In 2022, the ideal for your restaurant to become the essential place to celebrate Valentine’s Day is to create experiences as personalized as possible to mark the spirits of your guests. Luckily, we now have data that allows us to advise you on trends for this Valentine’s Day. Did you know that reservations are multiplied by three during Valentine’s Day in Europe, especially in countries like France, Italy, Holland, Portugal, and Switzerland? Therefore, all the efforts you make for this day, whether it’s creating a special Valentine’s Day menu or setting up a romantic decoration, will have a good chance of bearing fruit.
So, look forward to it and read on to discover our 10 tips for selling out on this very special date:
Invite a recognized influencer to your restaurant to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their partner, and promote their participation well in advance to encourage their followers to do the same. This will allow you to give a boost to your booking requests.
Partner with a hotel or spa to offer a unique raffle to your customers. Customers who book a table to celebrate Valentine’s Day in your restaurant will be able to try to win your special prize. It’s an excellent strategy that you can promote on your own social networks before D-Day and on those of the partner company, which will allow you to attract new prospects.
Prepare a fabulous limited edition dessert especially for Valentine’s Day that your customers can only enjoy on this day. You can enter into partnerships with a well-known brand of quality cocoa or chocolate, or even test an innovative recipe with an original presentation and sell it as “the dessert of love” which will be offered to customers on February 14th.
Live music will always be an asset to your annual events. In this specific case, you have every interest in hiring a group to set romantic dinners to music. In particular, consider hiring a good band that can play a special selection of romantic songs that match the atmosphere of your restaurant. For your youngest customers, music has a strong power of attraction. They will appreciate the idea of being able to listen to covers of songs by their favorite bands or singers while enjoying your February 14 menu.
Another idea to attract Gen X or Z customers is to create a playlist of the favorite songs of customers who book for Valentine’s Day. To do this, create an additional space in the form of your reservation system in which your customers can write their request. Then play this playlist to delight your customers.
Invite your customers to make their declaration or their marriage proposal, by preparing a special celebration with a free bottle of champagne, or surprise them by hiding the ring in a dish or a dessert with the complicity of the chef, for example.
Offer a special dish for single customers and for groups of friends. On Valentine’s Day, couples are not the only ones to book: 4% of bookings are made for a single client or 3 people. A tasting menu with dishes to share is ideal for a group of friends wishing to celebrate the day of love together. Also plan a special dish for solitary customers who want to celebrate their celibacy.
Another way to surprise your customers is to organize a special
Valentine’s Day service for customers looking for a soul mate. You can consider collaborating with a company specializing in dating and offer your room to organize a special meal during which your customers can meet new people and perhaps a future partner. When you promote it on your social networks, you can be sure that the initiative will arouse great interest.
Humor and art also go well with love . You can hire a comedian who can do a monologue on couple stories, or artists who will present a performance on this theme. These numbers will liven up Valentine’s Day in your restaurant. What works best these days is to offer new experiences.
And of course, creating a meal as personalized as possible is a very good strategy. Compose your menus according to the favorite dishes of your potential customers. Review your order statistics and the information you have saved in your database to know what dishes to prepare. You’ll be more likely to sell out if your Valentine’s Day offer takes your customers’ preferences into account.
To know: According to our statistics, the dishes of French and Italian cuisine are the most popular on Valentine’s Day.