The COVID-19 Pandemic has devastated the hospitality industry. For the last two months, restaurants have primarily been shuttered with only a small percentage relying on takeout/delivery as a lifeline. However, there are signs that restaurants are on the road to recovery.
Recently, most states have started to lift stay-at-home orders, allowing restaurants to partially reopen their doors. Even within the past few weeks, we’ve seen restaurant sales start to substantially increase. When comparing the week of May 18th to the previous month’s average, the Avero NAT 500 Index shows a 45% increase in open businesses and 66% increase in gross sales.
As more of our customers start reopening, we thought it would be the perfect time to release Avero’s COVID-19 Restaurant Reopening Guide. Throughout this series of posts, we will share best practices for reopening informed by our customers and other industry thought leaders. Week by week, we’ll explore the chapters below:
- Chapter 1: Timing
Choosing the right time to reopen your doors is a critical financial decision. We’ll share some advice and tools to help you determine when it makes the most sense for your business. - Chapter 2: Technology
Optimizing your guest experience and profitability through technology will be essential as restaurants operate with smaller staff, lower sales, and reduced capacity. We’ll describe solutions that will help your business thrive and make your life easier. - Chapter 3: Design
Making physical changes to the design of your restaurant will enable you to provide efficient service and safe dining experiences for your customers. We’ll highlight the simple changes you can make to your layout that will pay big dividends. - Chapter 4: Safety
Defining mandatory protocols to ensure safety for both guests and staff in accordance with local laws is crucial. We’ll describe the best things you can do to keep everyone healthy and secure.
Next week, we will dive into the important considerations restaurant owners and operators are taking to ensure that reopening is the best decision financially for their business.
