photo: Student Meal Offers
In light of a very competitive environment, restaurants have resorted to menu price reductions for off-peak dining periods. Breakfast and lunch are often priced significantly lower during weekdays. A number of restaurants have lower-priced meals for all-day dinning before the evening peak dinning hours. Some restaurants offer a 30 per cent reduction from their regular menu prices during off-peak hours. While not listing menu price reductions openly, other restaurants resort to loyalty cards for their regular customers. The loyalty cards offer up to 20 per cent discounts off regular menus and up to 30 per cent birthday discount for customers.
Several hotel chains offer dining cards to customers for a small annual fee. The dining cards provide up to a 50 per cent reduction in the dining tab. Other restaurants instead offer all-evening one-for-one beer orders and no-limit refills of fries for regular dinner orders. Some restaurants offer free desserts for every regular meal ordered. Another frequently used promotion is the offer of student-priced meals during weekday lunch hours. Customers often perceive the special offers as value-for-money. These sales and promotional techniques, supported by marketing campaigns, have helped the restaurants to fill their empty seats.