Make the most of your restaurant outdoor seating this summer
Summary
Outdoor seating adds covers without adding floor space. Seven ways to get the space ready, fill it, and capture every guest who sits in it.
Extra covers, no extra floor space.
Outdoor seating adds covers without adding floor space. In summer it can be the difference between a good week and a great one, and it rewards a bit of preparation.
Seven things worth doing before the season starts.
1. Check the basics first
Cover, heat and light decide whether the space is usable or decorative. Parasols, gazebos, awnings and outdoor heaters all extend the trading day, and they cost less than the covers they protect.
Work out where the sun sits through the day. A south-facing terrace needs shade by noon, a north-facing one needs heat and a windbreak. Ask your regulars, they already know.
2. Make it look like somewhere to sit
Clean the patio, paint the fences and check the furniture before the first warm weekend rather than after it. Planting is the cheapest transform there is: baskets, tubs and a couple of small trees change how the space photographs and how long people stay.
If you serve food outside, the area has to look appetising and meet the same health and safety standards as the inside.
Lighting matters once it gets dark. String lights or a couple of outdoor lamps keep the space usable until close, which is when most of the summer trade actually sits.
3. Give people a reason to book it
Outdoor tables are the ones guests ask for and the ones you can sell. Take bookings for the terrace specifically through bookings, so you know how many covers are outside and can hold a few back for walk-ins.
A short seasonal menu built for outside works harder than the full menu carried out on trays: things that travel, things you can eat with one hand, drinks that suit a long afternoon. Six restaurant sales promotions that work covers the offers worth running.
4. Capture everyone who sits out there
Guests in the beer garden are the hardest to capture and the easiest to lose, because they often never reach the bar or the host stand.
Put a QR code on every outdoor table with the Wi-Fi login on it. A branded sign-up page collects a name, email and phone in exchange for access, and it captures the whole table. That turns one sunny afternoon into a contact you can message in November.
5. Use the weather as a trigger
Outdoor trade swings on the forecast, which makes it a good fit for short-notice messaging. Build an audience of local guests and keep a sunny-day SMS ready for the morning the forecast turns: what's on, what's available, a link to book.
Set it up as a workflow and it takes minutes rather than a decision every time.
6. Run events outside
Live music, a BBQ, a screening, a pop-up with another local trader. Outdoor events fill the space on days that would otherwise be quiet, and they give people something worth sharing. Food trucks are the easy version: your own grill, a pizza oven, or another local trader cooking in your space for a weekend.
Tell your list first. An email to guests who've visited before fills an event faster than a social post, and those same guests are the ones who come back.
7. Ask for the review while they still remember
A summer evening outside is the visit most likely to earn five stars and the one people forget to review. Send the request the next morning through reviews, while the memory is good, and answer everything that comes back.
Outdoor seating is a season rather than a year-round plan, so the work is front-loaded. Get the space ready, get the QR codes on the tables and get the sunny-day message written before the first warm weekend. Then read gathering the right data for your restaurant marketing for what to do with the contacts afterwards.
See it running on your venues
One unified guest record across Wi-Fi, bookings, reviews and loyalty, and the marketing that acts on it.