The kitchen is a vital source of revenue for a lot of community groups. Here are three tips on how to manage and balance it, how to get lots of bookings, how to charge that little bit more for rental, and how to get a lot of repeat visitors.

How to create demand and repeat bookings for your kitchen

Aside from advertising your kitchen as available, the most powerful thing you can do to generate demand and repeat bookings is to make your kitchen welcoming, well-equipped, pleasant, and easy to use.

In our opinion, the best way to achieve that is by choosing semi-commercial kitchen design, which is better equipped and more robust than a domestic-style kitchen, and less intimidating than a cold, bland commercial stainless catering kitchen.

The ideal semi-commercial design will have a polyester powder-coated mild steel carcass, with a stainless-steel worktop. That means you can have a choice of colours that make the space welcoming and attractive, and the kitchen will be durable enough to withstand heavy use, keeping the environment pleasant and hygienic.

A semi-commercial design also allows for a greater range of equipment, meaning a more desirable location for a broader range of external groups.

For a further look at how design can enhance your kitchen, speak to one of our friendly experts by calling 0208 254 0090 or emailing [email protected].

How to maintain the necessary hygiene in your kitchen

You will already have a cleaning regime in your kitchen, but increased usage and external bookings place more pressure and demands on a kitchen’s hygiene.

Bacteria build up much faster when the kitchen is heavily used, and while your existing cleaning is no doubt thorough, paying customers mean that standards have to be even more impeccable.

It is more or less impossible to maintain the necessary levels of cleanliness if your kitchen is domestic-style, made of materials like vinyl-wrapped MDF. These domestic kitchens are not made to withstand heavy use, and will peel and absorb moisture readily.

The advantage of a semi-commercial kitchen is that surfaces are wipe-clean, and it requires only basic and readily available cleaning supplies. They are also hygienic by design, with read folded upstands at wall abutments, and recessed, seamless-welded sinks grained and polished into the worktop, eliminating gaps and sealant where moisture and bacteria gather.

Managing capacity, external bookings, and community usage in your kitchen

If your kitchen bookings become so popular that there is more demand than capacity, then you might need to discuss how you balance community usage with external usage. It is tempting to make as much time available to external bookings as possible, since the revenue is important, but of course it is important that the kitchen is a community asset too. After all, that is its primary purpose.

If there is any question of how to balance the two demands, then consultation with the group will be the answer. A frank discussion of the community’s goals and needs should help to settle how much time to offer for paying customers, and how much to hold back for the group.

If you have any questions about kitchen design and how it can better service your community, please reach out to one of our friendly experts, who are always happy to have a no-obligation discussion about your needs, your kitchen space, and how a semi-commercial kitchen could help you to achieve your goals.

Call 0208 254 0090 or email [email protected].