Glases on a table in front of with red light strands decorated windows of the restaurant Rouge Boeuf in the city of Montréal, Canada.
#Leisure    06/06/2019

Festive lighting yields results for restaurants

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If you own a restaurant, bar or guesthouse, a busy holiday season is a gift. An endless stream of visitors who actively want to have a good time in your establishment, and who want to eat, drink and make merry: what more could you want?

The challenge is that you’re not the only restaurant or bar around. You have competition and you need do something that will make you stand out from the crowd. You can offer winter drinks – but that’s what your competition is doing. You can run a giveaway – but that’s not that unusual, either. You could even hire a band and offer live entertainment – but that needs space and costs money.

You need to do something different AND you need to know that it will yield results.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, investing in festive lighting is the answer to your troubles.

“20% increase in revenue over the holidays thanks to Christmas lights”

Believe it or not, investing in festive lighting has measurable results.

That’s what Henrik Petersen, the owner of Rådhuskroen in Ringsted, Denmark, experienced for himself. Peterson had long wanted to add atmosphere to his inn over the festive season with lighting, when he tried a DIY approach – buying and installing lights himself – he was always disappointed. It was time-intensive, costly and the end results never met his expectations.

He was pretty sceptical when MK Illumination Denmark’s MD, René Hansen, suggested giving festive lighting a try, but he went ahead and he was astonished by the results.

Petersen said, “Each year, as the Christmas season comes to an end, I am convinced that we can’t sell more than we have the year before. But this year, the revenue of the inn was up by 20% in the 6 weeks when the Christmas lights were in place.”

There is obviously more to the story – Petersen turned the switch-on into an event and marketed it (you can read the full story here), but a 20% increase is a fantastic result.

No two restaurants use festive lighting in the same way

There isn’t one solution that fits all restaurants, which is just as well because different restaurants have different needs.

Montreal’s Rouge Boeuf Restaurant wanted to create a festive atmosphere that tied in with their brand. The result was a glorious red-tinged glow.

New York’s Patina Restaurant preferred to use subtle greenery filled with light points to create a traditional festive mood.

In Odessa in Ukraine, the restaurants Figaro and Kompot focused on exterior lighting that made them immediately visible to potential guests—and that could be used all year round as a lighting feature, too.

Are you ready to use festive lighting to attract guests, create mood and boost turnover?

We’d love to explore the possibilities with you. Get in touch with one of country local offices to arrange a meeting and let us use our global experience and local knowledge to help you create a festive experience that delivers.

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