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Hospitality businesses are getting geared up for the Christmas rush and rightly so, but are operators missing a trick when it comes to hosting themed events throughout the year? Basing promotions and events on much loved holidays such as Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night and Easter could be a lucrative move for operators.
Halloween in particular is becoming more and more popular amongst both children and adults and therefore could present a great opportunity to stand out from the competition and make the most of quiet periods in the lead up to Christmas.
Halloween is a great opportunity for bars. Hosting parties for guests including costume competitions and offers on a few custom-made cocktails is a small cost for the business but sets you apart from the bar next door during the Halloween week.
For hotels and cafés, introducing pumpkin carving, spooky cake decorating as well as Easter egg hunts in the Spring, will entice children and parents to your venue when stuck for what to do during the holidays.
For restaurants, in addition to Christmas, investing in themed menus each year is going to get timely and costly, and hosting events and parties will also alienate your regular guests just wanting a pleasant meal out. Instead of struggling to compete during the usual holidays, it’s better to make the most of quiet lulls ensuring you stand out during these times.
National ‘days’ are becoming increasingly popular. Why not change up your specials menu to integrate these days into your food? ‘World vegan day’, ‘Martini day’ and ‘chocolate covered anything day’ make for creative menu additions and are a subtle change for your regular customers. What’s more it will challenge your chefs keeping them motivated and is a great opportunity for your front of house team to upsell.
For slightly less subtle events, there’s ‘International wig day’, ‘Scrabble day’ and ‘love-note day’ - hand out wigs to your staff, board games for guests to play during their sitting and present love notes to your guests with their meal, adding humour into your service. With some simple posters in your window and plenty of social media promotion, you’re bound to get guests talking.
With all events, online promotion before the event is of course key to pulling the punters in, but don’t miss out on promotion during and after the event. Ask all customers and team members to share selfies and food photos on social media and provide a relevant hashtag including the name of your venue for them to use.
If you would like to measure the success of any of your events, get in touch today.
