Running a small hotel business or small restaurant has become much more challenging than before due to the emergence of the Internet, giving birth to online bookings and online orders for room bookings and food respectively.
It means you need to say goodbye to old school business management tricks because it is according to a reliable survey, “around 80% of businesses fail due to mimic strategies and agenda set by other businesses”. In short, be forward-looking and creative when it comes to your business.
In hotels, most customers are the ones who travel for business purposes. They need to be in touch with their company staff, so free Wi-Fi is an important thing to consider here, as 49% of business travelers expect this.
Apart from that, we have prepared a list of 11 ways to grow hotel or restaurant business with crystal-clear examples and reliable stats for your comfortable understanding. So, let’s go ahead.
11 tips to grow hotel or restaurant business
- Observe your competitors’ activities closely
To grow a restaurant business or hotel business, it’s very important to be aware of your competitors’ activities. Here are some of the things which you should consider
- At what price they offer their services?
- Do they provide free wi-fi services in their hotel or restaurant?
- What entertainment activities do they provide?
- What kind of cuisine or food they offer, and which one of them is most demanded by customers?
- How do they stay in touch with their customers?
- What special packages do they offer in a particular season?
- Do they make changes in their menus according to season?
- How many people come to them for travel purposes and business travel purposes?
- How do they look after their customers according to their purpose?
- What technology do they use to enhance their services?
If you can answer these ten questions, then you have observed your competitors’ activities and service providing method with an eagle eye. It is important to analyze your business model with keen prospecting and make changes in your working atmosphere according to that.
2. Speed up check-in and check-out process
This advice is only for hotel business owners. If your customers come to your hotel for business travel purposes, then you must value their time as they are often time bound and answerable to their seniors
On the other hand, if your customers come to you for travel purposes, then you mustn’t spoil their mood by holding them in long queues.
In both cases, you’d better make your check-in and check-out processes easier and quicker to save their time and provide them with convenience.
It’s better to provide them with a paperless check-in/check-out system to save time. You’d better ask them to pay by digital means for your services, as 68% of hotel customers want to trigger the check-in process using their mobile phones.
3. Use Digital Marketing
One of the best ways to increase hotel revenue or turn a small restaurant into a large one is to switch to digital marketing. It is because 90% of people look for restaurants and hotels on the Internet.
Digital marketing includes Social Media Marketing, SEO for your website, Email Marketing, and so on. Have a keen look at them, and see your expected results knocking at your door within a short period of time. You will definitely see a boost in bookings, resulting in raised revenues.
YouTube platform is the finest way to reach out to your potential customers using Video Marketing. Show your cuisines, fun activities, your customers talking about their experiences, and the like in videos, thus leaving a long-lasting impression on your probable customers.
On the other hand, innumerable guests use Instagram and Facebook to share their experiences by showing eye-catchy images and attention-grabbing videos. Such check-ins will bring instant visibility to your social media profiles.
Furthermore, staying in touch with your former customers by giving them a personal touch will allow you to know their current expectations, thus making it possible for you to gear up to fulfill their expectations by enhancing your services.
4. Use tempting loyalty programs, discounts, and offers
It’s been found in a report that 74% of hotel guests pay attention to customized offers and loyalty programs. As a result, hotels and restaurants bank on loyalty programs, discounts, and offers to attract new customers and make the old ones to return. Such programs and offers give your brand value a boost and render your market reputation unshakable.
A hotel can offer its customers free nights or discounted stays to run the loyal program. On the other side, a restaurant can offer its customers free lunch, dinner, gifts, and so on.
Apart from that, hotels can go for free transportation, complimentary beverages, and discounted spa services to reduce the burden of their customers’ tedious journey.
Doing so, they can know their customers’ expectations and demands from them by spending more time with them, which will allow them to make changes in their services to fulfill those expectations.
For example, business travelers want to save their time, expect efficient service from you, and get all done by means of technology. So, if they get all these things from you, then they will talk to others about you, thus bringing you more customers.
5. Offer easy transportation to your customers
Every hotel business owner wants to know how to increase hotel revenue, and they use innumerable ways to do so, which make them end up finding that convenience comes first.
As per researches, above 45% of business travelers find transport service from a hotel pleasant. It is the first and most powerful way to show your care by providing them with a taxi or bus at the Airport or Railway Station to pick them up from there.
Remember that their time is very valuable to them, so saving their precious time by taking a taxi or bus to them will prevent them from waiting for the transport to reach your hotel, thus saving their time.
Moreover, it’s better if you arrange a drop-off facility with a means of transport to impress your corporate customers.
In a nutshell, providing your business travel customers with a means of transport to take them to your hotel and drop them to the Airport or Railway Station will save their time, ease their travel burden, and leave them with a long-lasting impression of your hotel service.
6. Go for special events and private functions
You’d better take part in local activities that happen in the area where your restaurant is located to bolster relationships with the people living there.
You should set up a stand in a local event or have different activities to let your customers know the products you provide. Doing so, you will meet them face to face.
If they like your product, then you have made a new customer, and sweet words from their mouth about you will also bring others to your restaurant, so this way will help you grow your small restaurant.
Apart from that, you can keep the company of other organizations in your area to host community fundraising events or charity events. Doing something to make your community better means attracting more customers to your restaurant with a positive image.
Events like cooking classes, sports games on TV, bling-date meetings, and so on can give your business an air of creativity and positivity.
If having an extra room or an area, then be ready to host birthday parties, private celebration, and the likes with indubitable privacy for your customers having discounts.
7. Don’t forget healthy menu options
In this fast world, people forget to look after their health, and when you remind them of their health care by serving healthy food or dish before them, they feel awesome.
Furthermore, business travel customers are always in haste and tension, that’s why they rarely read a food menu properly. They tend to forget that staying healthy is very important. Therefore, always strive to provide them with nutritious meals with healthy eating options.
Keep your food hygienic to avoid food allergies. It’s better to show your care with healthy snacks and fresh fruits when customers don’t ask for a meal or are in haste.
8. Manage your expenses
To grow restaurant and hotel business, you must take control over your expenses to avoid overspending, which may lead to an unbalanced cash flow.
Modern hotel and restaurant billing software solutions like Invoicera come with helpful features to help you run your hotel business successfully. One of such features is expense management.
Invoicera is regarded as sufficient restaurant invoicing software due to its ability to customize. The software allows a hotel or restaurant owner to manage their inventory and other business activities in the same dashboard.
Using the software, you can track and manage the requisite amount of inventory for your business. In short, you won’t spend more than required if you bank on this reliable restaurant management software.
Having control over expenses means balanced cash flow, thus no cash problem in your business.
9. Have partnerships with your local area business
If you want to know how to improve the restaurant business, then become a partner of another business owner to have their customers become yours.
For example, if there is a gym in your area, then partner with its owner. After that, start providing low-calorie food like salads and smoothies or food with sufficient and balanced amounts of necessary nutrients like protein, calcium, iron, carbohydrates, and the like.
On the other hand, partnering with a coffee shop will expect from you some healthy chips and snacks at affordable prices.
In a nutshell, partnering will allow you to earn from your partners’ customers, thus helping you grow your restaurant business easily.
The same you can do in your hotel business by asking for a local travel agency to provide you with a car to take your customers to your hotel.
Along with this, you can also partner with the marriage hall or banquet hall owners to provide temporary accommodation to their guests in your hotel. This way you can generate a new client base for your business.
10. Offer a referral incentive
A new customer is more profit-providing than retaining an old one. You can increase your hotel or restaurant business revenue if your old customers accompany a new one to your place.
To make them do so, you have to offer them some discount coupons on the next meal, happy hours, referral coupons, meal vouchers, free night stays, and so on.
In a nutshell, customer referral incentive is the ideal way to get new customers and retain your old ones.
11. Food delivery app
This section is for restaurants only. It tends to happen that your customers crave for your restaurant food but can’t come to it due to their own problems despite having money.
In such circumstances, a food delivery app can work wonders for both you by increasing your sales and bringing your restaurant food to them. All you have to do is to offer some tempting discounts, especially if you are doing this for the first time to grab eyeballs from everywhere.
Moreover, it will also keep you ahead of your competitors too, as you are running a restaurant business online as well.
End Note
Here, we told you 11 tips to grow hotel or restaurant business with reliable stats and easy-to-understand examples.
The points we includes are noticing your competitors’ activities, food delivery app, partnerships with your area businesses, expense management, holding private and social events, and much more.
You also came to know about Invoicera, the famous custom billing software with so many features. This bespoke billing software makes possible for a hotel or restaurant owner to handle their inventory and other business activities on the same dashboard, facilitating hotel or restaurant business growth.
