We think that the hospitality industry is going to flourish once lockdown ends. Here’s why:
Let’s face it, these last twelve months probably haven’t been your best. The hospitality industry has been decimated by a combination of terrible luck and government incompetence, and, in all likelihood, you’ll have been relying on past savings to keep you afloat.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a number of reasons to be positive regarding your future, and we thought it’s only fair that we remind you of these — as well as the amazing job you’re doing — as we head into the brighter days of Spring 2021.
You’re still here
If you’re reading this blog as a hospitality operator, you’ve clearly been doing something — or most things — right.
That’s because, sadly, thousands of hospitality businesses have fallen by the wayside since March 2020 through no fault of their own. A combination of enforced lockdowns, nonsensical tiering rules, and reduced customer confidence have seen previously viable business models tragically close their doors for good.
That means that, if you’re still trading, your operation is both enviably popular and incredibly well run.
Yes, it might be easy to lament the damage the last year has had on your finances, or rue the fact you’ve had to let staff go. But, ultimately, if it wasn’t for all your good work prior to and during the pandemic, your business wouldn’t have survived.
This might not feel like a victory, but in reality it is the biggest one of them all.
Hospitality Boom
This last year has been a horrid one for almost everyone.
People young and old have been clamped inside the house and are now desperate to make up for all the experiences that they’ve missed. We’ve all been craving the things we used to enjoy on a weekly basis — whether that be a pint poured in front of us, or a pizza fresh out of the oven.
Not only that, but this summer is going to be one of trying new things, getting together with friends, and spending the money we’ve saved indoors!
That’s why we are fully confident that the safe introduction of a vaccine will see people hit restaurants, pubs, and bars en-masse like never before.
Expect a golden summer to propel your revenue beyond pre-Covid expectations, and, fingers crossed, we might get some more help from Rishi…
Government support
We’re confident that the government will look to support hospitality however they can once they give you the green light to re-open.
If August 2020’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ is anything to go by, we’re in luck. The scheme halved the cost of over 64 million meals as part of a concerted effort to support hospitality businesses and recover from the first national lockdown.
We don’t want to speculate too much, or get your hopes up too high — the government has left hospitality wanting plenty of times before — but we’re hopeful that they’ll be looking to make up for damage to hospitality inflicted by state ordered lockdowns.
Community Spirit
One overriding positive amongst the chaos has been the way the hospitality industry has come together to face the challenges the last year has thrown up.
We’re wowed everyday by the levels of online interaction across the sector, and have witnessed first hand the communal nature of the industry.
Just look at the way the industry came together to demand better representation in government, pushing a petition calling for a Minister for Hospitality and #SeatAtTheTable all the way to Westminster.
Similarly, our #ShareARestaurant campaign showcased just how desperate the wider community are to support their favourite hospitality businesses.
People won’t forget the way hospitality has remembered to fight for what’s right despite their own struggles during this pandemic — just see the role played by restaurants in providing free school meals, or pubs and breweries offering their sites to the government as vaccination centres.
This culture of goodwill and sense of togetherness means that you aren’t anywhere near as alone as you probably feel right now. The industry — and the entire country — has your back.
A new way of staffing
Were you staffing as efficiently as you could have been before lockdown? We doubt it. Being correctly staffed means having the right number of people working at every hour of the day, but we’re willing to bet you had too few hands available when things were busy at mealtime peaks, and too many passengers when trade was quiet in lulls.
That’s because staffing efficiently has traditionally been impossible to, as the hours your staff understandably want to work unfortunately don’t match up with the hours you are busiest.
That’s where Stint comes in. We’re here to make running your business a significant bit easier by tweaking just a couple of things about the way you staff.
We’ve split shifts into hours, allowing businesses to staff as efficiently as physically possible for every different phase of the day. This means that you can have the right number of staff at peak, without having too many unnecessary staff when things are quiet; maximising customer service, whilst keeping your cost base low.
How? We’ve found a group of people — university students — who don’t hate, but actually WANT to work in short bursts. Bonus: they’re pretty smart too.
We’d understand if you were skeptical right now, but just look at the data coming out of partners we’ve worked with. For example, Zebrano Bar in London integrated with Stint and saw their annualised operating profit increase by 30%.
But — and this really is the best bit — if you still don’t believe us, we’re willing to show you FOR FREE. We’re offering any business four weeks worth of free staffing (in the form of Stints) so they can trial our product.
Why? It has been painful to watch so many of the businesses we love struggle over the last year, so we want to help as immediately as we can. We reckon we can convince you that our model will make a massive difference to your P&L in the long-run, but, if we can’t, free staffing for a month won’t hurt!
Hospitality had our back, so now we have yours!
