Business has been so good, you have purchased a motel with an attached cafe in a rural tourist destination. You opened in May, which is during the height of tourist season. Your motel and cafe are busier than anticipated, and you have an entire new staff. While the food and the overall stay has good reviews, the negative feedback on speed of service in the cafe is starting to affect sales. Your motel has 50 rooms and the cafe has 20 tables. You offer free breakfast as a perk of the stay. Breakfast is offered 7 AM to 9 AM. When all rooms are full, there is a wait to get a table for breakfast. 

Since the cafe is one of five food options in town, it has also become a destination for locals and camping tourists who do not stay at your motel.
 

Currently, you have one point of sale unit for all transactions. The average time a customer spends at any given table is 90 minutes. While many people will charge their meal to their room, non-stay customers have a longer wait time to pay their bill.
 

Creating an operations strategy help to speed up service and decrease wait time. Consider all the systems that need attention. How can you maximize customer service, decrease wait time and keep low payroll?

Twenty tables maxed out is about 80 customers. How much wait staff will you need? How many cooks will you need in the kitchen? Will you need a hostess? Remember you are in a rural area, so staffing can be tricky. Think about how you can streamline and speed up the cooking process while integrating automation where it makes sense. Your strategy should include everything from greeting, ordering, cooking, serving, and reconciliation