Ask most hospitality operators where they could save money and they'll probably have an answer before you've finished the question.
The harder part heading into 2027 is working out what you can trim without the customer noticing. Taking someone off a shift saves money right up until customers are waiting longer at the bar and that second round never happens.
One thing I see operators underestimate is how quickly everyday admin can eat into the week. A few minutes fixing something here, another half-hour pulling numbers together there, and suddenly you've got a venue manager spending a decent part of their week behind a laptop.
Bridge Road Brewers was spending 38 hours a month on manual price updates, invoice entry and recipe costing. Once its systems were connected, those hours dropped away. That's where I'd look before cutting a shift. A good venue manager is far more valuable running service than cleaning up paperwork.
Make it easier to order another beer
It’s not about whacking a QR code on every table. That won’t suit every venue. The question is how easy you’re making it for someone to order that next drink.
If you're halfway through lunch with mates, getting up and joining a queue at the bar can be enough to kill the second round. Across GoTab's Australian venues, the average QR check is around $10 higher than POS, or roughly 30% more.
We've seen close to 10,000 QR orders at Pirate Life within just 90 days, where the average transaction is around 24.5% higher than POS. Sometimes it really is as simple as giving someone an easier way to order when they want one.
The busiest item isn't always the one paying the bills
Once you put the dollars against what people are ordering, you can get a pretty different read on what's happening in the venue.
Across the Australian venues we've analysed, drinks make up about 72% of items ordered, while food accounts for around 40% of revenue. The average food item is $19.08 compared with $10.70 for a drink after discounts.
That tells me there's value in looking beyond what's moving most often. If drinks are flying but food orders aren't keeping pace, I'd want to understand whether we're making it easy enough for customers to add food to an existing order. Sometimes the opportunity isn't changing the menu, but making sure people can find and order from it when they're ready for something else.
I'd be wary of relying on the weekly average too. Friday night and Sunday afternoon can be two very different venues when you look at how people order, and that's where the useful detail tends to be.
Your quiet hours deserve a look too
You're already paying for the space and you've probably got a team there, so it's worth knowing whether those quieter periods are earning their keep.
That doesn't automatically mean throwing on a happy hour. You might find there's an opportunity to give people a reason to stay a little longer, or the numbers might tell you to run that part of the day more tightly. Either answer is useful when you're trying to get more out of what you're already paying for.
Have a look at the boring stuff
Nobody gets into hospitality because they're passionate about reconciliation. The trouble is, plenty of managers still end up doing more of it than they should.
One exercise I like is following an order through the venue, from the customer placing it to wherever it eventually lands. The awkward bits tend to show themselves pretty quickly, especially when someone has to step in and move information between systems.
That's what I'd be questioning. If you're paying for technology that's supposed to make the venue easier to run and your manager is still cleaning up after it on Saturday morning, something isn't doing its job.
Don't save $100 and lose $200
Labour is expensive, so of course the roster gets a look when operators need to save money. I'd like to know what's eating up the team's time before I start cutting hours.
Spend a week paying attention to how the venue actually runs and have a proper chat with your manager about where the time goes. There's usually something that's been annoying everyone for years but has somehow become part of the routine. That's where I'd go looking for savings first, before cutting something the customer can actually feel.
Heading into 2027, running leaner is about getting more from what you already have. Bridge Road Brewers found 38 hours a month tied up in admin, while QR orders across our Australian venues average around $10 more than POS. Look at where the hours are going, understand what’s driving revenue and make it easier for customers to spend before cutting another shift.