Few hotels can survive without multi-tasking these days. Never mind good service and comfort – in a very competitive market, the hotel has to look good just to get people through the door, and it has to look good to a variety of people. It has to attract the weekend visitor wanting a peaceful getaway. It has to look dynamic for the conference delegate. It has to look beautiful for the wedding guest, and it has to do all this in the same limited area using, in some cases, the same rooms. Fortunately not at the same time, but timing can be tight between events! So what’s out there, and what do you need to attract and keep a bigger slice of the options?
Overlooked Hotel Opportunities
Can your hotel host conventions, conferences, weddings and big social gatherings? Can you do it without having to carry a huge stock of purpose-specific equipment, a storage nightmare in itself? At least one big function room, a couple of break-away or smaller function rooms, and you have the set up for multi-tasking success. There are ways of simplifying and improving your service. The more efficient you are, the more successful your multi-tasking hotel will be. We’ve come up with 5 uses of portable bars for hotels that can help you get the most value possible out of the equipment.
Conventions
The biggest challenge with a multi-product, multi-stand convention is SPACE – assigning space to convention booths and the expected visitors. Especially when that space has to be flexible during the agenda. You want bars sturdy enough to look secure and even be bumped by the crowd without sliding away, but mobile enough to shift quickly, right?
Mobility is key when making the most of a fixed space, especially one that may need to change shape. For example, you might need to shut off a section of the main function room until the arrival of a special guest, then move smoothly back in seconds to open up the relevant area. Fumble, and you risk future business with every guest at the convention. If you get it right, that’s a lot more potential bookings. No pressure!
In House bar
Here’s another area that can be challenged, the bar area. Hotel bars that are perfectly designed for a room under normal circumstances, won’t always cope in a crowd. Your lone guest doesn’t want to sit in a bar that looks ready to cope with dozens of people.
But when the crowd comes they certainly don’t want a bar that looks like it can only handle a handful of people. One answer is to have portable bars for hotels standing by, ready to roll out, and to roll away again. You maximize sales at peak times, yet have your handsome room looking at its best when traffic is low.
Weddings
The hotel wedding co-ordinator has the challenge of presenting an area beautiful enough to attract the booking, yet efficient enough to cope with guest demands. It is efficient to have service points close at hand, but efficiency isn’t always beautiful. Waiter service is an answer, but don’t make your waiters walk for miles. Portable bars for hotels are a useful option.
Champagne on arrival? Extra portable bar. Guests milling around waiting while the photos are being taken? Throw in a portable bar. When you need it, it’s there, when you don’t, it is quietly removed. In fact the more beautiful the venue, the more useful the portable bar.
Modular bar units are a good answer to some big questions, and fold-away rolling units don’t give you storage headaches.
Conferences
Unless you have a dedicated conference center, your function rooms have to multi-task. Yesterday’s wedding has to become today’s business conference center.
Conferences, with their short refreshment breaks and impatient delegates, are challenging. The delegate who has waited ten minutes for something to drink, in a ten minute break time, is an unhappy delegate, and could also be the one organizing the next conference.
With a two minute set-up time and a feature-rich design, portable bars for hotels are there when you need them. Offer beer, wine, bottled water and sodas along with teas and coffees.
At the end of the day, you can convert function rooms into conference-only bars, a useful extra to offer the client as part of the hotel’s conference package.
Corporate parties
Corporate clients are key accounts. You’ve offered them the neutral convenience of conventions, and the efficiency of your conference packages. Corporate hospitality is another service. Whether your corporate clients are thanking their staff for extra effort, or introducing new clients to the team, their corporate identity must be there in the middle of the festivities. Corporate branding is key and easily added to your portable bars.
What does a portable bar do for your hotel?
Portable bars are flexible – the convenience of a purpose-built bar area, plus the advantages of a mobile unit. There when you need them and sliding quietly away when you don’t. They are dividers and wings and passageways at conventions. They are champagne fountains and cocktail points at weddings. They are serving points and private bars at conferences. They help establish corporate identity at parties where, let’s be honest, the bar is the center of attraction!
They need relatively little storage space when they’re not in use. They come out of storage and convert for use in minutes. There’s the convenience of being able to pre-stock them before you move them into an occupied room – no worrying about trying to set up quietly. Our portable bars for hotels come with features you wouldn’t usually expect on a fold-away unit – cutting boards, cup hooks, deep storage, and LED lighting.
