Feature · Promotions
Restaurant happy hours and promotions that start and stop on time
Set the discount once — so much off the cocktails from five to seven on weekdays, an early-bird price on the set menu, a quiet-week offer on the mains — and Slotina puts it on the dishes inside those hours and takes it off again when they end. Nobody on the floor has to remember, and nobody has to override a price by hand at ten past seven.
Promotions are set up on the web screens and are part of the one monthly price per location.
Three questions make a promotion
How much comes off, what it comes off, and when. Each promotion answers all three, and nothing else.
How much
A percentage off, or a fixed amount off each dish it covers. A third off the sharing boards and a round sum off every pizza are both one line to write.
On what
The whole menu, chosen categories, or chosen dishes. The categories are the ones your menu already has, so “small plates” or “desserts” is picked rather than retyped, and a dish added to that category later is covered without anyone touching the promotion.
When
Chosen days of the week, a window of hours, and the dates between which it runs. Monday to Thursday from five to seven; Sunday lunch through the quiet weeks after New Year; one Saturday for the street party.
When two promotions land on the same dish
Sooner or later the happy hour and the midweek offer overlap. The rule is simple enough to explain to a guest at the bar.
- The biggest single discount on the dish wins. Promotions never stack, so two offers never add up to a price you did not mean to give.
- Say an early-bird takes 25 per cent off the set menu from five to half six, and a Tuesday promotion takes 10 per cent off the whole menu. A set menu ordered at six on a Tuesday gets the 25 per cent, and the side of chips beside it gets the 10.
- Outside every promotion's hours, the menu price is back. There is no end-of-offer job for the closing manager.
A promotion, or a discount on one bill
The promotion
A rule you write in advance, for everyone who orders the dishes it covers inside its hours. It is the right tool for the offer on the chalkboard outside.
The discount at the table
The birthday table, the steak that came out overdone, the regular you want to thank: a manager takes something off that one bill, or comps a dish, and gives the reason. It is recorded with the bill, not written into the menu.
Happy hour and the licensing rules
A cheap drink for two hours is the classic happy hour, and it is exactly what the four licensing regimes of these islands treat differently. In short, as the texts read on 4 November 2026:
- Ireland: regulation 5 of S.I. No. 4/2020 forbids selling alcohol for a period of 3 days or less at a price below the one charged the day before, which rules out a drinks happy hour. Regulation 4 forbids alcohol at a reduced price or free when something else is bought, so a cheaper glass of wine with a main course is out too. In operation since 11 January 2021, under section 23 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018.
- Scotland: paragraph 7 of schedule 3 to the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 lets a price for drink on the premises change only at the start of a period of licensed hours, with no further change for 72 hours. A daily drinks happy hour does not fit. Paragraph 8 lists irresponsible promotions, among them alcohol free or cheaper when other drinks are bought.
- England and Wales: the mandatory licensing conditions rule out irresponsible promotions, such as unlimited or unspecified quantities of drink for a fixed or discounted fee where that carries a significant risk to a licensing objective, and selling alcohol below the permitted price, which is the duty plus VAT on that duty. Your premises licence may carry conditions of its own.
- Northern Ireland: article 57A of the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 describes irresponsible drinks promotions, among them alcohol free or at a reduced price when other drinks are bought, and unlimited drink for a fixed charge.
What Slotina does about it: in an Irish restaurant, a promotion with hours never discounts alcohol, whatever else it takes off the menu. That is the one rule it applies by itself. Elsewhere the drinks a promotion covers are your decision, so a Scottish restaurant keeps its drinks categories out of anything with hours, and every restaurant checks its own licence. The rules above are about alcohol: a happy hour on the bar snacks or an early-bird price on food is a different question.
A summary of the texts listed below, not legal advice. For your own premises, ask your solicitor or your licensing authority.
Sources for the law on this page (read 4 November 2026; not legal advice)
- S.I. No. 4/2020, Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 (Sale and Supply of Alcohol Products) Regulations 2020, regulations 2–6
- Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, section 23 (Irish Statute Book)
- Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, schedule 3, paragraphs 7 and 8 (legislation.gov.uk)
- The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order 2010, schedule, paragraph 1 (legislation.gov.uk)
- The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Conditions) Order 2014, schedule: the permitted price (legislation.gov.uk)
- Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, article 57A (legislation.gov.uk)
Did the happy hour earn its keep?
A discount pays when it fills hours that would otherwise sit empty, and costs you when it only makes the busy hours cheaper. The busy hours in the sales reports show whether the five-to-seven crowd arrived, and the dish mix shows what they had. Run the promotion for a month, compare the same weekdays before it, and decide with the figures rather than the feeling at the bar. If the margin on a dish is already thin, the gross profit guide shows how far a discount can go before the dish loses money.
What promotions do not do
- A promotion changes prices on your menu. It is not a loyalty scheme, a voucher or a marketing campaign, and Slotina has none of those.
- It takes a percentage or an amount off the dishes it covers. Two-for-one offers and bundles are not among its shapes.
- Promotions are created and edited on the web screens.
- Outside Ireland, no licensing rule is applied for you: the hours and the drinks you choose are yours to check.
Promotions: what owners ask
Can I run a happy hour on cocktails only?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, yes, within your licence: choose the cocktails category, the days and the hours, and the discount applies to those drinks inside that window. In Ireland, no: a promotion with hours never discounts alcohol in an Irish restaurant, because Irish law forbids cutting the price of drink for three days or less. In Scotland, schedule 3 paragraph 7 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 allows no further change to a drinks price for 72 hours, which rules out a daily drinks happy hour, so check your licence first. A happy hour on the food menu is a different question everywhere.
What happens when two offers overlap?
The biggest single discount on each dish wins, and the offers do not add together. A dish covered by a 25 per cent early-bird and a 10 per cent midweek offer gets 25 per cent.
Can a promotion run for just a few weeks?
Yes. Besides the days and the hours, each promotion has the dates it runs between, so a January lunch offer ends by itself when January does.
How do I take something off one table's bill instead?
That is a discount or a comp on the bill, given by a manager with a reason. It applies to that bill only and leaves the menu prices as they are.
Do promotions cost extra?
No. They are part of the one monthly price per location, with the menu, the orders, the kitchen display and the bill.
Five o'clock, and the prices change by themselves
The early-access list is one e-mail long: it arrives the day Slotina opens, with the promotions inside the same monthly price.
Join the early-access list