Nightclub - Some insights.

[Mister Jofel]

With the new update I have been playing around with the new Nightclub and wanted to share some of my insights with you.
Currently I have 3 Nightclubs using my blueprint ( YellowRed Nightclub - C1). There isn’t a 4th one yet as no properly sized building became available yet in the last district :).

Building Type:
I learned the hard way that this building Type (30 max customers) is not ideal. Having to work with cash registers (capacity of 20) makes this building type inefficient from a profit perspective. On the other hand, it was much easier to properly decorate the place and provide it a combined look of a simple Pub and NightClub. But a Larger Building Type would be preferred for this.

Employees:
For the nightclub to be open I use 3 employees (1 DJ, 1 Cash Register, 1 Coat Check) which on hard difficulty comes back to around 75$/hr (if you don’t take the most expensive employees). During Peak hours I add 1 extra employee on a second cash register.

Opening Hours (Customers):
Little table I made based on the range of how many customers show up (no marketing was used and traffic index around 40).

 
Day                 0-8am     8am-8pm     8pm-0
Monday              4-7       0-1         2-5
Tuesday             4-7       0-1         2-5
Wednesday           4-7       0-1         2-5
Thursday            10-16     0-1         5-12
Friday              15-24     0-1         5-16
Saturday            14-24     0-1         7-16
Sunday              13-21     0-1         6-15

So as you can see, it makes no sense to have the nightclub open between 8am and 8pm.
Peak hours are on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Morning (between 0-5am). This is when a halftime employee is opening the second cash register. (For max profitability you might even consider not using this employee on Sunday morning)

Sales:
In the beginning the nightclub sales (especially drinks) seemed to be very poor and the main income comes from Cover costs. The better your DJ skill level however the more drinks you start to sell. With 100% skill level on my employees, I finally see people buying more as 1 drink during their visit. So skill level seems to be even more important looking at sales compared to other businesses.

Coat Check:
Added this seperately because within my club (too small as indicated) the coat check is a waste of money. It requires an employee to man it and even during my most busy days it barely makes 100-130$ an evening, while the employee costs 230-250$ on hard for that same evening.

Summary:
This business Type requires quite some effort to setup compared to some others. Having multiple employees manning different stations and having to setup different schedules for different days. It also requires you to put effort in leveling up the skill level (especially of your DJ) as this make quite a difference in the profitability of your Club. On average this business makes an ok profit (7-8k a day).
From a personal preference, I love to have them as a business as it adds quite some variation to the game. Especially how much difference they make to your profit during the weekends (it’s peak hours). It will certainly make your smile. (Mondays provide a horrible feeling though).

[David Estes Creations]

Nice overview!

Originally posted by Mister Jofel:

it makes no sense to have the nightclub open between 8am and 8pm.

Correct!

Originally posted by Mister Jofel:

The better your DJ skill level however the more drinks you start to sell

Correct - with a bad DJ, the customers will not want to stay and will often leave without buying anything

Originally posted by Mister Jofel:

It also requires you to put effort in leveling up the skill level

This is actually true of all businesses, though. With low level customer service, you're really hurting your business and how much you can seel things for

[Mister Jofel]

Originally posted by David Estes Creations:

Originally posted by Mister Jofel:

It also requires you to put effort in leveling up the skill level

This is actually true of all businesses, though. With low level customer service, you're really hurting your business and how much you can seel things for

I don't really have an issue with that in my new liquor stores (C2 building). Which makes on average quite a similar profit with very bad employees (15% skill level) compared to my 100% Nightclub. It's however true that I expect them to be more profitable once their skill level raises though :D

For this it would be good to actually have some kind of 'Prestige' level for your store. Something that only can be raised very slowly when you have the 'perfect' store. This creating 'loyal' customers who specifically come to visit your shop instead of just customers passing by and entering your shop (what the traffic index is about). This way you could actually improve a shop in the worst possible place (very low traffic index) to a thriving shop with a lot of 'loyal' customers. Let's say 10-20 years of perfect service provides you 100% Prestige and gets you max capacity in your shop, even when traffic index is below 10. (would provide some longer term goals in the game)

[Maxi P. ♛]

Very interesting thread.
This makes me question if advertising really pays off during the week.
Unfortunatly theres no option to enably it only for specific days, but I will tinker around about nad see if its worth it.
$1350 per day is not cheap.