Businesses see growth in profits during graduation weekend

The end of the year is here, and for graduating seniors that means preparing to go out on their own. But for the businesses of Bloomington, graduation means preparing for a flood of family, friends and students during the weekend.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, catering companies and other businesses around Bloomington start preparing well in advance for one of the busiest weekends of the year.

John Bailey, managing partner of Malibu Grill, said the restaurant staff starts preparing in January for the busy weekend. He said they strategically mapped out the restaurant to make as many seats available as possible.

On Saturday, Bailey said the restaurant will serve more than 1,000 people.

“The biggest problem we have with so many people is getting them seated and served quickly,” he said.

This will be Malibu Grill’s 15th year working graduation weekend, Bailey said, so the staff knows what they are doing. Because of the special occasion, Malibu Grill changes its menu by either not offering some choices from the regular menu or by adding some special graduation choices.

Bailey said even though the day can be stressful, he does enjoy the special occasion. Samantha Gnoth, events coordinator for KRC Banquet and Catering, makes her living on special occasions.

“Mostly we do weddings, but this is a lot more challenging than the wedding parties,” Gnoth said.

She said they sometimes serve for four weddings on a Saturday, each with an average of 100 people to feed. For graduation day, they are working 25 jobs and feeding roughly 50 people per job, she said.

“Each different event has a different menu,” Gnoth said. “That’s 25 different menus to keep track of.”

The company also has to plan ahead to have enough workers and supplies, she said.

“Just for this weekend, we hired 10 extra staff members,” she said.

Finding places to eat is one thing. Getting a place to sleep is a different story.

Brandi Host, rooms division manager of the Biddle Hotel in the Indiana Memorial Union, said her staff has to make a lot of changes for the weekend. With only 189 rooms, the Biddle books up quickly.

“Usually starting from Thursday going ’til Sunday or Monday, everyone staying in the hotel is here for graduation,” Host said.

The Biddle is also where all the VIP guests, who include graduation speakers and board members, stay. With limited space and rooms already being taken by VIP guests, getting a room comes down to a lottery. Host said the hotel opens up a one-week window of opportunity when anyone can e-mail the hotel saying they would like a room. All of the requests are put into a lottery and selected at random.

Although Host said this is not the hotel’s busiest weekend, there is a lot to be managed. She said the most chaos comes from the amount of traffic in the circle drive. On top of that, there are people trying to check into the hotel.

“The thing I pray for is good weather,” Host said. “Everyone is happier when it’s nice out.”