How to Run Restaurant Promotions That Actually Work

Most restaurant promotions lose money quietly. Not because the idea is bad, but because the offer lands on customers who were coming anyway.

Two-for-one on a Friday night is a discount on a table you had already sold. The same offer on a Tuesday afternoon might be the best thing you do all month. The difference is not the offer. It is where you point it.

The one test for any promotion

Before running an offer, ask: who does this bring in who would not otherwise have come, and when?

If the honest answer is "mostly our regulars, on the nights they already come", the promotion is a price cut. If it is "new people, in the hours we are empty", it is a promotion.

Rule 1: Point it at a quiet slot

Name the hours you want to fill before you design the offer. Tuesday to Thursday lunch. The hour before evening service. The first three weeks of January.

Then limit the offer to exactly those hours. A promotion valid every day of the week is a menu price change.

There is a second benefit. People who try you on a quiet Tuesday and enjoy it come back on a Saturday, at full price. That return visit is the real payoff of a promotion, and it only happens if the offer was confined to the quiet slot in the first place.

Rule 2: Cap it

The most common way a good promotion goes wrong is that it works. An uncapped offer at a genuinely good price does not sell steadily — it sells in a rush, gets shared in group chats, and turns a quiet Tuesday into a service the kitchen cannot handle.

Decide how many you will sell. Start with a number you could comfortably serve on top of a normal night. If it sells out in a day, that is useful: you have learned the demand and can run it again.

Rule 3: Sell a product, not a percentage

"20% off food" asks the customer to do sums. "Two courses and a glass of wine for €29, Tuesday to Thursday before 7" is a thing somebody can picture themselves having.

Good promotion formats:

• A set menu at a fixed price
• A tasting of new dishes before they go on the menu
• Bottomless brunch with a clear time limit
• A pairing night with a supplier
• An early-evening menu for the first sitting

Rule 4: Take the money up front

For a paid offer, sell it in advance. It turns "that looks nice" into a commitment, and it means the money is in your account before the night — not a promise from somebody who may not turn up.

It also changes behaviour: people who have paid come. People who have been offered a discount often do not.

Rule 5: Know when free is better

A free promotion — claimed rather than bought — is the right tool when what you want is a first visit and a list of names rather than cash. A free tasting for the first thirty people. A complimentary glass on your opening weekend. A free pastry with any coffee before eleven for a fortnight.

Cap a free promotion harder than a paid one. Nothing spreads faster than free, and nothing makes a worse first impression than running out.

Rule 6: Measure it properly

A promotion is not a success because it sold out. It is a success if:

• The slot you targeted was busier than a normal week
• Your total takings for that period went up, not just your covers
• Some of those customers came back at full price

The third one takes a few weeks to see, and it is the one that matters most.

Promotions, deals and vouchers are different tools

• A promotion is sold in advance, capped and dated. Best for filling a known quiet slot with new people.
• A Deal Hour is an automatic lower price in a time window, with nothing to buy. Best for a regular quiet period where you want walk-ins.
• A gift voucher is money now for a visit later. Best for cash flow and for being given as a present.

Using the right one matters more than tuning any of them.

Telling people about it

A promotion nobody hears about is a sign in an empty window. Tell the people most likely to act:

• Your regulars first. They are the ones who will book a quiet-night offer and bring a friend who has never been.
• The people nearby. Someone within a short walk, deciding where to eat this week, is the ideal audience.
• Once, clearly. One good announcement with the price, the days and the cap beats a week of vague reminders.

Put the dates and the cap in the announcement itself. "Forty places, Tuesday to Thursday" creates more urgency than any adjective.

A worked example

A restaurant sells a €35 three-course early-evening menu, capped at 40, valid Tuesday to Thursday before 7pm.

That is €1,400 of sales. On Mosey, the commission is 4.5%, which is €63, leaving €1,337 before Stripe's card fee, all of it received before the first customer sits down. The €1.29 booking fee is paid by each customer on top of the €35.

Those forty covers land in early evenings that would otherwise have been a third full, and the drinks they order are at normal prices.

What it costs on Mosey

• 4.5% of the price of a paid promotion
• €1.29 booking fee, paid by the customer on top of the price, not by you
• Free promotions cost nothing
• No monthly fee, and nothing per promotion

What it connects to

• Run restaurant promotions and offers
• Deal Hours: fill your quiet times
• Sell gift vouchers
• Early bird, student and weekend offers
• What Mosey costs — every rate on one page