Please help make our bar in spain a success?

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lightworker

I have lived here in Spain 17 years, my Spanish son in law runs a bar. this is our advice:

Spanish bars differ from Brit bars (in the main) by one reason that stands out - they give away free tapas with every alcoholic drink ......which encourages people to stay. I live in Benidorm tapas are not very good here but if you go to an Andalucian village for example you will get very generous tapas, they need to keep their business as they are small and the customer is very important to them. In general Brit bars are generally too tight to even give you a few stale peanuts for nothing, this I believe is their big mistake. Ok I know we don't do it in the UK, but you are in Spain and so try and adopt your new home as much as possible. A generous amount of tapas is great, but also a good menu too (if you are going to do food, which I think is a must these days for a bar to survive) When I first came to Spain in 1991 I worked in a Welsh bar, and the landlady was a good cook (it was a small family run bar) she always said "feed them up, and they'll be back" it worked too. (what she did was give alot of veg with the meal so it looked more than it was, it worked! People that came in at the beginning of their holiday generally returned every day for something.

I have also helped someone who took over the traspaso of a bar (I was an estate agent) and had a similar problem to your mum. They threw a big open night party with lots of advertising around the area before the opening. Even had an article in the local Brit paper about it, so everyone knew. They had different things happening most nights of the week so people could plan their evening out, like curry night, bingo night, live music etc.
My other observation of many Brit bars that are not successful is that they are not normally very clean, some people get lazy because they have to work very long hours. They sometimes don't keep to regular fixed hours either and so customers lose their confidence and go elsewhere.

I hope this has helped and wish your mum all the best for her and her bar. Good luck

((LOON))

MAKE SURE When you reopen it says clearly over the door UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. You are going to have to keep your prices low to encourage custom. Good looking girls behind the bar will definitely get trade in. GOOD LUCK Mum :)

brucedazza1807

i would print some flyer's and state what your entertainment will be and what offers will be on and hand them out

John Gwhats the problem

i ve worked in spain and canary islands lots . my opinion have good reasonable priced food , tender steaks , good tapas and wine and you will do well .good luck

Sassi

From a holidaymakers point of view, don't have too much traditional British food. Not all of us Brits want to have that when we go on holiday! Possibly offer half portions for children?

I agree with the tapas side of things too.

Create a nice atmosphere and employ friendly staff. Have knowledge of the area, places to visit, other restaurants etc. When I was on holiday this year, we stopped at a cafe for an afternoon drink. The guy had only just taken the cafe on and he was ever so helpful with the local info. We stopped there nearly every afternoon for a drink and had a couple of meals there too because of this.

Xabier

Ads.
Flyers, New Name, New Sign
New Menu if you have Tapas

Tell everyone

Have a big opening night where all drinks are either half-price, or sold at the price YOU bought them.
You'll need to keep the prices low also... as you're posting here so your English... they won't have as much money to Spend now, it is almost 1â‚¬ for 1 Pound no ?? So they will go to the cheapest place, depending on your location I'd also say getting the menu in German

New Music, maybe you could get a good DJ that come's after 01h00, and starting up a "quiz night" a "bingo night"

Is there any ground near you can delvelope, a tennis bar ? a swimming pool ? Across the road from the beach ? You might want to instal some lockers and advertise this, maybe the lockers are free if you spend 5â‚¬ on drinks ?

Do you best you can to show ads. everywhere and changes it's name, and make the inside look diffrent

Have 3 menus, Spanish, English, German on your location... and employ people who can speak these languages and state this on your menu. it will make people feel more welcome

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