Cornell Issues Revenue-boosting Tool For Restaurant Managers
Restaurants Can Determine Best Mix of Tables to Increase Peak-period Revenue
Restaurant managers now have a new tool that allows them to match their table mix to their customer mix. Cornell University has just released the Restaurant Table-Mix Optimizer, or RTMO, which is designed to give restaurant managers specific guidance on what mix of tables will provide the best revenue boost for their particular restaurant. The web-based tool, developed by Cornell professor Gary M.
Restaurant managers now have a new tool that allows them to match their table mix to their customer mix. Cornell University has just released the Restaurant Table-Mix Optimizer, or RTMO, which is designed to give restaurant managers specific guidance on what mix of tables will provide the best revenue boost for their particular restaurant. The web-based tool, developed by Cornell professor Gary M. Thompson, is available at no charge from
Most experienced restaurant managers understand that the mix of two- and four-tops in their restaurant affects how quickly and efficiently they can seat their customers. The RTMO improves on that skill by calculating the best table mix based on a restaurant’s specific situation.
Here’s how the RTMO works. A restaurant manager can log onto the tool at TheCenterforHospitalityResearch.org and input information that most managers already have available: the percentage of each particular party size (say, 20 percent parties of one, 55 percent deuces, and so forth); the average dining duration by party size; the average check by party size; the space to be allocated to tables in the restaurant; which table sizes are available; and the space required by a table of each of the allowed sizes.
The RTMO uses that information to delineate the table combinations that will best to serve each size party at that restaurant, as well as the maximum number of parties that can be served per hour and the maximum average revenue (or contribution margin) per available space per hour. The RTMO allows users to create, evaluate, and save different table-mix scenarios. This means that restaurant managers can play out “what if” scenarios, as they consider how to boost revenue by changing the table arrangements and sizes on their floor.
James C. Allen, executive vice president of Southern Wine and Spirits of New York, observed: "The idea of filling all of a restaurant's seats is not rocket science, but you don't have to look far to find restaurants that are not doing it. This tool should help restaurateurs in that regard."
The Restaurant Table-Mix Optimizer is the sixth tool available from Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research. The CHR’s website also offers numerous reports on restaurant management, including “Perceived Fairness of Restaurant Waitlist-management Policies" and “Dining Duration and Customer Satisfaction.”