You worked harder than ever this summer. Did you earn more?

August. Ten at night. The terrace is full, the kitchen is flat out, and people are waiting on their feet. You’ve gone three weeks without a day off and you think: this year, yes.

October comes, you check your bank account and it’s not what you expected.

If that’s happened to you, you’re not alone. According to Hostelería de España, in 2025 the restaurant sector turned over 3.1% more than the previous year… while its profitability fell by 0.9%. More work, more sales, less profit.

And it wasn’t because there weren’t enough people. Hotel occupancy on the Costa Blanca was around 81% as early as the first half of June, and in the south of Alicante it was up by more than eight points compared with 2025. The customers certainly did come.

So where did the money go?

It’s almost never just one thing. It’s spread across small leaks that go unnoticed when the place is full. The supplier who put prices up in June, extra staff during weeks when you didn’t need them, portions that kept getting bigger without anyone deciding they should.

When the place is full, there’s no time to spot it. But now there is.

I call it the “it went well” trap. It’s the phrase you hear most in October, and the one that tells you least. But “it went well” isn’t a figure. It’s a feeling, and feelings don’t pay suppliers.

The good news is that you can plug the leaks, and October, when things are quieter, is the best time to do it. Here are three steps, one for each leak:

1. Check the prices of your ten best-selling dishes. Get your latest supplier invoices and work out how much each dish costs you today. If the cost has gone up but the menu price hasn’t, there’s your first leak. You don’t have to put up the price of everything on the menu: sometimes adjusting two or three dishes is enough.

2. Set sales and staffing side by side, week by week. Look at which weeks you brought in extra staff and how much you sold in each one. You’ll quickly see which weeks you had too many people and which you didn’t have enough. That way, next summer’s rota can be based on figures, not guesswork.

3. Write down portion sizes. A simple sheet for each dish: how many grams, which side, how it should be plated. It may sound trivial, but when everyone in the kitchen serves “by eye”, costs shoot up without anyone noticing.

You don’t have to do everything this week. But you do need to start keeping your business under control.

For this week: choose your three best-selling dishes and work out what they cost you today. Compare that with what you charge. Fifteen minutes that could change your winter.

Sources: Hostelería de España, 2025 Yearbook; Hosbec, occupancy figures for the first half of June 2026 (EFE).