Pricing by daypart: lunch is not dinner

At half past twelve, the guest at table six has fifty minutes before a meeting and wants two courses and a glass of water. At half past eight, the guest at the same table has the whole evening, a bottle of wine on the way and no intention of hurrying. They are sitting in the same chair, served by the same kitchen, and wanting completely different things.

Pricing by daypart recognises that difference. Instead of one menu at one set of prices from opening to close, each part of the day gets the menu and prices that suit its guests: a quick set lunch, an early evening menu, a full dinner. Guests readily accept that lunch costs less than dinner, and the venue earns more from each part of the day than a single menu would.

This guide covers what pricing by daypart means, what guests accept and what they resent, how to price a set lunch and an early evening menu, how to keep the kitchen simple and how to tell whether it is working. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Pricing by daypart means charging different prices in different parts of the day, through menus suited to each one. A lunch menu with lighter dishes at lower prices, an early evening menu for guests who eat before a show and a dinner menu with the full range are the familiar forms.

It is not the same as charging more for the same thing at busier times. Each daypart has its own menu, often with different dishes, portions or courses, so guests see a lunch menu and a dinner menu rather than one menu whose prices change with the clock.

Lunch and dinner differ in almost every way that matters for prices. Lunch guests usually have less time, often eat alone or with colleagues, spend less on drinks and are more sensitive to price because they eat out more often. Dinner guests have more time, celebrate more, order more courses and drink more.

A single menu priced for dinner looks expensive at lunch and drives lunch guests away. A single menu priced for lunch leaves money on the table at dinner. Daypart menus let each service be priced for the guests it actually serves.

Charging differently at different times, according to demand, is an old idea in economics, known as peak-load pricing. Electricity, rail fares and cinema tickets have long been cheaper at quieter times, to spread demand and use capacity that would otherwise sit idle.

Restaurants apply it gently. Rather than raising prices at the peak, they offer menus that make the quieter parts of the day attractive, and let the full dinner menu carry the evening. It is one of the tools of revenue management that guests accept without complaint, because it feels like choice rather than a charge.

Guests accept prices that change with the menu. A set lunch that costs less than dinner, an early evening menu for guests seated before seven, a weekday supper menu and a brunch menu at the weekend are all familiar and welcome.

They accept them because the offer is clear and the guest chooses it. The lunch guest knows they are getting a lunch menu at a lunch price; the dinner guest knows the dinner menu is the full one. Nobody feels caught out.

Guests resent the same dish costing more at a busier time with nothing else changed. A burger that is one price at six and another at eight, on the same menu, feels like a charge for being hungry at the wrong hour, and guests talk about it.

They also resent surprises. A lunch menu that quietly runs out at two, leaving a late lunch guest with the dinner prices, or an early evening menu that ends while they are still choosing, sours an otherwise good meal. Clear times, stated on the menu and kept to, avoid both.

Daypart menus are the foundation of pricing by daypart. Each menu suits its time of day: a breakfast menu with quick, simple dishes; a lunch menu with lighter plates and a set lunch; an afternoon menu for the quiet hours; and a dinner menu with the full range.

Each needs its own dishes, prices and times, and the gaps between them need planning too. Our guide to daypart menus: breakfast, lunch and the gap between covers how to build them.

Before setting prices, look at each daypart's figures: covers, spend per head, revenue by hour and how full the room is in each. Most venues find lunch has a lower spend and a quicker turn, the early evening is quiet, and dinner carries most of the revenue.

These figures show where a change could help. A lunch that is full at a low spend may bear a modest rise. A quiet early evening may need a menu that gives guests a reason to come. A dinner that is full may need nothing but protection from discounts.

A set lunch, two or three courses at a fixed price, is the most familiar daypart offer. It suits guests with limited time and a budget, it is quick for the kitchen and the floor, and it gives the venue a clear, attractive price to show on the door and online.

It also fills the room at lunch with guests who might not otherwise come. A set lunch at a good price brings in office workers, shoppers and guests trying the venue for the first time, many of whom come back for dinner.

Price a set lunch from its costs and its competition. Work out the food cost of each course, choose dishes that share ingredients with the main menu and set a price that leaves a healthy margin while looking good value beside the dinner menu and the venues nearby.

Offer a small choice for each course, two or three dishes, so the kitchen can prepare ahead and guests can order quickly. Drinks, sides and desserts beyond the set courses are where much of the margin comes from, so make sure the team offers them.

A lunch menu can carry some of the dinner dishes in a lunch portion at a lunch price. A smaller steak, a lighter pasta or a starter-sized version of a main lets lunch guests enjoy the venue's best dishes without the time or cost of the dinner version.

Make the difference visible. A dish that is cheaper at lunch because it is smaller should say so, so the dinner guest does not feel they are paying more for the same plate. The lunch portion is the lunch product; the dinner portion is the dinner product.

An early evening menu, offered to guests seated before a set time, fills the room in the hours before the dinner peak. It suits theatre-goers, families and guests who prefer to eat early, and it uses seats that would otherwise sit empty until eight.

Set a clear end time for ordering, and make sure guests know the table is needed later if it is. A good early evening menu, with two or three courses at a fixed price, can add a full sitting of guests to the evening without lowering the price of the dinner menu.

Dinner is usually the venue's strongest daypart, and its prices should reflect it. The dinner menu carries the full range, the larger portions and the more elaborate dishes, at prices that suit guests who have come for an evening rather than a quick meal.

Protect dinner from discounts. Guests who book dinner on a busy night do not need a reason to come, and every discount at the peak is margin given away. Keep offers for the quieter dayparts, where they do some good.

A late evening menu, after the main dinner rush, can suit guests coming from a show, workers finishing late and those who want a drink and a small plate. It often costs less to run, with a shorter menu and a smaller kitchen team.

Price it for its guests: smaller plates, simple dishes, good drinks. It will not match the dinner peak, but it can turn the last hours of the evening from almost empty to steady, from seats and staff already in place.

Breakfast has its own economics: high volume, lower spend, quick turns and a large share of coffee and soft drinks. Price breakfast for speed and value, and keep the menu short enough for the kitchen to serve quickly.

Brunch at the weekend is different again, with longer stays and higher spends, often with drinks. It can carry higher prices than a weekday breakfast, and guests expect it to.

Weekdays and weekends can differ as much as lunch and dinner. A weekday lunch serves workers in a hurry; a weekend lunch serves families and friends with time to spare. Many venues offer a set lunch on weekdays only, and a fuller lunch menu at the weekend.

Keep the logic visible. A weekday set lunch is an offer for the quieter days; the weekend menu is the full one. Guests understand the difference, as long as each menu says when it runs.

Drinks prices can follow the daypart too. A drinks offer in the quiet late afternoon, a coffee and pastry deal in the morning or a glass of wine included with the early evening menu each give guests a reason to come at quieter times.

Check the local rules before offering cheaper alcohol at set times, because some places restrict drinks promotions. And keep drinks offers away from the peak, where they lower spend without bringing in a single extra guest.

Each daypart menu needs its own approach to menu pricing. A set lunch is priced as a package, from the cost of its courses and the price guests will pay for a quick meal. An à la carte dinner is priced dish by dish, from each dish's cost, its appeal and what similar venues charge.

The methods differ, and so do the margins they aim for. Our guide to menu pricing: six methods and when each works covers the options and when each suits.

Several menus can make the kitchen's life harder if each has its own ingredients and prep. Build the daypart menus from the same core ingredients, with the lunch dishes as smaller or simpler versions of the dinner ones, so prep is shared and waste is low.

A set lunch with two or three choices per course, drawn from ingredients already in the kitchen, adds very little work. A lunch menu with its own separate list of ingredients adds stock, prep and waste that can eat the margin it was meant to earn.

Work out the food cost for each daypart menu separately. A set lunch at a good price may carry a higher food cost percentage than dinner, which is often fine if it fills the room and sells drinks and desserts alongside it.

What matters is what each daypart contributes in money, not only its percentage. A full lunch at a slightly higher food cost can contribute far more than an empty room at a perfect percentage.

Each daypart needs a team suited to its trade. A quick lunch needs enough hands to turn tables at speed; an early evening menu may need a smaller team; dinner needs the full team. Match the rota to the expected covers in each daypart, so the lower prices at quieter times are not carrying a dinner-sized team.

Labour is often the hidden cost of extra dayparts. An afternoon menu that brings in a handful of guests but keeps a full team on shift may cost more than it earns. Check each daypart's labour against its revenue.

Pricing by daypart is one tool in revenue management, and it works best alongside the others: booking rules that fit each service, tables matched to parties and invitations that fill the quiet hours. Together, they help the room earn from every part of the day.

Our guide to revenue management for a dining room sets daypart menus alongside the other tools and explains where each one fits.

State each menu's times on the menu itself, on the website and on the booking page. "Set lunch, Monday to Friday, noon to three" or "Early evening menu, seated by seven" leaves no doubt about who it is for and when.

Tell the team too. Servers should know when each menu ends, offer the early evening menu to guests seated in time and explain politely when a menu has finished. A clear rule, applied kindly, is rarely resented.

The moment one menu ends and the next begins needs a plan. Decide whether a guest seated at a quarter to three can still order from the lunch menu, and whether a table booked at a quarter to seven gets the early evening menu if it orders at five past.

Most venues use the time the guest was seated or the time of the booking, which is fair and easy to explain. Whatever the rule, apply it the same way every time, so guests on the edge of the changeover are treated alike.

Change one daypart at a time, and watch it for a few weeks. A new set lunch, a new early evening menu or a change to lunch prices each need time for guests to notice and respond.

Compare covers, spend per head and revenue for that daypart with the same weeks last year, and check the dayparts either side. A cheaper early evening menu that fills the early hours but pulls guests away from the full dinner may not be a gain.

Pricing by daypart is not always the answer. A venue that is full at every service has little reason to offer cheaper menus at any of them. A small venue with a tiny kitchen may find several menus harder to run than they are worth.

And a daypart that is quiet because of where the venue is, such as a city office district at the weekend, may not fill however good the offer. In that case, opening fewer hours may earn more than a cheaper menu.

An invented brasserie serves one menu from noon to eleven. Lunch is half full at a low spend per head, the hours between five and seven are almost empty, and dinner is full from half past seven. The owner introduces a weekday set lunch of two or three courses at fixed prices, using the same ingredients as the dinner menu, and an early evening menu for guests seated before seven.

The dinner menu stays as it was. Over three months, lunch covers rise steadily, many of the set lunch guests come back for dinner, the early evening fills with theatre-goers and families, and the dinner peak is untouched. Revenue for the day rises, while the kitchen works from one set of core ingredients.

In servearound, each menu can be always available, on a schedule of dates, days of the week and a daily time window, even across midnight, or tied to the venue's shifts. Only one menu runs at a time, so a lunch menu and a dinner menu each get a window of their own. A dish can sit on several menus without a copy, and each menu can charge its own price for it, so the same dish can carry a lunch price and a dinner price. Fixed-price set menus and packages can be built with their own availability window, and prices can be changed in bulk by a percentage or an amount.

To see how each daypart is doing, reservation analytics show bookings and covers by shift and covers by day and hour, payment analytics show money collected by hour, and the menu report shows which dishes sold, with units and revenue, for the dates you choose. Digital menu boards update themselves when a price changes, and a printed design says when a price has changed since it was printed. See menus and Analytics.

Charging different prices at different times of day, through menus suited to each part of the day.

Not if each daypart has its own clear menu and times. They mind the same dish costing more at busier times.

Usually, through lighter dishes, lunch portions or a set lunch, because lunch guests have less time and spend less.

From the cost of its courses and what guests nearby pay, with drinks and desserts adding the margin.

It can. Check the dinner covers before and after, and set a clear seating time for the early menu.

Not if the daypart menus share the same core ingredients.

They can, at quiet times, within the local rules. Keep drinks offers away from the peak.

Compare covers, spend and revenue for each daypart with the same weeks last year.

Pricing by daypart gives each part of the day the menu and prices that suit its guests: a set lunch for the guest in a hurry, an early evening menu for the hours before the peak and the full dinner menu for the evening. Guests accept it because each daypart has its own clear menu, and they resent only the same dish costing more at a busier time.

Build the daypart menus from shared ingredients, price each with its own approach to menu pricing, state the times clearly and protect dinner from discounts. Change one daypart at a time and compare it with last year. Used well, it is one of the gentlest tools in revenue management, and a good set lunch is often its best start.