Give your customers a Mercedes to keep them coming back!

Posted by barblog on Jun 10, 2010 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

Most bars give their customers a bowl of peanuts to keep them drinking or a complimentary appetizer to ensure they stay in the bar, but there seems to be more of a trend to go far, far, far above and beyond this.

I just came back from a few days in Delray Beach, Florida where I stayed at the magnificent Seagate Hotel, a few hundred yards from the beach. No sooner had I checked in to the hotel, the receptionist was letting me know that the hotel had two brand new gleaming white Mercedes GLX vehicles available for any of my transportation requirements at no cost within a five mile radius of the hotel!

It wasn’t that the hotel was charging $500/night; in fact it was comparable to a budget hotel in the area, but the hotel had (rightly) figured that such a service was sure to wow guests and keep them coming back. It wowed the socks off me! But the Seagate Hotel isn’t the only destination to offer such a service in the hope of attracting more customers:

Spasso Restaurant in Minnetonka near Minneapolis is offering free round-trip rides to the wine-focused restaurant, for four to six diners, in a shiny new black Cadillac Escalade. No minimum purchase, no gimmicks and very few rules.

“We’re trying to get this thing going, so we’re open to just about anything,” said general manager Matt Urspringer. “They’ll pick you up at home, drive you to the restaurant and take you home. Just call us up, and we’ll patch you through to our dispatcher.”

Such a service might make sense for your bar or restaurant too, especially if you are in a downtown location with parking difficulties. Vehicle lease costs are at an all time low, so check it out and let us know if you do the same!