Programme overview
Introduction:
Restaurant revenue management is often left to instinct: empty seats at lunch, queues at dinner, two-tops seating single diners, discount promotions nobody measures and delivery orders that lose money after aggregator commission. Owners see sales rising while profit and cash stay flat. This Core Concept course gives restaurant owners, F&B managers and multi-outlet controllers the seat-hour, pricing, channel and P&L methods to lift revenue per available seat hour and protect margin, and ends with a Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan built on a case restaurant.
Course Objectives:
- Measure RevPASH, seat occupancy and average check by daypart to locate where seat-hours are lost
- Redesign table mix, turn-time targets and reservation rules to raise covers without longer queues
- Forecast covers by day and daypart and set demand-based and daypart prices with a promotion scorecard
- Calculate contribution per order for dine-in, takeaway, own delivery and aggregator channels and set channel rules
- Read a restaurant P&L, control prime cost and schedule labour hours to the covers forecast
- Build break-even, cash flow and multi-outlet dashboards that feed a Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan
Target Audience:
- Owners and operating partners accountable for the sales, profit and cash of one or more restaurants
- Managers who run restaurant, cafe and hotel dining outlets and answer for covers and average check
- Finance controllers who consolidate results and budgets across several outlets or brands
- Floor, reservations and guest service leads who set seating plans, booking slots and turn times
- Managers who own delivery, takeaway and aggregator channel performance
Course Outline:
Day 1: Restaurant Revenue Drivers and the Seat-Hour Baseline
- Restaurant Revenue Equation: Covers, Average Check, Seat-Hours and Dayparts
- RevPASH Calculation from POS Covers and Opening Hours
- Seat Occupancy and Table Occupancy Heat Map by Hour
- Revenue Management Levers for Restaurants: Duration Control and Price
- Current-State Revenue Baseline from Twelve Weeks of Sales Data
Day 2: Capacity, Table Mix, Turn Times and Reservations Strategy
- Table Mix Optimisation: Party-Size Distribution Versus Two-Top and Four-Top Layout
- Turn-Time Measurement: Service Stage Timing from Seating to Payment
- Reservation Slot Design, Booking Intervals and Walk-In Allocation Rules
- No-Show, Deposit and Late-Cancellation Policy Options
- Waitlist and Queue Management Tools for Peak Dayparts
Day 3: Covers Forecasting, Daypart Pricing and Promotions
- Covers Forecast Model: Day-of-Week, Seasonality and Event Adjustments
- Daypart Pricing: Early-Evening, Set-Lunch and Off-Peak Offers
- Demand-Based Price Fences for Restaurants: Timing, Party Size and Booking Channel
- Promotion Scorecard: Incremental Covers, Discount Cost and Cannibalised Sales
- Menu Mix Contribution Check to Guide Upselling and Bundles
Day 4: Channel Profitability, Restaurant P&L, Prime Cost and Cash
- Delivery and Aggregator Economics: Commission, Packaging and Contribution per Order
- Restaurant P&L Structure: Sales Mix, Cost of Sales, Payroll and Occupancy Costs
- Prime Cost Control and Labour Scheduling to Forecast Covers
- Break-Even Covers and Break-Even Sales per Outlet
- Thirteen-Week Cash Flow Forecast for Restaurant Operators
Day 5: Multi-Outlet Dashboards and the Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan
- Multi-Outlet Benchmarking Pack: RevPASH, Prime Cost and Sales per Labour Hour
- Weekly Restaurant Performance Dashboard Design for Owners and Controllers
- Case Restaurant Data Pack: Diagnosis of Lost Seat-Hours and Margin Leaks
- Revenue and P&L Model Build with Scenario Testing for the Case Restaurant
- Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan Presentation and Peer Challenge
Skills You Will Gain:
- RevPASH Analysis
- Table Mix Planning
- Covers Forecasting
- Daypart Pricing
- Delivery Channel Costing
- Prime Cost Control
- Break-Even Analysis
- Restaurant Cash Flow Forecasting
Why Attend This Course:
- Leave with a Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan and a working revenue model tested on a case restaurant
- Fill quiet dayparts and speed peak turns with seating, booking and pricing rules that staff can apply on shift
- Know which delivery orders, promotions and outlets make money and which only add sales
- Compare restaurant revenue practice with owners, managers and controllers from hotel dining, chains and independent venues
Conclusion:
A restaurant earns its profit seat-hour by seat-hour. The course starts from the revenue equation and a RevPASH baseline, moves through table mix, turn times and reservation rules, then covers forecasting, daypart pricing and promotion testing, before channel economics, the restaurant P&L, prime cost, break-even and cash flow. The final day brings these together in multi-outlet dashboards and a Restaurant Revenue and P&L Improvement Plan for a case restaurant that participants can repeat on their own venues.