Running a pub is one of the trickier hospitality businesses to be in right now with rising costs being a key reason for the challenges that many must overcome. Recent changes such as the higher wage bill, that has been in place since April, and the cost of supplies rising in price by 2.8% in May have made it difficult for pub businesses to keep up with demand and keep revenue high.
There is also the growing issue of no-shows, which can account for up to 24% of total bookings with customers not turning up for tables they have booked can having a catastrophic impact on profitability. Food is wasted, venues end up being overstaffed and the opportunity for other customers to book a table is taken away.
So, what should pubs do to take control of their profitability? At Access Hospitality, we help pubs get back on track with our smart integrated software platforms that take care of simple online booking and cancellations, inventory management to prevent food waste and managing staff scheduling. In this article, we will explore how you can overcome your profit challenges and why smart hotel software is the number one solution to boosting your pub’s future.
Be confident and transparent with your financial management
Pubs often feel on the back-foot with managing finances, anticipating demand and forecasting profits. With so many moving parts constantly in contention such as supplier cost changes, changing customer preferences and external factors from economics to local events, it can be tough to keep up.
By having a centralised management system, you can gain a financial oversight of all areas of the business in one place to see real-time figures and trends to help you make more informed financial decisions. With smooth communication between your booking software, EPOS and inventory system, you can address expenditure and improve your revenue from F&B, room bookings and events.
Enhance your pricing and increase customer spend
Many pubs operate to fixed prices and once a price is set, there’s no turning back. However, the most successful businesses out there have implemented a dynamic pricing model using technology to enhance pricing based on real-time market data. This keeps your pub competitive for everything from the cost of a pint to selling pubs with rooms at the best possible rate. Integrated marketing and promotion functions also make it easy to run limited time offers and empower staff to offer discounts through your EPOS to generate a great customer experience that they will never forget.
Pubs with rooms are a growing part of the accommodation sector. Real-time insights into sales, inventory and customer spend can help to identify missed revenue and customer sales opportunities to boost your profitability. Introducing self-ordering technology through a mobile app can help customers have more control over their stay and gives you a bigger chance to add options to bolt on meals, welcome drinks and local experience packages.
Target unnecessary costs and take control of your pub spending
The final strand to increasing those profit margins is to target unnecessary costs. These are the areas that pubs can take control of with a helping hand from smart technology solutions. Factors including food waste, overstaffing and lost income often stems from no-shows which can be problematic.
By implementing hotel software designed to deal specifically with these issues, pubs can introduce processes such as fair cancellation policies that capture booking fees or credit card details at the time of bookings with auto-generated communication to guests. This all helps to create more certainty about the bookings in the diary, meaning food supplies can be planned and rotas implemented for the right level of staffing.
Ready to boost your profits and streamline pub operations for the future?
Looking at the profit and loss columns for your pub should not make you feel more stress than it is worth. At a time when some costs feel out of control, it’s time to be proactive about profitability. In this article, we have explored the main ways you can tackle the profit pendulum and how smart hotel technology can take away the burden of rising costs and hard financial decisions.
At Access Hospitality, our hassle-free pub-friendly tech with Guestline’s suite of hotel solutions smooths operations, promotes profits and connects with customers all in one place. From F&B to room bookings and events, our smart hotel management software allows you to maximise your margins and take control of your profitability.
Find out more about our hotel management software solutions and become a profitable pub with our products at Access Hospitality and Guestline.