As a hospitality business, you're always on the lookout for opportunities to promote and grow your venue. One area you may not have considered is major sporting events.
These big occasions aren't just for sports bars to capitalise on. Many different hospitality venues can take advantage of these events.
In our comprehensive guide, we'll show how to make the most of big sports events, and how a table management system like ResDiary can help.
Major sporting events present many opportunities to attract new customers and grow your business - not just with a one-off visit but by turning them into regulars in the long run. Some of the top benefits they can offer include:
Want to make the most of the next major sporting event in your venue? Here are seven of the best ways you can make sure it's a great success for your business, whether you’re running a bar or a restaurant.
Preparing your venue for viewing sports games can require changes to be made to your seating plan. Tables may need to be repositioned to see the big screen and be more suitable to larger groups. With the right technology, it’s easier to make these adjustments as simple and flexible as possible.
With ResDiary, you can create segments, enabling you to change parts of your table plan during certain time periods. You can create a segment specifically designed for major sports events, with tables automatically joining together for large groups. You might also minimise the number of seats facing away from screens.
All of these changes will be reflected in your diary, allowing you to automatically accept more large bookings than you usually would - while still maintaining control of customer flow thanks to smart booking rules. Segments even allow you to open up different parts of your business, such as an outdoor space with a big screen, which is perfect for summer events.
With this feature, you can easily switch between a specialised plan and your regular plan. When the next big event rolls around, it's right there ready for you to use again.
When hosting a sports viewing event, you won’t be able to stagger your bookings in the manner you would usually like. This can result in your bar and kitchen becoming extremely busy at key times.
Tackle this with a more streamlined menu that your kitchen knows inside and out. You’ll also need to pay close attention to your booking data and ensure you have the team members you need to take on the rush.
Hosting viewings for sporting events might mean different challenges for your front-of-house and kitchen teams. This requires some additional preparation.
When hosting major sporting events, you can hopefully expect to have more customers visiting than usual and probably at around the same time too. If you have a bar area, you can expect rushes at key times like half-time also.
Here are a few ways you can ensure that your team is ready for everything that comes with hosting a sports viewing event:
If you want your venue to be known as the place to enjoy the big sporting events, you need to offer a viewing experience to back it up. Failing to deliver in this area can lead to a seriously diminished experience for your customers.
Look to these areas to ensure you are offering an excellent viewing experience:
Major sports events can provide new marketing opportunities for your venue, so you need to make sure you can make the most of it. To do this, you need to have effective marketing systems in place.
ResDiary has a range of features to help with marketing a major sports event in your venue. You can create branded communications that are triggered in response to certain actions. For instance, if a diner places a reservation, you can automatically send them an email notifying them that you are showing an upcoming event in your venue and they’re invited.
ResDiary also offers integrations with a range of marketing tools. These help you send automatic communications about future events in your venue through channels like emails and SMS. You can even analyse customer behaviour to help identify your target audience.
Additionally, don't forget to jump into the conversation on social media. Once you have a customer's attention, you can use ResDiary's Meta integration to easily add widgets to your profile for a seamless booking experience.
You can also post a list of events you're showing on your website and put posters up in your venue to remind customers of big upcoming occasions.
These days, customers have a lot of options for watching major events in hospitality venues. It's important to stand out from competitors with packages and special offers.
Offer special bundles for larger groups to encourage big parties to come along. Promotions and deals are easy to create thanks to the ResDiary table management system. With ResDiary pre-orders, you can create a menu and allow your customers to order it before they step foot in your venue.
Best of all, when you create and sell a set menu in this way, you simplify food ordering and preparation for your team. Other ways to boost your profits with special deals include a half-time happy hour, running themed promotions and offering discounts for large groups.
When you've accepted a number of large bookings for a major event, the last thing you want is for parties to fail to appear. This can result in a significant loss in revenue for your business.
Fortunately, ResDiary has the solution to prevent no-shows from ruining game day. With a seamless process for collecting deposits thanks to our Stripe integration, it's easy to reduce the risk of losing out thanks to no-shows.
You can automatically trigger a deposit based on the number of covers in a booking. With a deposit in hand, you can also charge a no-show fee.
Worried about how your customers might react to being asked to place a deposit? Cancellation fees are now mainstream in Australia. Plus, according to ResDiary's 2024 Hospitality Industry Report, 62% of diners are happy to provide their credit card details to secure a booking.
As long as your business has a fully transparent policy in place, deposits are an excellent way to mitigate the impact of no-shows on your business.
Want to boost your community engagement and promote your venue to a sporting audience? Establishing a partnership with local sports clubs is the perfect way to do it.
When you build these relationships, you'll get the opportunity to promote your business alongside another community institution. Whether it's a junior, amateur club, or professional club, these partnerships can help showcase your business as the place to see the big game.
This can make your marketing more effective, and you can incorporate the club into your game day festivities. For instance, you could work with club coaches to provide themed activities on the day of the event.
Can't wait to apply these tips for the next major sports event? Here are some of the biggest occasions in sports over the next 12 months. Keep in mind that all dates are accurate for the country where the event takes place.
ResDiary is the perfect partner to help you manage the stress that can come with hosting events. Our intuitive online booking system makes it easy for customers to reserve their seat for the big game.
On your end, you can easily manage your bookings using automatic rules and a range of views. Your booking data can be used as a vital tool to understand your upcoming service and properly prepare for it. You can also segment your diary to quickly alter your table plan to reflect changes for major occasions.
Additionally, you can create set menus with ResDiary promotions. This allows you to develop a menu that can easily be prepared for large numbers of people, simplifying your game day service. With ResDiary’s Stripe integration, you can also seamlessly take deposits from customers to prevent no-shows.
ResDiary also boasts over 60 integrations, from marketing solutions to spread the word, to POS systems which keep your operations smooth during the busiest service. Book a ResDiary demo and get prepared to execute on game day.