Cover is a unit of measurement in the hospitality industry. It can refer to a meal, or a customer for whom the meal is served. It is used for the purpose of business forecasting.
Definition
A cover means one customer paying for one meal. For example, a table for four diners can provide 4 covers, but if the table is used for two sittings, that becomes 8 covers.
Derived statistics
- Cover per Occupied Room (CPOR) is one statistic which can be used in forecasting.
- This is the average spent per individual customer, which can be calculated separately for each member of the serving staff.
- Polansky and McCool propose a capture ratio, given by the ratio of "Meal Period Covers Served" divided by the "Number of Persons Available to Eat that Meal".
- This is another statistic which can be used to calculate the allocation of staff, based on the number of predicted covers required.
References
- "What Is a Cover at a Restaurant?". yourbusiness.azcentral.com. Gannett. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- Eat App https://restaurant.eatapp.co/blog/the-a-to-z-guide-to-restaurant-lingo
- ^ Polansky, David; McCool, Audrey C. (September 1991). "Effecting Cost Control Through Integrated Food and Beverage Forecasting" (PDF). The Journal of Hospitality Financial Management. 1 (1): 81–82. doi:10.1080/10913211.1991.10653622.
- "21 Restaurant Metrics and How to Calculate Them". TouchBistro. Retrieved 15 June 2020.