Two Guys. One Table. Zero Revenue.
Please. For the love of hospitality. Stop putting billiard tables in your bars.
I know how it happens. Someone in a planning meeting says "entertainment!" and everyone nods. An activity! Guests will love it! It'll drive people to the bar!
Here's what actually drives people to the bar — and it isn't a billiard table.
Here's what really happens.
Two guys claim the table within the first hour. They nurse one beer each for the entire session. They eat nothing. They high five occasionally. Everyone else navigates around them.
That's it. That's your entertainment investment.
Don't believe me? Run this experiment tonight.
Go to your nearest neighborhood bar with a billiard table. Find the guys playing. Count their drinks per hour. Count their food orders. Write it down.
Then walk to the bar next door - no billiard table, just good music and comfortable seating. Do the same exercise.
The difference will make you want to sell the billiard table by morning.
Here's the psychology.
When people play billiard their hands are occupied. Their attention is locked on the table. The relaxed, social, let's-order-another-round energy evaporates completely. Nobody flags down a waiter mid-shot. Nobody orders a sharing platter when they're calculating angles.
Billiard creates focus. Bars need flow.
Put a billiard table in your bar and watch your revenue per cover quietly die. And while you're at it - look at how much floor space that table is taking up! Three additional tables in that footprint, each generating food and drink revenue over a four hour evening. Run that number against what the two guys nursing their beers are spending. That's your billiard table's true cost, measured in square meters.
But here's the real problem. It's not the table.
It's what the table represents.
Putting a billiard table in your bar and calling it entertainment is lazy management. And lazy management is very expensive in today's hospitality landscape.
Because the alternative - the thing that actually works - requires effort. It requires creativity. It requires someone who actually cares enough to think beyond the obvious.
Infused cocktails. Theme nights. Whiskey flights. House-infused bourbons. Wine pairings with a story behind them. A bartender who knows how to talk to guests and make them feel like the only people in the room. Staff who are trained - properly trained - to engage, recommend and create moments, not just take orders. Live music that sets a mood instead of filling silence.
That's what fills a bar. That's what drives a second round, a third round, a late night cheese board nobody planned on ordering.
The billiard table is what happens when nobody wants to do any of that work. When management decides that guests can entertain themselves and quietly hopes for the best.
And before anyone says this is the bar manager's problem - sit at your own bar first.
When did you last spend two hours at your hotel bar on a Tuesday evening? Not to inspect it. Not to greet a VIP. Actually sit there as a guest would - order a drink, wait for the menu, feel the music, watch the staff. Experience what your guests experience.
Most bar managers haven't done this recently. Most GMs haven't either. And it shows.
Because if they had - the billiard table wouldn't be there. And neither would half the other things quietly killing the atmosphere.
Lazy management is expensive. The billiard table is just the most visible symptom.
Put a live DJ there instead. Or a jazz trio. Or literally just better lighting and a cocktail menu worth reading.
Anything but the billiard table.
You're welcome. 😄
For a masterclass in what genuinely engaged management looks like across an entire resort - and what it does to your F&B revenue - read Three Resorts. One Beach. One Winner.
And if you want to see how the same lazy management thinking plays out at a much bigger commercial scale - with a much bigger empty space - The Ballroom Trap will feel very familiar.
xoxo, Bored Hotelier 😉
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a billiard table increase bar revenue in hotels? No. It reduces it. Hands occupied with a cue means nobody is flagging down a waiter. Attention locked on the table means nobody is ordering another round. The floor space alone — three additional revenue-generating tables in that footprint — tells you everything you need to know before you even look at a spend-per-cover report.
Are there situations where games like billiard, darts or table football actually work in a bar? Yes — exactly one. When guests are paying for the game itself. An arcade bar concept where every game costs $3 to $5, the music is loud, the beer is cold and the whole experience is the product — that works. You're selling the game! In any other configuration, where the game is free and you're relying on it to drive F&B spend — no.
Where should a hotel put a billiard table if not in the bar? A games room. If you must have one. Quiet, separate from any F&B outlet, with no expectation of revenue beyond keeping families occupied for twenty minutes on a rainy afternoon. The games room exists so that the billiard table doesn't end up somewhere it can do real damage. Just don't put a bar in the games room and call it entertainment strategy.
How do you increase revenue per cover in a hotel bar? Start by removing everything that gives guests a reason not to order. Then add everything that creates a reason to stay — storytelling, atmosphere, music, engaged staff, a cocktail menu worth reading. Revenue per cover is a direct reflection of how much a guest wants to be in your bar.