Dynamic prices in tourism aren’t a surprise. If you often travel by plane, you may even know which days of the week are best to buy tickets and how many weeks before the planned trip you should do it. Hotels usually lower their prices in the off-season to attract tourists, and raise prices during the season when they know guests will come anyway. Often you can expect higher prices on weekends. But can you use dynamic prices in your restaurant?
It’s a business
A restaurant, like any business, must adapt to the requirements of the market. Take the pandemic, for example – the Square Future of Restaurants report from 2021 shows that 54% of the restaurants surveyed have decided to offer food delivery during lockdown. It is worth noting that, although we can now freely visit restaurants, the popularity of takeaway food is much higher than before the pandemic. However, let’s not forget that shipping costs money. And to that, we have to add the rising prices of products and energy.
It is optimal for the restaurant to fill all the tables, but, as you know, there are days of the year when there are fewer guests. In addition, guests most often visit the restaurant on weekends. So in order to maintain a more stable income, it is worth adjusting menu prices to changing circumstances. Perhaps you can tempt more guests by a lower price to visit your place earlier?
More than happy hours
Some applications have gone a step further with dynamic costs – Uber updates its prices taking into account weather conditions or traffic on the road. Maybe also in restaurants it is worth paying attention to other factors – like the shelf life of the product? Pricing expert Torsten Olderog advises, however, not to exaggerate with too frequent price changes – customers may get the impression that the restaurant is overly focused on profits. It won’t seen trustworthy anymore. He also emphasizes that it is worth planning long-term – sometimes the expected reaction of customers will appear after some time.
Lastly, an imporant question – will the guests mind the pice changes? Most of consumers are used to happy hours, loyalty status or weekend being more expensive at the hotel. Rapport Square has shown that customers understand the idea of dynamic pricing quite well. Maybe it’s worth spending some time adjusting prices to changing circumstances?
https://www.ktchnrebel.com/dynamic-prices-restaurants/
https://www.ktchnrebel.com/dynamic-pricing-foodservice/
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/what-exactly-dynamic-pricing-restaurants
