Seven Ways To Spring Clean Your Hospitality Business, Step # 5

STEP # 5, GET PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT YOUR GARDEN AND OUTSIDE AREAS!

Whether you’ve got a huge pub garden, restaurant courtyard, terrace, a few outside tables or even just a couple of window boxes, make sure to capitalise on your outside areas NOW.

It’s too late to look back and compare your outside areas to other places in the peak of summer. ANY hospitality business can make improvements. Just remember that Springtime is when customers are looking to escape, relax and get some overdue fresh air.

Give people an excuse, a reason, to visit you and not your competitors. Think about your target audience before you landscape or make any improvements. Try not to alienate people who naturally want to have somewhere beautiful and quiet to relax. Above all, make sure that your outside area encourages people to spend a little more time and, hopefully, a little bit more money.

Pubs have nothing to moan about, especially country pubs, when it comes to good weather in the summer. How many restaurants have the equivalent space of your average pub garden? However, it makes me cry when I see that so little TLC has been focussed on our nations’ pub gardens, patios and terraces. Sure, it’s often down to budget, but a little bit of time and money spent on improving your outside areas can be well invested.

What’s your strategy with your garden and outside areas? Take a look at a video we shot last summer in a fantastic pub garden just outside Oxford. Even if you have a smaller budget than a group like Brunning & Price, what can you do to get people talking about your outside areas? What can you do to stop people staying in their gardens at home or, worse still, visiting your competitors?

By Peter Austen, Business Planning and Operational Coach (www.innventive.co.uk) and Founder of Hospitality Entrepreneur (www.hospitalityentrepreneur.com)

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