The Advantages of Tendering for Hospitality Contracts

 Tendering for hospitality contracts can be a viable way to grow your business. If you haven’t considered it before, you should. There are more hospitality contracts than ever before. Both the private and public sectors release hospitality contracts. They do this in order to procure a range of hospitality goods and services.

Here at Hospitality Tenders, we have seen a 72% increase in tenders in the sector since January. There’s never been a better time to apply for hospitality contracts. There are more options than ever, meaning you’re likely to find the perfect opportunity for your business. These contracts can range from catering to events staffing and laundry services to entertainment.

If you are on the fence about whether or not you should tender for contracts, there are many advantages.

Hospitality contract advantages

Prompt Payment

If you’re bidding on contracts in the public sector, you can take confidence that you are guaranteed payment. It is certainly one of the biggest advantages of tendering for hospitality contracts. This is because the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) must pay suppliers within 60-days of invoicing. This is to comply with the Prompt Payment Code (2008).

Secure a pipeline of work

Bidding for hospitality contracts can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business. Particularly if you secure a place on a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) or framework agreement. These tendering processes are often used within the hospitality sector to procure a range of goods and services. The benefit of these is that they can run for years at a time. Some even have the possibility of an extension.

Build experience

Hospitality contracts are a great way to gain experience as a business. Buyers will require 2 – 3 case studies of past contracts you have delivered. They need to be within the last 3 – 5 years. They should be similar in scope and style to the one you’re applying for.

Securing smaller contracts can help you build up that experience. The more experience you have, the bigger the contracts you can go for. The bigger bids you can go for, the bigger your business can grow. Securing a place on a DPS or framework is a great place to start.

The government awards 23% of contracts to SMEs

If you think that only big businesses get a slice of the action, you’d be wrong. In fact, the UK government has a target to see at least £1 in every £3 being spent with SMEs. This means public sector businesses are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses.

Local council’s actually release more hospitality contracts than you would have thought. Typically, these are for catering and canteen services among other things.

Remember when writing your response for hospitality contracts to:

• Avoid overly technical jargon
• Stick to the word counts
• Be clear, concise and persuasive in your response
• Demonstrate added value
• Ensure you have all the necessary qualifications and accreditations needed
• Meet the quality standards
• Partake in any site visits where possible.

Where can I find hospitality contracts for my business?

So, now you know the advantages of tendering for hospitality contracts. You may be wondering where to find them. There are hundreds of websites posting hospitality tender opportunities. Trawling through them can take hours out of your busy day. Luckily for you, we have a solution.

Hospitality Tenders is a sector-specific portal that posts all live tenders within the hospitality industry. Our Opportunity Trackers manually identify and upload each tender individually. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes. You can filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more.

Below are previous hospitality contracts sourced on our portal:

Concessionary Canteen Service for Colaiste na Carraige

Donegal Education and Training Board- Republic of Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

The Provision of Hospitality Services at the Shay Stadium, Halifax

Calderdale Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

COV – Mobile Catering Concession for Park 2021-22

Coventry City Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

WHC – Bouncy Castles Supply

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council- Eastern- Budget: £13,000

Tender opportunity: Buckler’s Hard Tea Room, Beaulieu

Beaulieu Enterprises Limited- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Hospitality Tenders can offer your business:

• Access to all unique, private and public sector opportunities.
• A dedicated Account Manager that can answer any questions you may have about DPS for catering or government catering contracts.
• A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new catering tenders are uploaded that day.
• Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
• 20-minutes of free consultancy each month with our Bid Experts.

We also source opportunities for services including;

• Catering Services
• Catering Equipment
• Events Management Tenders
• Events Staffing Tenders
• Entertainment Contracts
• Laundry Services
• and School meals.

If you would like to see the catering contracts on the portal, please get in touch for a free demo.

Need assistance with your hospitality contracts response?

If you’re still unsure about how to respond to your hospitality contract – we can help. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing. They hold an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of experience. We offer four bid writing support packages for all your tender needs.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is designed for businesses that are completely new to tendering. Our Bid Writers work with you to make sure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

• A 12-month subscription to Catering Tenders.
• Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
• An Organisation-wide Bid library, including 3 case studies, 5 CVs and 8 policies.
• Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Have you been tendering for work, but aren’t seeing success from your efforts? Our Tender Improvement programme can help. During the course of the programme, a Bid Writer will assess your previous responses and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance, working with you to improve for future submissions.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect catering tender, but don’t know where to start, Hudson Succeed can help. Send it over and one of our Bid Writers will take care of it all for you. They’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll provide you with a full Tender Writing breakdown and let you know what they need from you.

Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor can help if you’ve already written a bid response and you need someone to double-check for errors. Our Bid Writers will check it’s in line with the specification. They’ll also make sure it’s free of grammar and spelling mistakes before you submit it.

Get in touch with our team for a friendly chat about how we can help you.

Upgrade to Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to optimise your tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two new packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each package can help save you even more time when searching for the right catering tenders for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

• A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
• An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Hospitality and Facilities, for example.
• Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
• Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
• Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable hospitality tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

• All of the above.
• Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
• A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.