Boosting income for pubs, bars and restaurants: an ideas playbook
As the cost of living crunch continues, pub and bargoers are becoming more discerning about how and where they spend their disposable income. Competition for customers has never been greater on the High Street. Many venues have implemented cost-saving measures and some have restricted opening hours to stay profitable by only opening during peak hours.
This article is a structured playbook for venue operators looking to add revenue without redoing the menu or the layout. It compares the main options on effort vs payback, then deep-dives the one we think wins most often — hosting your own speed dating events — before summarising the rest.
How to evaluate any new revenue idea#
Before you commit to anything, score each idea on four dimensions:
- Setup effort — how long until it’s ready to run?
- Ongoing effort — what’s the weekly time cost once it’s live?
- Revenue per execution — what does one event / one rental / one sale actually bring in?
- Fit with current customers — does it bring in new spend, or just shift existing spend?
That last one is the one operators most often forget. A loyalty card scheme that “lifts repeat visits” by discounting drinks your regulars were already going to buy isn’t extra revenue — it’s a discount.
The shortlist at a glance#
| Idea | Setup effort | Ongoing effort | Revenue per execution | Brings new spend? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed dating night | Medium | Medium | High (~£600 tickets + bar) | Yes |
| Quiz / karaoke / live music | Low–Medium | Medium | Medium (bar-driven) | Mostly |
| Themed nights (Taco Tuesday) | Low | Low | Low–Medium | Partly |
| Bottomless brunch | Medium | Medium | High | Yes |
| Catering / outside events | High | High | Variable, can be high | Yes |
| Space rental | Low | Low | Medium–High per booking | Yes |
| Branded merchandise | Low | Low | Low | Marginal |
| Gift cards & loyalty | Low | Low | Cash-flow uplift | Marginal |
| Local-business partnerships | Low | Low | Variable | Yes |
| Membership tier | High | High | Recurring | Mixed |
Pick two or three from the Yes / Mostly column and ignore the rest until those are working. The mistake most operators make is launching eight ideas at once and finishing none.
Deep dive: host your own speed dating night#
This is the highest-leverage entry on the list for most venues. You’re already paying rent, staff and energy on the slower nights of the week. A speed dating event on a quiet Tuesday or Wednesday converts that fixed cost into a packed room of paying customers who buy drinks while they’re there.
The economics#
The average speed dating event attracts around 30 people and in most markets, participants pay £15–£20 (or local equivalent) which could generate £600 in ticket sales alone, or more, if your event really takes off.
On top of ticket revenue you keep the bar take. Thirty attendees at a 90-minute event typically spend on two or three drinks each — that’s another £300–£500 behind the bar at standard hospitality margins. There’s no rent for the room and no need to bring in an external promoter.
Organising your own dating event with Fanciful is charged at a very low cost per head which will be more than covered by the entrance fee you charge your guests, and is charged directly to your customer. There are no set-up fees or ongoing costs.
There’s no limit to the number of events you can organise in your venue, but we’d recommend organising a few really good events a year to keep demand high — see Choosing a speed dating venue for the venue-side criteria, and Hosting your speed dating event step by step for the run of show on the night.
Two ways to play it#
You can run events as either the venue and the organiser, or in partnership with a third-party organiser:
- You as venue + organiser — you keep ticket revenue and bar take, you do the marketing. Most upside.
- You as venue + partner organiser — you host their event, they handle ticketing and marketing. You keep the bar take and usually charge a small space fee. Less upside, less effort.
Either is fine. Most venues start with the partner shape, learn what good looks like, then transition to running their own. See What Fanciful does: a platform overview for the full picture, and Hosting Valentine’s speed dating at your venue for one ready-made angle.
Other event nights#
Once speed dating is in your calendar, layer in others on different nights:
- Quiz nights — low setup, repeatable, attracts groups of 4. Bar-driven revenue.
- Karaoke — needs a host and a kit, but turns a dead night into your loudest of the week.
- Live music — venue-defining at its best, expensive at its worst. Pay-to-play arrangements with emerging acts can keep cost down.
- Themed nights — “Wine Wednesday”, “Taco Tuesday” and similar are cheap to run; they work as habit-builders for regulars rather than acquisition.
- Bottomless brunches — as anyone in the trade knows, bottomless brunches have huge appeal with clients and can drive excellent revenue into your business. These can be used to great effect if executed well.
You can also partner with local or community organisations to host charity events or fundraisers — see the partnerships section below.
Off-the-event income streams#
These are slower-moving than events but compound over time.
Catering services#
If your business has a kitchen, consider offering catering services for events like weddings, corporate events, and other special occasions. Delivery for corporate lunches is a related cousin. Be honest about whether you have the kitchen capacity and the front-of-house bandwidth — catering at scale eats both.
Space rental#
If you have a large event space or outdoor patio, consider renting it out for private events like parties or corporate meetings during slow periods. Local Facebook groups can be a wonderful place to find out about clubs and groups near you and to reach out to them — many local clubs will welcome the opportunity to try a new venue.
Branded merchandise#
T-shirts, hats and other branded items can be a small but real revenue stream if you have a loyal customer base or a distinctive brand. You’ll be amazed how many people will wear a sweatshirt or hat branded with their local.
Gift cards and loyalty programs#
Gift cards and loyalty programs can encourage customers to return and spend more. Offer incentives for buying gift cards — a free drink or appetiser, for instance — and modest rewards for loyalty sign-ups. Gift cards can be a lucrative source of cash flow and there’s a real secret… shhh… quite a few of them never get redeemed.
Track redemption rates so you don’t carry an inflated liability on the books.
Local-business partnerships#
Partner with nearby hotels for visitor packages, museums and theatres for pre/post-show deals, or co-working spaces for member discounts. Make your offer simple to understand and great value, and the clients will love it. It’s easy to measure too. Use a unique discount code per partner so you can see exactly what each one brings in.
Membership tier#
A paid membership tier — fixed fee for perks like priority seating, discounted drinks, or access to members-only events — can generate recurring revenue. It’s more work than gift cards but builds a stickier customer base. Don’t launch this unless you have a real perk to bundle behind it.
Pick two or three#
The honest test is whether you’d still run a given idea if no one else in town did it. Speed dating, space rental and a single recurring event night (quiz, brunch or live music) is a balanced three-pack for most venues. Add partnerships once any of those is humming.
Getting started with speed dating#
Of all the ideas on this page, speed dating has the best ratio of revenue lift to setup effort for a typical venue, and it’s the one Fanciful is built to help you run.
- Read What Fanciful does: a platform overview.
- Pick a quiet weeknight 6–8 weeks out.
- Sign up to run speed dating events with Fanciful here.
- Publish your event, market it, and run the night.