How do I make the most of exterior restaurant space - The Caterer, 24 November 2005
We have a restaurant site with exterior access adjacent to our hotel and we're sure that we could make more profit from the space. What approach should we take?
Guy Holmes, Captivate Restaurants
From a marketing perspective, I think you should give the image of a stand-alone restaurant rather than one that is part of the hotel. Hotel guests will obviously eat there anyway, and other customers are more inclined to go to stand-alone restaurants. The key issues are:
- Whether to outsource? Being a hotel, you will already have the experience of preparing and serving food, but a stand-alone restaurant requires different skills. The key factors to consider are time and money. If you are short of both, then outsourcing the restaurant would seem an ideal proposition, especially as your risk is greatly reduced. Of course, if you take this option, your potential profit will be greatly reduced.
- Design. Try to have as much flexibility as possible. Most hotels host a wide range of functions. Make sure you are able to section different areas off to cater for different types and sizes of functions.
- Target markets. The best source of customers will come from the hotel, so the restaurant needs to cater to them. Prices, quality and decor need to be in the same league as the hotel.
- Market research. Before doing anything conduct market research both of the potential competition and to find out what your target market wants.
- Write a detailed business plan. Not only is this document essential if you need to borrow money, but it will also help you understand what you are doing and how you are going to do it before you incur any costs.
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