the unmistakable buzz of holiday cheer. But beyond the decorations, it’s about turning this season into an opportunity to boost your bottom line.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how to make the most out of the busiest time of year. From crafting and promoting irresistible holiday party offerings to streamlining your operations, we’ve got the recipe for turning the holidays into a season of abundance for your restaurant.
First and foremost, no restaurant holiday party is complete without a little bit of magic. Newcomers and regular guests who return to your space during the holiday season will squeal with delight as your space transforms from a fall retreat to a winter wonderland.
Greek restaurant Yamas hauls out the holly and more to adorn their entire space in holiday decor — and their efforts get tons of engagement on social media each year.
Deck your halls with festive lights and seasonal decor to bring the cheer. (Don’t forget to decorate your outdoor space, too.) Think: tall Christmas trees, lush garlands, sparkly bows, and more spread out across your main dining rooms, lobbies and private dining areas.
For Hanukkah, design crisp blue, white and gold tablescapes. Place large Menorahs in your entryways, and add flickering candlelight throughout the space to set the mood.
These seemingly small touches create an experiential surprise and put your guests in a cheerful, money-spending mood.
If you want to become a “destination” space for holiday parties, decide what role your restaurant will play and the event spaces available to large groups. For example, and depending on your setup, you could rent out the entire restaurant or offer private dining rooms with a more intimate ambiance. Both options have their pros and cons — just make your booking fees cover your desired nightly revenue if you plan to use your entire space for one party.
Allocate space on your home page and reservation widget to explicitly promote your group offers so large parties know what’s available to them. With SevenRooms, you can call out your policies for large bookings (e.g., “For parties of 8 or more, please call [number].” or “Reserve our [private dining room link] for your holiday lunch, cocktail reception, or seated dinner.”)
Finally, determine whether the events booked will include a full bar or wine bar, partial- or full-service staffing, and the dining options guests can choose from, such as brunch spreads, family-style dinners, or prix fixe menus.
Whether you plan to offer private holiday parties hosted at your restaurant or public events for large parties like a New Year’s Eve ball drop party with food, live music and dancing, it’s imperative to tell people about them.
Advertise on-site and online using a multichannel marketing approach to tell more diners about your holiday offerings.
Restaurant technology tools are your best friends when it comes to planning a stress-free holiday season. If your restaurant is planning on throwing public holiday celebrations, leverage event technology, like SevenRooms, to put ticketing, payment collection and reminders on autopilot.
Audrey’s created an events reservations page for their Christmas Day Lunch event, which streamlines how guests can reserve, prepay and even note dining restrictions at booking.
What’s more, the restaurant lets guests join a waitlist if they’ve waited too long to book and the lunch sells out. This helps ensure the restaurant maximizes the revenue potential of its one-day-only event.
Collecting payment in advance is a great way to prevent costly no-shows for reservation-based holiday events or meals during the peak holiday season. SevenRooms’ reservation tools let you collect payment in advance and store payment information in case you need to enforce your no-show fee.
Long Meadow Ranch leveraged SevenRooms’ online payment tools to collect credit card information from guests at the time of booking. As a result, the winery reduced no-shows from 15% to 1% overnight.
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Taking catering orders over the phone holds up your phone lines and limits you to confirming only one order at a time. Phone ordering also makes it so that you can only take orders while your restaurant is open.
To streamline catering orders, add a digital order section to your online ordering menu during the holiday season. Catering customers can place orders on their own time and easily prepay for food via card.
Limited menus help your team manage inventory and staffing needs — especially during busy seasons. For catering and private parties hosted at your restaurant, offer several tiers of food packages, from basic to premium.
Jensons Restaurant is debuting a three-course set menu for guests to feast on Christmas Day. Even better, they got an early start by advertising in September.
This year, market your menu as “exclusive” and “elite” by limiting your prix fixe menu to a certain time period and available by reservation only.
For example, Pivot introduces a seasonal Christmas menu that runs from November through December. Guests who book a table early on receive a complimentary bottle of Prosecco.
Holiday parties present a great upselling opportunity at a time when businesses and individual customers feel festive and generous enough to splurge. Include at least one upsell option for each holiday party package you offer.
For example, Christmas at Epicurean Sydney encourages guests to pair their dinner menu with crisp champagne and/or top off the evening with an elegant cake for dessert using the SevenRooms booking widget.
If you’re hosting private events, allow party planners to add custom cocktails or valet parking (if space permits) to their reservations. For public holiday parties, let guests upgrade the experience with a champagne toast, VIP seating, or a “surprise” Buche de Noel dessert delivered to the table after the entree.
Have your chef create upgrades available for all types of celebratory meals, including Hanukkah, such as a fried latke appetizer or pillowy challah bread pudding for dessert.
With SevenRooms’ event and experience software, guests can prepay for these upgrades online, helping you drive more revenue. Plus, reservations with upgrades average 35% more revenue than those without.
Usher in the holiday season by hosting a feel-good “dinner and a show” concept.
For example, North Carolina-based French fine dining restaurant, Sante, offers annual Christmas dinner shows that pair a three-course dining event with professional caroling entertainment. (Guests are encouraged to sing along between courses!) Any holiday event that promises to warm hearts and fill bellies is sure to become an annual family tradition where guests mark their calendars and return year after year.
Give people a reason to gather by holding recurring holiday happy hours. Feature festive-themed drink specials each week and supplement the libations with nibbles like passed hors d’oeuvres, warm bar-style snacks or an over-the-top charcuterie board.
Allow your chefs and bartenders to get creative with pairings. The Hebrew hammer draws inspiration from the flavors of sufganiyot, or Israeli doughnuts, while the gingerbread martini uses classic holiday spices to create its signature taste.
Limit your restaurant holiday event to a one-to-two-hour reservation window so you leave room to host additional guests for your regular dinner service.
Ongoing promotions help get — and keep — guests in the spirit. Bandwidth permitting, create new, unique dinner specials each night or run a daily promotion using your existing menu. Alternatively, you can set up a contest that allows a different guest to win a goodie box each night. Let guests spin the dreidel or pull from Santa’s bag to claim a prize.
Advertise this series on social media for even more exposure. Then, announce your daily deal (or winner) at a dedicated time each day to generate excitement.
No matter what deals you offer or contests you run, be sure to collect key guest data like their name and email at the onset so you can market to them later.
Market your venue as a place to give back. Decorate a corner of your restaurant for the season and encourage guests to drop off canned goods or unwrapped gifts. You can also partner with a local community center to set up an Angel Tree for Christmas or a Giving Tree during Hanukkah. Those who donate gifts at your restaurant get a discount on their next visit.
As guests start planning their holiday season shindigs, make sure your restaurant stays top of mind as the restaurant holiday party destination. Meet them where they are by offering a variety of options like catering, buyouts, events and prix fixe meals available from late November through the New Year.
Amidst all the pre-planning, marketing, and operational duties, we want to make sure it’s the most wonderful time of year for you and your staff, as well. Book a SevenRooms demo to learn how our restaurant technology can help you plan, please and profit this season.
