How do hotels cope with the off-season?
No matter what industry, there will always be a low peak season. The catering industry is no exception. How to deal with the off-season of hotels deserves all entrepreneurs' consideration. So how to deal with the off-season of the hotel? What are the solutions? Let's see:
First, open source and reduce expenditure for marketing.
The person in charge of a restaurant believes that in the off-season of these months, the sales of seafood and seafood are not very good, and as the weather gets hotter, the chances of seafood spoilage and death will greatly increase. Therefore, in the off-season, many restaurants weaken the seafood, but focus on the consumption of home cooking, and strive to make the taste of home cooking innovative.
Restaurant marketing is a continuous business operation throughout the enterprise, and it will never be a breakpoint. Whether you admit it or not, marketing always exists with the operation of your enterprise, but as far as the situation is concerned, there are active marketing and passive marketing, and as far as the results are concerned, there are differences between successful marketing and failed marketing. Therefore, no matter in off-season or peak season, there is no time to take a nap in marketing.
How to reduce the cost of restaurants is also an important means of "dilution". Every restaurant has a good way to reduce costs. The first is salary reduction, and the chef bears the brunt. The kitchen director of a restaurant told reporters that the famous chef's monthly salary is quite generous. At present, the salary of ordinary chefs does not exceed 3,000 yuan per month, while that of ordinary chefs is only about 1000 yuan per month. The number of customers in restaurants has decreased, so reducing the number of waiters is also a means to save costs in many restaurants, especially the number of waiters in hot pot restaurants has decreased by nearly half.
Second, the attitude response in off-season and peak season.
Restaurant marketing is a systematic, planned and coherent business behavior, and restaurant marketing should try to stay ahead of market changes, especially in the case of clear market trends. Chinese restaurants should make a marketing plan for the off-season after the Spring Festival before the peak season, and then make full use of the good popularity during the Spring Festival to carry out off-season marketing and promotion in advance. Specific methods are different, and the effect is often twice the result with half the effort. If you wait until the off-season and your popularity is low, then the cost of marketing will be higher and more difficult.
More and more restaurants choose to decorate their storefronts in the off-season, which is also called storefront renovation in the catering industry. Since March, Shaoxing Hotel has been renovating the hotel as a whole. "After several years of operation, there is a certain gap between the current software and hardware and other hotels. Therefore, use the off-season for renovation and welcome the arrival of the peak season with a new look. " A person in charge of the hotel told reporters this way.
Chef Tengji and Chuanmeizi hot pot were completely renovated in the off-season last year. The person in charge of these restaurants believes that the catering competition is so fierce now that consumers attach great importance to the hotel environment. Through the transformation of the restaurant, we can increase the popular elements in the catering industry and successfully complete the transformation of the hotel, so that the hotel can be in an invincible position. The person in charge of a restaurant revealed that the renovation cycle of the restaurant is getting shorter and shorter now, from once every five years to once every two or three years now.
Some restaurants are partially renovated in the off-season to reduce costs. If you are drunk in a fashionable restaurant, the soft decoration in the restaurant will be slightly adjusted in April, giving people a refreshing feeling. The person in charge of the restaurant believes that the style of fashionable restaurants is not static, and it is a trend to adjust the design of restaurants in time according to mood and seasonal changes. However, the adjustment is not necessarily a slap in the face, and changing the soft decoration is enough to transform the restaurant into a restaurant full of personality.
Third, understand the market and respond.
This requires a correct judgment and analysis based on the market positioning of restaurants, from the composition of tourists, consumption motives, and the adjustment trend of the post-holiday catering market, and then put limited marketing resources into the most effective target market.
For the marketing of mid-to-high-end restaurants, the most important customer groups in the Spring Festival season are the government (including the government and the military), businesses and other social groups. During this period, many restaurants have no time to take care of ordinary individual customers and ignore them. However, within a period of time after the Spring Festival, the customer structure of the catering market will change. Due to the concentrated surprise consumption before the holiday, the enthusiasm of group consumption will be reduced after the holiday, and the frequency of consumption will also be significantly reduced. The corresponding share of household consumption and personal consumption has increased. During the festival, the wedding birthday banquet and centenary banquet submerged in many group annual banquets and celebration banquets will become more prominent in the off-season and become one of the pillar sources of income for many restaurants. Another market, such as exhibitions and tour groups, almost stopped during the Spring Festival, but it will also become an indispensable part of the post-holiday catering market.
In view of these market changes, restaurants should adjust their marketing methods according to their own positioning to be targeted, simple and effective. For example, mid-range restaurants can offer more affordable family packages and white-collar lunches to attract the consumption of families and white-collar office workers; Introduce "cheap drinks supermarket" to reduce the consumption cost of guests' drinks and effectively overcome the contradiction of guests bringing their own drinks; Plan more detailed and thoughtful marketing plans for wedding birthday banquets and centennial banquets, give more preferential items, attract the consumption of wedding birthday banquets and centennial banquets, and so on. Of course, for high-end restaurants, group consumption is still the mainstream, so there should be corresponding marketing measures for this part of customers, so we can't lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another.
Fourth, maintain old customers.
There is a famous 2: 8 law in marketing theory, that is, 80% of sales are often brought by 20% of customers. There is no doubt that these 20% customers are the most important food and clothing parents in the restaurant. Restaurants should sort out the customers in the past year, find out who these 20% customers are, and make a special VIP customer maintenance plan, which will be implemented by a well-trained team. Customer maintenance is of course a long-term job, but it is particularly important in the off-season.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) Innovation is the driving force.
After the busy peak season, restaurants can't take a break, because in the big market competition environment, commercial operation is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. After the festival, according to the changes of solar terms, consumption and marketing themes, the dishes, promotional materials and the atmosphere in the store should be adjusted in time. Many restaurants like to keep the festive layout of the Spring Festival until these decorations are old and shabby, which is an obvious feature of the lack of systematic marketing.
The off-season is relative. Some hotel officials told reporters that the off-season of their hotels is not light, which is a good reference for many restaurants that are afraid of off-season. Lu Jing, a teacher from the School of Economics of Zhejiang University, believes that no matter which industry is in the off-season, the test is how to use strategies such as mobilization, innovation and guidance in marketing to make the off-season not dull.
The person in charge of Dynasty Hotel told the reporter that the wedding banquet business was particularly hot this year, which made up for the disadvantages of fewer off-season meetings and business guests. Therefore, the hotel set off a small climax in the off-season in March, and its turnover increased by more than 65,438+00% compared with the same period last year.
Introducing innovative dishes in the off-season has injected new vitality into the off-season catering market. The reporter learned that most characteristic restaurants in Shaoxing, such as Sichuan Restaurant, Shaoxing Restaurant and Zuimei, will replace old dishes and introduce brand-new dishes, and the prices are quite affordable, which will undoubtedly arouse many people's appetite.
Artificial festivals are another powerful way for restaurants to cope with the off-season. In these days, celebrations and food festivals in major restaurants are quite frequent, which is a good way to attract popularity. For example, Burton Western Restaurant will launch a theme food festival in the off-season, and British Western Restaurant will soon launch a Vietnamese food festival. These activities with different themes make the restaurant popular.
Sixth, grasp the small peak
In the off-season after the Spring Festival, there are also some small consumption hotspots, such as 3.8 Women's Day. Many units will organize female employees to have dinner to celebrate, and many female consumers will also get together with friends to enjoy delicious food. There will also be some different exhibition business opportunities in different places. For example, the 2009 spring sugar and wine party will be held in Chengdu in March. By then, hundreds of thousands of merchants from all over the country and even abroad will gather in Rongcheng and arrange several reception banquets, which will set off a big upsurge of catering consumption in a short time. Restaurants should make marketing plans as soon as possible, carry out marketing promotion work in an orderly manner, and strive to achieve good returns in these off-season tides.
Seven, advertising marketing
In the peak season, your advertisements are often submerged in the sea of advertisements. In the off-season, moderate marketing activities combined with moderate advertising will make your restaurant more eye-catching in the whole industry, the effect of brand promotion will be better, and the effect of marketing activities will be better.
It is difficult for peers to be the same. But there are also many examples where peers are friends. Aren't Red Star and Rong Da, the two most famous catering enterprises in Chengdu, the best examples? There is a good metaphor: one chopstick is broken gently, and ten chopsticks are tied together so firmly that no one can bear it. If restaurants can put aside their bad blood and collude with the market, the cakes in this market may be bigger and more fragrant. If a restaurant engages in marketing activities, considering the relationship between input and output, the momentum will certainly not be too great, but if ten or twenty restaurants jointly carry out marketing activities, if everyone's strength is put together, the momentum will definitely be much greater and the results of the activities will naturally be much better.
Therefore, in the peak season, they are very busy. In the off-season, restaurant owners should move around more and have more contact. Maybe they can touch some sparks and form a temporary alliance partnership.
Eight, chopping wood and sharpening knives are correct.
Promotions and discounts are not universal in all restaurants. Five-star and other high-end hotels say no to discounts in off-season catering. Mr. Wang of the International Hotel Catering Department told the reporter that in the off-season of catering, for five-star hotels, the price issue will not be considered, and there is no hurry to sort out the details of local or specific benefits. Although the business is light in the off-season, many important tasks of the hotel were completed during this time. This task is to practice "internal strength", which is very important to enhance the image of the hotel.
Some characteristic hotel also do some basic training in the off-season. The person in charge of a restaurant told reporters that the off-season is not idle for them. In the off-season, the chopping knives are sharpened, so that the seeds sown in spring can harvest more fruits in autumn. During the off-season, they will strengthen the innovation of chefs' dishes, and will lead hotel chefs to inspect and learn classics all over the country, find some good dishes, and improve and introduce them to attract more consumers.