Christmas Restaurant Business Tips To Keep You Ticking Over

Last year, 61% of Brits opted to dine out on Christmas Day itself according to bookatable. In another survey, 65% of consumers said they expected to enjoy two Christmas dinners in a restaurant during December, with 7% expecting to have five or more Christmas meals out. If you have a restaurant business, this means festive may mean frantic.

From dining with family and friends to getting together with work colleagues, it seems like almost everyone enjoys a meal out during the festive season. That’s a big business opportunity for restaurants, but it can bring big stresses and problems too. Read our top tips on how to survive the season:

Stick to what you and your team know. This is not the time to experiment with new recipes or try out new suppliers.
Keep it simple. Extensive menus require extensive ingredients or lots of disappointed customers at busy times. Instead, create set menus designed to cover all tastes. These are popular with diners, who may be more inclined to push the boat out at this time of year and go for three courses, boosting your profits. With a restricted number of dishes on your set menu, you can negotiate better deals from suppliers by buying in bulk, and you’ll have less wastage too.
Get large parties to order in advance. Taking 40 or 50 individual orders is time-consuming and mistakes are likely to be made. Get large parties of 10 or more to choose their order in advance. And make sure it is written down so you can show them what was ordered if anyone queries it. This will also mean you know exactly what to order, so won’t end up with unused stock that you have to throw away.
Dress your restaurant for the festive season. Create a happy, party atmosphere with some appropriate, festive decorations. Your customers will appreciate it, and might just come back again next year.
Don’t forget your insurance. With all the hustle and bustle of the festive season, you could be forgiven for forgetting to renew your insurance. But if you do, you could be in for a big shock if anything does go wrong. Double check that your insurance is up to date and covers you for everything you’re planning for the festive season.

If you need an instant quote for your restaurant please get in touch now.

Accidents can happen at any time of the year and unless you’re covered, you could find you’ll be having anything but a merry Christmas. Key areas for restaurants to consider include:

1. Business buildings and contents insurance

Christmas lights have a reputation for starting fires. Make sure your buildings and contents insurance is up to date and covers you for the true cost of replacing anything that is damaged.

2. Stock cover

This covers you if expensive stock is lost because of equipment failure, such as a power cut or fault resulting in the contents of your freezer or fridge going off.

3. Public liability insurance

Trips over tinsel and slips on spilled gravy (or any other injury to your customers or damage to their possessions) can result in expensive legal fees and big financial payouts. Cover yourself with public liability insurance.

4. Employers’ liability insurance

With the festive rush, kitchens become even more fraught and staff could be literally running around to get everyone’s orders out. Hot oil, knives and potentially wet floors if liquids get spilled are a recipe for accidents. Employers’ liability is a legal essential that pays out if a member of your team makes a damages claim against you.

Year-round restaurant business insurance you can trust

Get the best price on your restaurant insurance by talking to a dedicated broker like Park Insurance. We have 30 years experience helping restaurants of all sizes to get the right level of cover for their specific needs. We’ll work with you to find out what you need, so there won’t be any nasty surprises if you do need to make a claim.

As well as helping to keep premiums down, we offer a personalised customer service, with a single point of contact, so claims can be dealt with swiftly and efficiently, leaving you to get on with running your restaurant.

For an instant quote, please get in touch now.