The decision about what hours your restaurant should be open is one that can't be made in a vacuum. It is true that the scheduling of open hours for the facility must be considered in advance of opening or re-opening. Placing advertising in telephone directories, newspapers or other marketing venues requires letting potential customers know when you will be open. Here are some tips for setting restaurant hours.
Your facility location will play an important role in deciding how to set your serving hours. An area that has a large daytime population will need to be open during the hours that will serve these people. This doesn't rule out changing the dynamics of the restaurant in order to attract a different type of diner in other hours.
If your location is largely deserted in the evening hours, you have a choice of doing something that will bring people to the location. This might be a better service level, theme foods or perhaps entertainment. Those people who are interested in your restaurant theme or cuisine may travel some distance to take part in what you offer. You will also need to consider the availability of staff, so that patrons of your facility can receive the same type of top quality service at any time they choose to eat.
You may find that your restaurant advertising or marketing efforts are different for different hours of serving. If you are trying to reach young families you probably won't want to advertise your facility in a singles dating site. The hours for families would be different than for those people eating after attending the movie theater. The type of menu may change with the time of day.
Checking out the surroundings and considering how you can take advantage of events going on in the surroundings will provide a reason to use flexible scheduling. For example, if a nearby church holds choir practice every week, you may want to have open hours so that people can eat before their meeting or can grab a cup of coffee after the session.
When deciding which hours your facility will be open, there are several factors to consider. If you have a daytime location, you will need to give people a reason to make the trip during off hours. If you are open with other nearby establishments are closed, you will probably pick up some customers. A cost-benefit analysis will help you to decide. The diners who are likely to come to your eating place will affect the best hours for your facility to be open for business.
