The festive season is the most important time of the year for the hospitality industry, as hotels, bars, events venues and restaurants seek to attract holiday customers. Here’s a look at how LED screens can enhance the experience of guests with memorable experiences and attract more casual trade.

Digital menu boards

Electronic boards are a convenient and eye-catching way to showcase food and beverage choices to customers and present information clearly. They can be used to highlight  seasonal items and be accompanied by enticing images of festive roasts, Christmas cocktails and sweet treats to entice the appetite. 

Real time updates 

The flexibility of a digital menu means that they can easily be updated to include real-time updates in a couple of minutes, such as adding new items, daily specials, and removing out of stock items. This ensures that the listings and prices will always be accurate, avoiding any misunderstandings and disappointments.

The digital menu also offers the ability to include dynamic pricing systems, which might be a consideration for pubs and bars who want to capitalize on fluctuations in customer demand. For example, pubs might want to charge drinks at attractive low prices to drum up custom during the early evening hours, and raise them at peak hours.

Cross-selling and upselling opportunities

The digital signage boards can be programmed to include suggestions for complementary items or more expensive or larger versions of the customer orders, such as a cocktail to accompany a bar snack or a starter to pair with a dessert. This can increase revenue, help customers to explore new items and encourage them to stay for longer and spend more.

Creating a festive ambience

The right ambience is important in a hospitality venue at any time of the year, but particularly so at Christmas and New Year. LED screens can be used to display festive images, and combined with audiovisuals for creating the appropriate cheerful atmosphere. 

The screens can also be used to amp up the excitement, such as live countdowns on New Year’s Eve. The content can include livestreams from events such as the world-famous London Firework display, or customer generated content from social media feeds or live polls. 

Enhancing the quality of customer experience

LED screens can be used to enhance the customer experience at larger events venues, such as providing wayfinding and navigation assistance, and displaying schedules and announcements. The can also be used to display live performances so that everyone has a clear view of the stage no matter where they are in the venue.

LED video walls can be used to create backdrops for performances or even for photo opportunities for customers, with rotating content to provide a choice of backdrops. 

To support seasonal marketing campaigns 

Digital signage can be used on the exterior of venues or in window displays to attract passing customers with festive offers, discounts, or promotions. They can also be used to run contests or polls to encourage viewer interaction, or advertise special events with a clear call to action. 

The screens will naturally draw the attention of customers, and they are much more likely to take notice of the content than if it were displayed on a static poster. LED screens can be easily seen in any environment, indoors or outdoors, and can adjust to the variable external lighting conditions to attract passing foot traffic. 

For restaurants, it can be advantageous to display a digital menu outside the venue, because potential customers often prefer to know before stepping inside what type of food is on offer, and what the prices are. A digital menu is much more visible and eye-catching than a printed menu and can be used to display the most accurate and up to date details. 

Time and cost efficiency

For restaurants, bars, and hotels, digital menus bring an extra level of efficiency and cost effectiveness, particularly at Christmas and New Year when custom is often at its busiest. They save the manual labour of needing to update chalk boards or update paper menus, as the content can easily be changed within a few minutes from a central control interface.

The menus can automatically be rotated to display content that reflects the time of day, such as breakfast, lunch or dinner, or seasonal specials. Furthermore, the content will always be consistent throughout the venue or even across multiple branches. This reduces the chance of human error and raises levels of customer satisfaction.