Easter’s Bank Holiday weekend saw consumers defying the cost-of-living crisis with a 14% increase in hospitality bookings compared with 2022.
According to venue technology provider, Zonal, brunch proved a big winner this year, with bookings up 98% on 2022. While that still accounted for less than 1% of overall bookings, the firm reckoned that brunch presents an untapped Easter opportunity for hospitality businesses to drive sales and revenue next year.
Predictably, across the four-day period, Easter Sunday lunch was the most popular booking among consumers, while Friday and Saturday saw the most dinner bookings. Easter Monday, despite having the fewest number of bookings across the four days, still had the highest increase in bookings (23%) compared to last year.
Overall, Zonal’s insight reveals that dinner bookings were up 22% over the whole weekend, compared to last year, and lunch bookings rose by 43%.
Chief sales and marketing officer Olivia FitzGerald said: “The rise in bookings for Easter weekend represents a move in the right direction for hospitality and introducing an Easter brunch next year could be a real opportunity for the trade.
“Operators can tap into the occasion next year by driving sales through advanced promotions, offers and up-selling.”
