What revenue are you missing by not having outdoor dining?
After such a long time being shut or working on reduced capacity, you are finally able to start planning for the re-opening of our cafes, restaurants, and venues. With some shifted processes and capacities in which we seat and serve our patrons begin to serve your customers, you can finally open your doors. Having endured closed doors for months on end you can finally begin to breath a sigh of relief and find ways to embrace opportunity and build your businesses back up, moving forward with a new way of operating.
Outdoor dining is sitting front and centre when it comes to being able to welcome back your customers, proven to be the safest way to ease back into social dining. By the end of October it has been confirmed that up to 50 people will be permitted to sit outdoors at your venue, jumping up to a huge 500 people outdoor capacity come November. Having an outdoor dining setup is going to be vital in opening your business back up.
Investing in an outdoor dining setup after having little or no revenue for many months can be a daunting idea, of course, but what is more daunting, is the reality of neighbouring businesses being able to open sooner and beginning to build their revenue back up when the date comes. All the while your business has had to stay closed or function at a reduced capacity, waiting for the possibility of indoor dining to come back.
We are in for a huge few months of trading with the warmer weather and longer days already starting to people out of their homes. If you happened to head out at any point over the past weekend (within your 15km and permitted 4 hours of course!) you would have been met with swarms of people picnicking and enjoying recreational activity. What this suggests 6tyghvis people want to be out! We have had enough of being stuck inside our homes, the craving for social interaction is immense. Once the >80% of the Victorian population that is double vaccinated gets the green light to go out and do things, they will be doing just that and with the unpredictable nature of border closures forcing people to stay within Victoria, or hesitant to look any further even if the borders do open, having your business ready and available for patrons will be crucial to the success of your reopening.
Do you currently have a place for customers to sit outside at your café, restaurant, or venue? If not, now is the time to get something organised.
If introducing or expanding your outdoor dining space allows you to sit even just 10 people, based on let’s say, a $30 per head spend, that is $300 per sitting. 5 sittings over the course of the day are additional revenue of $1500 in one day alone. If you have the space to allow for the full 50 patron capacity, that’s $1500 per sitting! And let’s not forget, outdoor dining is going to be around for the long haul, this isn’t a short-lived boost to revenue. Not expanding your option of outdoor dining, is more lost revenue, which will not necessarily be able to be made inside your venue at some point this summer. It will mean not being able to open, staff hours to stay reduced, and missing out on profit that otherwise will not be seen without outdoor dining.
A dining parklet or outdoor dining set up has the potential to pay for itself withing weeks, leaving anything after this time as clear revenue for your business. This is our second year working with hospitality businesses and helping to provide solutions for their outdoor dining needs, and we are yet to see anything but positive outcomes from having an outdoor dining service available. But time is of the essence. Creating an outdoor dining space takes time and if you leave the organising too late, you’ll be waiting around 6 weeks before something can be installed. Which is more lost revenue.
To get started with your outdoor dining options, give us a call on (03) 9131 1625 or send us an email at sales@events720.com