How to Host an Event at a Bar and Boost Sales

To host an event at a bar, you must clearly define your goals, pick a theme and activities, have a budget in mind, create a promotional strategy, and allow table reservations. On the day, you need to rely on technology, schedule enough staff, and create opportunities for Instagram-worthy photographs.

In this article, you will find a detailed guide on how to host an event at a bar with clear steps that ensure that the occasion serves to increase both your reputation and profit.

Types of events you can organize at your bar

Hosting bar events is a great way to get the word out about your business, grow your reputation, attract new customers, and increase revenue. Here are some entertainment ideas for bars you can try:

• Live music night where you invite local bands to showcase their talents and entertain your clients;
• Quiz nights that can test general information knowledge or can focus on a single theme like music or movies;
• Bar theme night ideas, such as the 80s, Fight Club, or Harry Potter, where you have music, food, and drinks from that movie or time period;
• Sports viewing parties where customers can watch popular sports on the TV;
• Open mic night for people who want to show their talent, be it music, poetry, or stand-up.

Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door

How to host an event at a bar in 10 easy steps

Organizing events will get people talking about your bar and give you access to a new audience you can turn into regular clients. Follow this guide if you want the results to be worth the effort and investment:

1. Define your event’s goal

Having a clear goal for the event will make it easier for you to pick the theme and activities. Here are a couple of examples to choose from:

• Attract more sports fans: if you want to increase your sales by catering to clients who prefer to watch sports when drinking, consider having dedicated events for big games;
• Reach a new audience: for example, you can invite a popular band from the area to play at your bar, and you will be able to convince their fans to become regulars;
• Grow your reputation: you can teach a cocktail-making class and take pictures that you later use to promote your business online:
• Increase your sales: you can have an 80s dancing night with discounts for large orders to encourage people to spend more.

2. Plan the theme and activities

One of the most important steps in this guide on how to host an event at a bar is picking the theme because it will act as the guideline for the whole event. On top of it, you should also organize some activities to make the time at your bar more entertaining.

Let’s see an example. If you choose the theme 90s night, you could have the following fun bar activities:

• Photo corner with 90s props;
• Hiring a tattoo artist to apply temporary tattoos on people;
• Allowing customers to request songs from the DJ throughout the night.

3. Settle on a budget

How to host an event at a bar that brings in money? Settle on a budget and stick to it! You must keep the costs as low as possible, so you end up making a big profit at the end of the night. Here are some often-ignored costs that go into your event budget:

• Additional staff: on top of the extra hours for the employees, you may also hire MCs, DJs, or other people who you have to budget for;
• Activities: for example, renting a photo corner or hiring a live band;
• Extra inventory: you will have to buy more ingredients to account for the bigger number of people visiting your bar;
• Security: keep your bar and your patrons protected by hiring security to work for the night.

4. Develop a promotional strategy

You may put a lot of effort into organizing an event at your bar, but how will people know about it? You must let them know! Here is what you must include in your promotional strategy for bar events:

• Promote it on your website: if you use the website builder from GloriaFood, you can customize the banner to announce your upcoming event in a visible spot;

• Tease it on social media: share the theme, activities, and special drinks that people will be able to enjoy if they attend the event;
• Organize contests: for example, like and share this post for a chance to win drinks amounting to $100 for our event;
• Consider paid ads: target the desired audience with paid ads on social media or Google. Include a smart table reservation link that you can get from the GloriaFood admin to allow people to book a table with just one click.

5. Enable table reservations

Hosting events at your bar will have your space full very fast, but how will you be managing your tables? While some people will be ok with standing for the duration of the event, others prefer the comfort of sitting at a table.

If you want to prevent fights over tables, you must enable table reservations. You can do so easily by adding the free table reservations system from GloriaFood to your website. People will be able to book a table in just a few clicks, no human interaction needed.

Furthermore, if you want to ensure all tables are full and you reduce the number of no-shows, you can start charging reservation deposits. If people pay for their spot, they are less likely to forget about the event.

What’s more, if you want to create drink combos for the event, you can also enable customers to pre-order them in advance and pay for them when they book a table.

6. Use technology to speed up service during the event

If you want to know how to host an event at a bar, the truth is that you must prioritize quality of service. No matter how fun the activities are, if clients have to wait very long for their orders, they may not enjoy their experience.

Therefore, if you want to improve the speed of service, you must enlist the help of technology. Start with a POS system that will enable employees to accept orders and payments in seconds. The best ones will have color-coded menus that help staff immediately identify menu items.

Moreover, if you choose the GloriaFood POS system, you will also be able to accept multiple payment methods like cash, credit cards, and smartphones. On top of this, it has an offline mode that guarantees you will be able to keep working like normal even if the internet goes down.

To further increase the speed of service, especially when the bar is crowded, you can also enable on-premises ordering via QR code. Clients will be able to scan the QR code, browse the menu, add items to cart, and pay for them, all just using their phones.

The setup process is simple and FREE when you are using GloriaFood. With QR code ordering, your employees will be able to serve more people and be more attentive during events.

7. Schedule more employees

When hosting events at your bar, you must be aware that you will have more clients than usual. Keeping the same number of employees as on a regular Tuesday on the clock will not work. They will end up swamped and frustrated because they can’t serve all customers in a timely manner.

Look over your reservations and also consider the people who will show up without bookings to schedule an appropriate number of employees. This way, there is enough staff to create a pleasant and unforgettable experience at your events.

8. Run promotions during the event

Promotions are a great way to get people to attend your event. They can also serve as an incentive to increase average order value. Here are a few promotion ideas you can add to your menu during the event:

• 5% off all Lager beers;

• 10% off on all orders over $200;

• Free fries for orders over $100;

The good news is that you can add any of the offers above and more to your menu in just a couple of seconds. You just have to use the Promotions module from GloriaFood:

9. Create opportunities for photographs

Are you wondering how to host an event at a bar that will become viral on social media? You must give people a reason and an opportunity to take great photographs that they will then share with their followers.

Here are some ideas that will surely lead to user-generated content:

• Photo corner: choose a visible space at your bar that does not affect the flow of traffic and decorate it according to the theme of the event. Don’t forget to also add good lighting and invite people to take photographs;
• Light installations: you can use light to create words and design elements that will catch your clients’ eyes;
• Drink pouring shows: have your bartenders make a show of pouring drinks at your event with bottle flipping and other tricks;

• Fun-looking drinks and glasses: you can decorate your drinks or buy cups with fun designs that would look great in photos;
• Hire a photographer: to take pictures of the atmosphere and guests. You can then share them on social media as promotional materials for future events.

10. Ask for feedback after the event

This guide on how to host an event at a bar doesn’t stop once the night ends. To find out if your event was a success, you must do two things:

• Look over your data: you can check the Reports module of your POS to see how much you sold during the event. Extract the money you invested in the organization to calculate the profit;
• Ask for feedback: if you want to keep the answers private, go on your Instagram stories and ask followers if they enjoyed your event. You can also ask for improvement ideas that you can implement in the future to make your bar even more fun.

Final words

Now that you know the main steps of how to host an event at a bar, you are ready to tackle this task. Remember to rely on technology, prioritize quality and speediness of service, and take lots of photographs to share with the world.