How Arc Inspiration's Manahatta brand turned an empty room in York into a booked-every-weekend karaoke destination, added a new midweek revenue stream, and reinvented bottomless brunch — all in a single hospitality year.
Meet the operator: Arc Inspiration
Arc Inspiration is the multi-venue hospitality group behind Manahatta — the New York-inspired cocktail and dining brand with sites across the North of England and beyond. We spoke to Alex, Brand Operations Manager at Manahatta, at the group's Deansgate site in Manchester about what karaoke has changed for the business.
"I think with the aspects of hospitality at the moment, it's more about giving that guest an experience, rather than it just being going out drinking or going to a local pub. Our hospitality sector has changed and we need that experiential thing — and karaoke was a great way to bring people together."
The empty room story
The best proof that karaoke works isn't in a spreadsheet — it's in a room. Specifically, a room in Manahatta York with a balcony that, before karaoke, "wasn't used at all."
"Them rooms with that balcony — that room wasn't used at all. Now it's full every Friday and Saturday, and then used midweek as well."
That single transformation captures the wider Manahatta story. Karaoke didn't just fill a gap in the calendar. Bookings are now landing on nights the venue never used to see private-room demand.
The new midweek revenue stream
Before Singa, Manahatta's karaoke-adjacent trade was mostly Thursday to Saturday. Now the team is actively booking midweek karaoke sessions — a category that didn't exist for them a year ago.
"A lot of people are coming in to look for singing karaokes midweek, which is not something that we had before Singa."
The playbook: when a group of four or five books in for food midweek, the team offers karaoke as an add-on. The upshot is that midweek covers now regularly include a karaoke room booking — turning what would otherwise be dinner-and-drinks into a full evening.
Reinventing bottomless brunch
The most surprising commercial impact wasn't in the private rooms — it was in the bottomless brunch service. Manahatta already had a strong bottomless brunch business. Adding karaoke gave it a new format entirely.
What started as an upsell — brunch first, karaoke afterwards — quickly evolved into something guests were booking as the main event:
"People will then come for the bottomless, didn't know we did it, add it on, and then the next time they'll go, 'Well, we want to do karaoke bottomless rather than it just be after the event.'"
For large bookings — 12-plus — the effect is even stronger. Groups that see each other once every six months are using karaoke as the bonding centrepiece, not the after-party. And the F&B numbers move with it: more sharing plates, more drink rounds, longer stays.
"Because they're here and they're doing an experience, they're more likely to order extra food, sharing plates or drinks. The biggest uplift we've actually seen is nibbles and sharing — so they can still sing, still have that food element, and then drinks on top as well."
Guests arrive earlier and stay longer
Karaoke has visibly moved the needle on time-on-site. Alex describes a consistent pattern across Manahatta venues:
"They're arriving a lot earlier, as well as staying longer. On our busy periods, people will take up karaoke after they've had a two-hour booking with us, so then they'll stay an extra hour, hour and a half. And sometimes we'll get a message, 'We want to extend the karaoke, please — can we do that?'"
Every extension is another round of drinks, another shared plate, another song. The venue's kitchen and bar keep moving later into the night than they otherwise would.
Who's booking — and who's singing
The demographic mix at Manahatta's karaoke rooms is broader than the team expected:
- Hen parties — expected and dependable
- Stag dos — a surprise, and now a strong booker
- Big groups of guys — the biggest surprise of all
- Bottomless brunch groups — the fastest-growing category
- Reunion groups — the once-every-six-months friend group using karaoke as the bonding activity
"Everybody, whether you can sing or not, it doesn't matter. It's about having fun with your friends and really driving that atmosphere between you all. Everyone has an opinion on music, but everyone can bond on music as well."
Songs the room lands on? Wonderwall, Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire, and — Alex's words — "a lot of pretty ones, funnily enough" from groups you wouldn't expect.
The cross-city effect
One of the more unexpected commercial signals is cross-venue repeat business:
"The biggest surprise for me as a Manahatta brand was we're seeing cross-city bookings. When we've got bookings that come in our system, they'll say, 'I've done the karaoke in Manahatta Deansgate — I'd like to book in Manahatta York.' So we are seeing that repeat business."
Karaoke has become one of the reasons guests seek out the brand in another city — not a bolt-on to an existing visit, but a booking driver in its own right.
Why Singa
Alex was explicit that Manahatta researched the karaoke market before choosing a partner. The reasons Singa won out came down to four things:
- Ease of access — the platform was straightforward to get up and running
- Ease of training — the team learned it fast, and now trains other sites internally
- Ease of use for guests — the search-by-genre, browse-and-pick experience needs no explanation
- Communication and support — "any problems, any issue we've had, it's been near enough instantaneous where it's been fixed"
"Incredibly easy. We had to get the tech working for the speakers, but because we've got our sound systems, it was easy to integrate Singa into the system. Training was excellent. And the good thing about Singa — it was easy to train in. It wasn't over-complicated. It was an iPad, which most people use nowadays."
Because the platform is consistent across sites, Manahatta's approach to rolling out a new venue is now efficient: team members who already know Singa travel to the new site and lead the training, with support from Singa's own team on standby.
The team on board
Karaoke has also become something the team leans into. At some Manahatta sites, the general manager sings the first song with a booking to break the ice — a small ritual that gets guests engaged immediately. At the end of the night, the team occasionally uses the rooms themselves as a wind-down.
"The team have really taken it on board. They understand the concept and why we've done it, and why we've brought it in. They're really on board about pushing it and driving it to our guests to give that extra experience."
The takeaway
Manahatta's karaoke story is a case study in strategic experience layering. The brand already had strong bottomless brunch numbers and consistent weekend trade. Karaoke didn't replace either — it extended both.
The measurable outcomes in the year since rollout:
- A previously unused private room in York now booked every Friday and Saturday, and midweek
- A new midweek trade category — karaoke bookings on nights the venue wouldn't have seen private-room demand
- Bottomless brunch reinvented as a karaoke-forward format, with guests booking it by name
- Guests arriving earlier and extending sessions by an hour or ninety minutes
- Cross-city repeat bookings across the Manahatta portfolio
- A surprisingly broad audience — hen parties, stag dos, and big groups of guys all filling the queue
"Singa's been great to work with — easy to use, engaging for our guests, and generally a fun system to have to build that experience for our guests. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone."
Thinking about adding karaoke rooms to your venue or reinventing an existing format? Get in touch with Singa for Business to see how it could work in your space, and read our Singa Pro overview for a walkthrough of the system Manahatta uses.
