Menu planning

The menu is the restaurant first and last impression. It is the most important communication tool between the restaurant and the customers. When guests are seated in the restaurant, they are given a menu, which is the primary communications, sales and public tool of the restaurant.

The purpose of the menu is to inform guest of items available and price, to inform employees of the items to prepare and purchase. The menu is a mission statement, it defines operation’s concept and communicates that concept to the guests. Menu is one of the single biggest influence on an operation’s development of a loyal guests base and positive return on it investment.

Menu planning factors:

Guests come to the restaurant for a pleasurable dining experience and the menu is the most important component in this experiences. Menu affects, and is affected by, the operation design and layout, equipment requirement and labor needs. The major challenge of the restaurant operator is to provide tastier presentation, to offering healthy food options, to creating flavors that are nothing short of extraordinary.

Menu planning objectives:

* Menu must meet or exceed guest expectation

– reflect tastes and preferences of the guest

* Menu must attain marking objectives:

– what guest wants, location, prices, times

– must bring back guests for more visit

* Menu must meet quality of standard

– quality and nutrition go hand in hand

– flavor, shapes, texture, palatability, flair

* Menu must be cost effective

* Menu must be accurate

* Menu must blend old with new

– balance between traditional and innovation

– give new menu items to give guests fresh perspective

* Staff must be able to produce and service items on the menu

Menu design factors:

The menu must begin with the needs and expectations of the guests. When design menu, there is a several obligatory factors which has to be included in every menu list. The first page of the menu has to include the name of the restaurant and some pleasant appeal to the guests. Then the menu continues with the different kind of dishes and drinks, and of course there is a standard.

The restaurant has to provide variety dishes and different kinds of techniques of prepared foods, for example boiling, grilling, backing, poaching, steaming and etc.

Each dish in the menu has to have description, weight and price. It is important to know that the dishes are measured in grams and drinks in milligrams.

The composition of the menu must be drawn from the different food groups. In addition, all cooking methods should be employed to provide a variety of flavor and texture and to present attractive food, by sight and smell at the
point of service.

For having the best menu, the manager of the restaurant has to provide another list of menu for wines. A wine list should be established as soon as the menu is set and care must be taken to ensure that an adequate quantity for each course is secured. It is necessary to keep records to determine the quantity of wine consumed at various events to assist in future planning.

Yield Management:

Yield Management is the practice of maximizing profits from the sale of perishable assets, such as hotel rooms and airline seats, by controlling price, inventory and service. By seizing control of the sold volume at each price level, Yield Management permits a significant augmentation of revenue.

Yield Management calculates and defines the most efficient tariffs to optimize revenue on the basis of modeling and forecasting demand. This technique is commonly used in the airline and hotel industry where it is part of those companies. Today most companies in the consumer service industry are present, or will be shortly, on the Internet selling directly to consumer. Dynamic pricing strategies therefore should be and integral part of any business to business strategy.

Yield Management is the process of controlling rates and occupancy in order to maximize gross room revenue. The goal is to accurately predict demand for given date to sell the most possible rooms for the highest possible rate.

Yield Management is a sophisticated form of supply and demand management that balances both pricing strategies and inventory management. Its primary purpose is managing customers demand trough the use of variable pricing and capacity management to maximize profitability. It is essentially the process of allocating the right type of capacity to the right customer at the right time at the right price. It focuses the service organization on maximizing profitability by applying disciplined tactics to forecast consumer behaviour at the macro-market level and control inventory availability at each price level at any one time.

Low cost airline.

Low cost airlines are also called no frills airlines. In contract with the charter airlines, which exist long before, the airlines dealt with in this section came into being at the same time or shortly before. They are based on a vary convenient price relationship, making saving and etc.

These airline companies target the section of individual travelers, who if traveling with other companies, would go for Economy Class at the lowest price available: the advantage that the no-frills alternative offers is the equal or lower fares, based on the use it or lose it principle, that is to say there is no possibility of changing the reservation, that being the point at which the flight ticket is bought. This is also the principle employed for best individual fares on scheduled flights.

Low cost scheduled airlines have revolutionized short-haul air travel, particularly in UK and Western Europe. The rapid growth of low-cost scheduled carriers in Europe is in sharp contrast the charter airlines that has seen traffic stagnate or even decline.

Low-cost airlines aim to keep operating cost significantly lower than the traditional airlines. This is achieved trough:

– use of internet to reduce distribution cost: over 90% of EasyJet sales are made trough internet

– maximize the utilization of the aircraft assets

– direct sell only: EasyJet only sells tickets over the internet, through telephone sales centre

– ticketless travel: EasyJet passengers received an e-mail when they book online

– no free airline food: no catering eliminates catering space, reduce cleaning cost and speeds the turnaround time of aircraft

– use smaller airports: the smaller airports are more cheaper to fly from than bigger airports.

– one kind of aircraft: for example EasyJet only operates with one series aircraft. Commonly maximizing efficiency in the recruitment and training staff

As we conclude this brief overview of the non-scheduled types of aircraft, we must stress the different strategies position held by the charter and no-frills airlines companies in European market. We have been looked at the reasons for this different position which, from the point of view of the travelers, is of interest form the perspective of greater competition on fares proposed by the charter companies.

Vertical and Horizontal integration:

Each carrier, supplier, destination marketing, and travel intermediary within the tourism distribution system wants potential travelers to have maximum exposure to information to encourage purchase decision so that reservations and payments can be received. The more direct control a tourism organization has over the distribution of its services, the greater is the assurance that information will be available and that the traveler can make reservations and payments easily and conveniently. Vertical integration refers to the ownership by one organization of all or part of a tourism distribution channel. Vertically integrated channels are those in which the supplier and retail distribution functions are owned or controlled by a single organization.

Travel organizations have evolved first by taking over or merging with competitors in the same sector (horizontal integration), and then by taking over or merging with principles and intermediaries in different sectors of the travel industry (vertical integration).

Also horizontal integration refers when producers going with the major aim for removing competitors, to increase economics of scale and purchasing power.