With restaurants, bars, hotels, and casinos in nearly every state in America planning to reopen in the next two weeks, the Barmagic Hospitality Relief Dashboard released the free, downloadable Bar & Restaurant Revival Guide, a 96-page (and growing) online guidebook chronicling the strategies and tactics of dozens of hospitality businesses that have figured out ways to recover their revenue and reopen safely, but also effectively.
The guide, compiled by Barmagic principal Tobin Ellis, also contains more than 20 pages of industry data on consumer confidence, reopening, to-go alcohol, and more.
The crowdsourced document focuses on five primary areas aimed at sharing ideas and specifics about how to implement them:
- The new to-go economy: Creating and executing to-go and curbside cocktail programs
- Redesigning the guest experience: Strategies and case studies for reopening with a dual focus on sanitation and immersive guest experiences
- Redesigning spaces: Architectural and design best practices from 200 years ago right up to the newest innovations that focus on social distancing in hospitality venues
- Pandemic-resilient business models: Examples of business models from around the world of hospitality that have the COVID-19 reopening guidelines already built-in
- Futureshock: Dozens of new technologies in sanitation, biometrics, touchless order and pay, QR code innovations, and robotics in hospitality
“This is the biggest challenge the hospitality industry has ever faced in any of our lifetimes,” said Tobin Ellis, founder of the Barmagic Hospitality Relief Dashboard and author of the Bar & Restaurant Revival Guide. “There is a lot of understandable confusion and fear surrounding how to reopen in a way that is good for customers, employees, and owners. State guidelines are just being released and are in many cases very confusing and in some
cases contradictory; and very few restaurant and bar owners have any experience with the new protocols. Trying to make a restaurant or bar survive with 25 or 50 percent occupancy restrictions is an incredible challenge. This guide is packed with proven strategies from operators around the world who have figured out ways to win, as well as insightful data and new products that can help operators make more informed decisions as they plan their futures.”
COVID-19 has brought the hospitality industry to its knees. More than eight million, or roughly half of the hourly hospitality workforce in America, alone have lost their jobs since the end of March, according to Business Insider. More than 300,000 independent restaurants that have or are expected to close across the country are estimated to
cost $225 billion in lost revenue between April and the end of June 2020, according to the Independent Restaurant Coalition. The hospitality-and-tourism sector is the second largest employer in America, contributing nearly $1 trillion to the American GDP in 2019, according to the National Restaurant Association.
“Independent restaurant and bars make up 90% of the industry in America and are the bedrock of social interaction for the 330 million Americans and the more than two billion tourists who visit each year. If even a third of the nearly half-million eating and drinking establishments in America fail to reopen because of COVID-19, the hit to the American economy will be enormous, but the hit to the American way of life may be even worse,” concluded Ellis. “The good news is that a lot of smart, creative workers and owners out there have already pivoted, adapted, and overcome many of the challenges that the lockdown created, and they want to help their hospitality family members get back on their feet. That’s what this guide is all about—family helping family to revive our industry.”
Click here to visit the Barmagic Hospitality Dashboard, where you can download the Barmagic Bar & Restaurant Revival Guide and view the largest collection of hospitality industry relief resources in North America.
