Private events allow people to escape the hustle and bustle of our busy world and spend a few hours wining and dining with friends or colleagues. Because they are equipped to serve multiple guests at once, restaurants are popular venues for corporate gatherings, family celebrations, holiday parties, and other private events. If you’re expanding into the world of restaurant private events or wondering if your restaurant should host them, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we’ll explore private events and why restaurants should host them. As we review the benefits of offering event rental services, you’ll learn about different types of events, uncover marketing tips, and discover how restaurant private events can boost business. Whether you’re new to event planning or looking for opportunities to expand your restaurant’s services, you’ll find tips, tricks, and helpful tools below.
How to boost business with restaurant private events
Restaurants commonly host public events to generate excitement and drive business. They organize trivia nights, themed dinners, and other public events to keep things interesting and attract new customers. While public events are part of a well-rounded marketing strategy, hosting private events provides unique benefits to restaurants and other venues.
What are private events?
Private events are events that are not open to members of the public. They typically occur at a particular place at a specified time, with most event planning occurring behind the scenes. Depending on the size and setup of the gathering, private events may take place at hotels, event centers, historical buildings, clubs, lounges, and of course, restaurants.
Unlike public events, private event guests confirm their attendance in advance. To attend exclusive affairs, like a gala or movie premiere, guests may have to register or purchase tickets beforehand. Attendance at more casual gatherings, including private parties and luncheons, may simply require an RSVP.
What types of private events do restaurants host?
The types of private events a restaurant can host vary based on many factors, including the size of the establishment, available event space, and the number of employees available to staff an event. In general, however, restaurants are excellent venues for a broad spectrum of private events—small and large, social and corporate, charity and for-profit. With food and drink service built right in, restaurants can accommodate a variety of private events, including:
- Birthday parties
- Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
- Anniversaries
- Family reunions
- Luncheons
- Retirement celebrations
- Engagement parties
- Rehearsal dinners
- Receptions
- Holiday parties
- Intimate dinners
- Screeners and premiers
- Corporate parties
- Fundraisers
- Business meetings
- Milestone celebrations
- Client appreciation events
- Team-building events
- Networking events
When booking private events, restaurants may allow clients to reserve the whole venue, an entire floor, or a particular part of the restaurant, like a banquet hall or bar area. It is common for well-managed restaurants to host parties and smaller private events simultaneously during regular business hours. While customers come in and enjoy business as usual, groups can gather in reserved areas, like the patio, bar, or banquet room.
Private event service styles also vary from venue to venue. Restaurants may offer fine dining table service, semi-formal buffets, specialized menus, simple cocktail service, or give clients multiple options to choose from. They may offer per-person pricing determined by the event menu or provide one large package price with the opportunity to build the menu yourself.
Why should restaurants host private events?
Offering high-quality event space and top-tier private service can help businesses of all sizes widen their audience reach, attract more customers, and increase revenue potential. Hosting private events helps keep your restaurant relevant and can provide additional financial support for a business during the slow season or an economic downturn. By adding private events to their list of services, restaurants can begin capturing event revenue they previously missed out on.
Event and party planners are often willing to pay more for the exclusivity and attentive service that private events provide. Furthermore, creating appealing event packages at attractive prices can help restaurants boost year-round profits and drive much-needed revenue to the venue during need dates—or the dates when you need more business.
How can restaurants prepare to start hosting private events?
Whether you operate a small mom-and-pop restaurant or manage a recognizable corporate franchise, restaurants of all shapes and styles can benefit from hosting private events. If you’re moving into the private event business for the first time, set your restaurant up for success by learning everything you can about your space, customers, and the potential profitability of private events.
1. Know your space
Figure out what makes your restaurant unique and sets it apart from competing eateries in the area. Imagine you were a party planner searching for the perfect location for a private event. What would you want? What would make a venue stand out to you?
Identify what your restaurant does best, and determine how what you already have in place could translate to private events. For example, if you already host live music, you’re probably equipped with a stage, bar, and AV equipment. How could you use those resources in private event service?
2. Know your customers
Which demographics are in your primary customer base? Which clientele will you target for private restaurant events? What do your customers want from an event venue? What do planners want from your venue? Are they seeking flexible, affordable, casual private event space or high-quality, five-star private party service?
3. Assess private event profitability
Analyze past restaurant business to determine the restaurant’s average income during different parts of the year. Track weekday and weekend business during peak demand times, slower seasons, and the off-season. If you were to close a portion of the restaurant to host a private event, how much would it offset restaurant profits? How much would you need to recoup from the event to break even? How much to make a profit?
In addition to customer profits, restaurateurs should create a cost analysis to determine the projected costs of hosting private events. Factor food, alcohol, floor, and production costs into your calculation. Use this information to establish minimum event fees for various times of the day, week, and year.
Private event management tips for restaurants
When it comes to managing private events, the devil is in the details. To help your restaurant find success in private events, we’ve prepared a list of tips you can use to improve venue marketing efforts, booking policies, event preparation procedures, hosting skills, and more.
Promoting private events
Whether offering private event services for the first time or rebranding your restaurant services, you must get the word out. Follow these tips to improve your restaurant marketing strategy and attract more private event clientele.
- Before investing in new marketing resources, advertise private event services across existing advertising channels. Update your website and restaurant listings to reflect packages, prices, services, and special offers. Send an email blast to share the exciting news with customers already on your mailing list.
- If you don’t already have them, create social media pages for your restaurant. Showcase high-quality photos of your facilities and food to attract private event planners. Create compelling and visually captivating marketing campaigns with engaging content, including images, videos, or even a virtual tour of your property.
- Find and claim your Google My Business listing. Leverage your Google Business account to boost event performance. Ensure that all restaurant details are accurate and up-to-date, and turn on geo-location services to help nearby customers find your restaurant. When geo-location services are turned on, your restaurant will appear higher in search results for phrases like “restaurants near me” or “private event locations nearby.” Ranking higher in location-based search results can help boost local business.
- Show restaurant event spaces in action. Instead of photographing an empty restaurant and showcasing table settings, capture photos of visitors eating, drinking, and enjoying your venue. Help future event-goers visualize what their event will be like in your restaurant by allowing them to see other guests enjoying the space.
- Create compelling special offers, promotions, and discounts to fill need dates, attract repeat customers, and build guest loyalty. Offer a 10-15% discount during need dates, or create a package that includes drinks, dinner, and entertainment.
Private event booking tips
The inquiry and booking stages of the event planning process set the tone for everything that comes after. Streamline the reservation process and make contracting a breeze with these booking best practices.
- Determine which days your restaurant will host private events. Will you take bookings during the week, or only on the weekends? Do you have multiple event rooms that allow you to host more than one event simultaneously? Establish booking policies, procedures, and private event best practices to ensure a smooth and streamlined booking process.
- Early in the booking process, relay all private event requirements, such as minimum guest count, gratuity fees, setup, and teardown policies. Ensure you and the event planner are on the same page to prevent confusion or issues later.
- In addition to communicating important information to clients and protecting your business, using event contracts helps legitimize your restaurant as a special event venue. Create a comprehensive and easy-to-read contract that establishes all booking, deposit, cancellation, and minimum requirement policies. Review event contracts and banquet event orders with clients in great detail, so there are no surprises.
- Establish the channel and means you will use to communicate with clients from the beginning. Instead of bouncing back and forth between phone calls, texts, and emails, establish a primary communication channel right away. Assess which communication method is best for each event based on the client’s preferences and the complexity of the event setup.
Looking for more ways to market your restaurant to event planners?
Private event planning tips
Managing day-to-day restaurant operations can get hectic, especially when business is bustling. Adding event management to your to-do list without proper planning and preparation can quickly overwhelm restaurateurs and their staff. Help your team better prepare for the expansion into private events by optimizing the planning process.
- Clear communication is vital to every part of the event planning process. This includes communication between the event manager and the booking contact, the restaurant manager and staff, and with event guests. Create open communication channels to help ensure the success of private restaurant events.
- Create a planning checklist for private events to help staff stay on track and ensure everything gets done before the big day.
- Professional event planners know that all of the preparation in the world won’t stop last-minute changes from occurring. Create a day-of plan for private events to help mitigate hiccups. Schedule staff accordingly, double-check your inventory, and ensure a restaurant representative is always available to assist clients and guests.
- Complete a walk-through before the event to catch unforeseen issues. This will give you time to see anything that’s missing or out of place and devise a solution.
- Run through the event schedule with staff beforehand to help your team provide seamless service during the event. Go over the timeline, order of events, and individual responsibilities.
Hosting tips for restaurant private events
In addition to acting as the venue contact and coordinator for private events, a restaurant team member typically serves as an onsite contact during the event. They serve as the restaurant host, showing guests where to go, managing attendee requests, and answering questions. Follow these tips to become the hostess with the mostest and keep clients coming back.
- Do your best to accommodate all guest requests within reason. Ensure expectations are clear beforehand, so guests and party planners know how to reach team members if they need assistance during the event.
- Go above and beyond with special surprises. Exceed client expectations by providing unexpected delights, but tread lightly, as unwelcome surprises could ruin a client’s experience. Offer a special dish prepared specially by the chef or have the service staff dress to match the event’s theme.
- Offer deluxe services for private events, such as valet parking, coat check, or restroom attendee services.
- Be available but not intrusive. If the client or their guests need you, they should be able to get your attention quickly, but a professional restaurant host does not intrude. Greet clients and check in at the beginning of the event, run through any last-minute details, and ask if there’s anything else you can do before the event gets underway. If not, let the client know where they can find you or other staff members for assistance.
How should restaurants follow up after private events?
For event venues, work doesn’t end when an event does. Post-event follow-up is an integral part of event management, even for restaurants. Reviewing an event’s success and the venue’s performance allows restaurant managers to identify future opportunities for improvement. After a private event ends, you should—
Meet with your team
Host an event debrief with your team after every private event. Discuss what worked, what didn’t work, and what the restaurant could do better in the future. Check in with front and back of house managers about their event experience to ensure all parts of the restaurant are running smoothly.
Reach out to clients
Keep in touch with clients after an event wraps up. Send a post-event feedback survey or follow-up email, and ask clients to share their thoughts. Did the event meet their expectations? Were they satisfied with the service they received? Were there any pleasant surprises? Were there any issues? What services or packages would they like to see your restaurant offer in the future?
Track private event performance
Measure progress and track all revenue related to private events. Track event history in Cvent’s Event Diagramming software to see the number of leads you receive, the bookings made, how many repeat clients you have, your expenses, and the revenue the restaurant gets from each event. Use this information to gauge the profitability of private events, set package pricing, and establish annual event goals.
Still have questions about restaurant private events?
If you still have questions about marketing or hosting private restaurant events, keep reading for more information.
1. How can restaurants boost private event referrals?
Host an open house. Invite business owners, residents, and other community members to attend and check out your venue. Serve delicious small bites that tease your best dishes, and showcase various event setups in different restaurant areas. Encourage local event professionals, like entertainers and party planners, to stop by and see your space. Work hard to build strong relationships with vendors and event planners in your community, as industry partners can be one of the most lucrative sources of referral business.
2. How much does it cost to book a private restaurant event?
Restaurant private event rental and packages range in price depending on the venue, setup, service, food, and equipment provided. Renting private restaurant space may cost anywhere from $25 to $1,000 an hour, with most private event rental rates falling between $100-$500 an hour. In addition to venue rental, the menu and attendee count can significantly impact private event pricing. On average, buffet-style catering costs between $25 to $50 per person, while custom food service can cost as much as $120 per person or more.
3. Should restaurants use email for private event communication?
Email communication is a terrific way to keep track of important event information and updates, but complicated details are often best discussed over the phone or in person. Direct contact with the client is most helpful early in planning, particularly during the initial booking and contracting phases. After ironing out all major event details, feel free to primarily use email or texting, as long as the client is comfortable.
Put your knowledge of restaurant private events to good use!
Now that you understand how restaurants can benefit from hosting private events, you can decide which events are right for your business. Identify opportunities for your restaurant to benefit from expanding into the events industry, and work with the management team to bring your dream to life. Figure out what makes your location extra special, and build your restaurant’s private event messaging around it.
Promoting private restaurant events is just one way your business can attract new customers. Up next, we’re reviewing various restaurant marketing ideas that can maximize your business. Whether you’re looking for public promotional opportunities, review response advice, or other reliable marketing techniques, you’ll find advertising strategies to suit your service and style in our list of 28 restaurant marketing techniques.
