A pleasant and comfortable experience is the desire of every customer from the moment they walk through the door of a restaurant. One factor that can help us achieve customer satisfaction is the correct choice and arrangement of furniture. You may be thinking that any piece of furniture you buy will do, but that’s not the case. We will need furniture according to the tastes of our customers to achieve the ultimate goal of every restaurant: to achieve customer loyalty. For this reason, in today’s article, we would like to show you 7 tips when buying hotel and restaurant furniture.
What should we take into account when buying catering furniture?
Know the space of the premises to make the most of every centimeter.
This point is pure logic. You will need to know the square meters you have available both inside and outside your premises. Knowing the exact measurements of your business you will be able to calculate the number of tables or chairs you can fit inside. Space is one of the characteristics that will determine the choice of one or another piece of furniture. If you do not take into account the measurements of your premises, and you start buying furniture without first checking the available space, it is possible that you will not be able to distribute the furniture as you would like.
You will need furniture that is not too heavy
It is advisable to divide the furniture that the staff will need to move frequently and those that will not. Furniture that you don’t need to move constantly can have a certain weight, but make sure that the furniture you need to move constantly is not too heavy. Buying light catering furniture will save you a lot of time when it comes to preparing the distribution of chairs and tables for your guests. If it is an informal bar, even the customers themselves are able to remove or gather tables based on what they need.
The design must be in accordance with the style of your restaurant.
The design of the furniture is very important. You should keep in mind that the furniture you choose has to match the style of your business. Choosing furniture of a particular style will reinforce the customer’s image of your brand and help your brand stick in their mind. Otherwise your business will have little personality.
Buy easy-to-clean and easy-to-maintain hospitality furniture
The pace of work in the hospitality industry is chaotic. Any employee knows what he has to do and knows that he has to do it against the clock. Wasting time on some of the tasks can cause time to get away from you and end up affecting the service. For this reason, the maintenance and cleaning of furniture should not take a long time. Opt to buy tables or
restaurant chairs
easy to clean.
Buy restaurant furniture
with complex finishes will make your employees need more time to clean it and spend less time on other tasks. Remember, time is precious, and in the hospitality industry it is even more so.
User-friendly furniture
Sometimes you will need to stack chairs or tables on top of each other at the end of the service. For this reason you will need both chairs and tables to be stackable. If you are sure that you are not going to move the furniture of your premises, you do not have to take this factor into account, but be careful, if your premises has a terrace, you will need the furniture to comply with this characteristic.
Another factor to consider is that the furniture you choose can have several uses. If you choose furniture that is intended to be in a particular area of the room, you will be limiting the use of the furniture. If you have an outdoor area in your premises, it may be interesting to have a type of furniture that you can use both indoors and outdoors. If so, they must have an optimum finish so that they are not damaged by the weather.
We also have to consider whether we need them to be extendable or convertible. Furniture with these characteristics allows us to play and make good use of space depending on the number of diners we have.
Always choose quality furniture
Quality is a feature that should not be missing when choosing furniture for your restaurant. Remember that quality is not always associated with price. It is true that the use of resistant materials and finishes usually have a higher price due to the characteristics of the raw materials used to manufacture them. The goal is that the furniture you choose for your business is the one that will be with you for a long time, and that can only be achieved by buying quality furniture.
Do I contact the manufacturer directly or buy it from a distributor?
It’s a good question that has crossed every hotelier’s mind at some point. If you are also asking yourself this question, you will need to get out the calculator and evaluate whether it is better to buy the furniture directly from the manufacturer or from a distributor. The furniture factory will always give you more guarantees and facilities than the distributors, since they can give you discounts based on volume or even be able to manufacture
custom-made furniture
to fit your premises and your pocket. Buying your hospitality furniture directly from the factory will allow you to have direct and personal contact with the people in charge of manufacturing the product, so you will get the furniture much more suited to your needs.