🚨 Breaking news 🚨 The potential for higher earnings is huge around the holidays.
Well, it’s not “breaking news” — but it is a bit of a grey area for some operators.
From Christmas to Valentine’s Day and everything in between, key dates can influence how people spend their time and money. When you’re aware of this, you can optimise your menu, prices, and marketing strategies to improve your bottom line.
But how exactly can you improve your operations to increase revenue? Are there certain things you should or shouldn’t be doing to boost sales?
In this article, we answer these questions. We outline practical strategies and real examples to help your restaurant maximise profits around the holidays.
But first, let’s outline all the holiday dates to add to your restaurant calendar.
UKI holidays and key dates to add to the calendar
Let’s take a look at some of the holidays and special events worth adding to your restaurant calendar.
- New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day 🥳 Many people celebrate the end of the year and the start of a new one with special dinners and brunches, which can increase footfall for your restaurant.
- Valentine’s Day ❤️ February 14th is a huge day for couples dining out. Many restaurants offer prix fixe or tasting menus to cater to couples, and reservations fill up fast.
- Mother’s Day 🤱 A top family dining occasion, with brunches, lunches, and high teas popular across the country. In the UK, Mother’s Day falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (or three weeks before Easter Sunday).
- Easter weekend 🐰 Good Friday and Easter Sunday often bring families together, with people searching for seasonal or traditional menus — especially with brunch and roast options.
- Father’s Day 👨🍼 While not as popular as Mother’s Day, it’s still a key date — especially for pubs and places offering hearty meals. The date changes every year, but always falls on the third Sunday of June.
- Eid ☪️ Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha can often lead to increased bookings, as people break their fast together or celebrate after special prayers. The exact dates for Eid change each year as it’s based on the lunar cycle.
- Summer bank holidays ☀️ These long weekends can attract more visitors and families, especially in tourist areas or for outdoor dining options. Dates vary from year-to-year, but typically range from late May to August.
- Halloween 🎃 Growing in popularity, many restaurants and bars host themed events and offer special menus or cocktails to attract an audience around this spooky holiday. It falls on October 31st every year.
- Bonfire night 🎇 Fireworks displays make the 5th of November a popular night for pubs and restaurants, especially with outdoor viewing areas.
- Christmas season 🎅 From holiday parties to Christmas Day meals, the whole month of December is typically busy for restaurants. Many offer festive menus throughout December and on Christmas Day to increase spending and align with the festive spirit. Boxing day is also a big day for families and friends dining out post-Christmas.
Food for thought 🤔 Holidays impact restaurants in different ways. For example, bonfire night might be a popular night for a restaurant with a view, but not so much for one without a view. So although it’s worth noting these dates, it’s also worth tracking performance around each holiday to see how it impacts your sales and performance. This is where a restaurant operating system like Nory can help (more on this later).
How to maximise restaurant profits during special events and holidays
Now that your calendar is full, what next?
Let’s take a look at some useful tactics for boosting profits around special events.
Review local events
Local events kind of sit outside the remit of ‘special events’, but they are special. They bring new customers to your area, all of which are more likely to dine out while attending the event.
Think about a concert, for example. That’s a whole host of people in a new place looking for food before attending a night of musical fun. If you can attract this audience? You’re boosting revenue.
So how do you find local events? And what can you do to appeal to a new audience in your town or city?
First, let’s think about local events
You can manually search for what’s going on in your local area online. It’s pretty easy, but it can be time-consuming to keep on top of everything.
The other option is to use a restaurant management system to keep track of these events for you.
Nory, for example, tracks external factors (like seasonality and local events) to predict demand. That way, you can order the right ingredients and schedule the right staff to meet a higher influx of customers.
After identifying local events, you can now think about how to reach these customers before or after the event itself.
One of the best ways to do this is digital marketing.
Using online ads and social media is a great way to reach a wider audience and attract more people. You could also create special discounts and offers for people attending the event itself. Perhaps a 10% discount when they show you their ticket? Something to think about.
Create unique menus
Around special events and holidays, creating a unique menu for this occasion can help you attract more visitors.
Think about Mother’s Day as an example. You’re weighing up two restaurants:
- One offers their standard menu. It looks great, but there’s nothing particularly special about it.
- The other has a special Mother’s menu, with a set menu of three courses or a high-tea experience.
You want your mum to have a good time, right? So which are you more likely to choose? 👀 And with a new limited-time menu, you can also increase prices to reflect the unique offering.
Here are a few other examples for inspiration:
- At Christmas, offer a “Festive Feast” menu featuring turkey, stuffing, and Christmas pudding, appealing to families and groups celebrating together.
- Or at Valentine’s day, create a prix-fixe, romantic three-course meal with shareab;e dishes or specially plated items, like heart-shaped desserts or red-coloured drinks.
- At Halloween, make spooky-themed treats — take a look at Rocksalt as an example:
Nory success story 🥳 Find out how Rocksalt increase sales accuracy by 97.% and reduced labour costs by 7% with Nory!
“We’ve managed to grow the business without letting go of our core fundamentals. As we expand, we remain loyal to our staff, our customers, and we don’t sacrifice the quality of our coffee or our food.” – Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt.
Offer group packages and deals
When it comes to big holidays, like Christmas or Easter, people are likely to eat in larger groups. Appeal to these diners by creating set-price packages or discounted rates for large groups.
On Mother’s Day, for example, you could promote a “Family Brunch Package” that includes a main, dessert, and drink for each guest (plus a free prosecco for mums) to drive larger group bookings.
This group package makes it easy for families to dine out and have a special experience. They feel like they’re getting a good deal, and you manage to drive more customers into your restaurant. It’s a win-win.
Run exclusive promotions and limited-time offers
With so many options to choose from during special events and holidays, exclusive promotions and discounts create a sense of urgency. If diners don’t take you up on your offer, they feel like they’re missing out.
That’s right — FOMO is real!
Use things like limited-time offers or exclusive promotions to create this sense of urgency. Discounts, meal upgrades, or holiday-themed cocktails are a few examples.
Food for thought 👀 If you decide to run promotions, you still need to ensure your prices are profitable. Using a system like Nory, you can easily see exactly how much it costs to produce each menu item and what your profit margins are with the prices you allocate. No need to thank us, we’re happy to help. 🙌
How does a platform like Nory help you maximise profits during key events?
Nory’s AI-powered software provides valuable insight into seasonal trends.
We analyse external factors (like local events and seasonality) alongside your historical sales to predict demand. With all this information, you can identify the best way to optimise prices and appeal to a wider audience during special events.
Not to mention, we also:
- Help you monitor inventory and prices in real-time
- Create sales forecasts to inform spending and operations
- Optimise labour schedules to meet customer demand
- Handle payroll and tip management in a single location
FAQs about key dates for hospitality businesses
What is the most popular holiday for restaurants?
It varies depending on the type of establishment. Bank holidays tend to be the busiest for pubs and bars, with Christmas shortly following in second place. For restaurants, however, the festive period is the busiest.
Why should key dates and holidays be on your radar?
Special events influence how people spend their time and money. Think about Christmas as an example. In the lead-up to Christmas, more people are likely to dine out with friends, families, coworkers, and so on.
In other words, consumer spending habits change around the holidays. If you don’t track these key dates, you miss opportunities to increase your income.
