So we commissioned a piece of research with market research agency Savanta to bring you an insight into what the market could look like over the next year. We sampled over 1,000 UK consumers asking them what their holiday plans are, what they’re planning to spend, and of course what their motivators and triggers are. We have a full report available, along with a breakout summary guide, and further mini guides for travel, leisure, hotels, pubs and restaurant operators, all designed to help aid you in preparing and making the most of the potential boom.

In this blog, I’m going to go through the top 5 ways operators can make the most of staycations this year. These tips are all aimed at helping you drive footfall, increase spend per head for customers, and to provide an experience that makes customer want to return time and time again:

1. Help your customers feel safe

Health, safety and cleanliness is now as important a consideration as the quality of accommodation for UK and foreign holidaymakers, having overtaken location and cost. Keeping a clean operation is a must with sanitiser stations, regular wipe downs and face masks for your staff. Don’t also forget to communicate this out with customer facing messaging playing on terms like ‘safe’, ‘clean’, and ‘relax with us.’

2. Refine your menus

77% of consumers are happy to visit a restaurant with a limited menu, however, a significant proportion are still looking for new flavours and foods. Over two thirds would pay more for dishes that are difficult to make at home and over half would pay more for ethically sourced ingredients. This indicates that it’s quality over quantity for most consumers, so creating innovative and unique quality menu options can really set your business apart this summer.

3. Premiumise your menu

60% of consumers “really want to treat themselves on holiday” to make up for the restrictions we’ve had, so they’re going to be willing to spend more. Premiumise your menu options to make things appear more of a treat by adding toppings, premium or local ingredients and upgrading the crockery you serve it on. A few small easy tweaks can really help you generate extra cash this way!

4. Sell every day part

Consumers plan to eat out more than they used to with breakfast being a day part of particular growth. If you don’t already, make sure you take advantage of each day part and offer something for all times of the day. If you’re struggling for resource or have reservations on doing other day parts, test the water with a small menu which has classic options on it and see how well it does. If you get this right, it is a great way of increasing spend throughout the day!

5. Keep adapting

We really hope we’re through the worst of the pandemic and touch wood it is plane sailing on the horizon. But lockdown has taught us that you always need to look ahead and continue to adapt your offer to the ever changing marketplace, so make sure you are always looking for that next profit generator. Continue your take-away offer, don’t lose faith if you started a subscription or meal kit service and it’s faltering, and how about starting some local excursions for your customers to tempt them into spending more with you?

There are of course plenty more opportunities to drive footfall, increase spend per head and grow your profits over this seasonal period and we’ve featured many more in our operator mini guides, so make sure you check them out.

We hope you find our support useful and we wish you the very best of luck over the coming year and beyond. If you would like any more information on how we can help support your individual business, then contact your account manager.