A drink at the hotel bar. A lavish breakfast buffet. A perfectly planned wedding reception. A romantic dinner at the lobby restaurant.
Hotel guests worldwide had to give up these pleasures in 2020… and hotels felt the pain. Now, hotel operators are getting creative about F&B to win back their guests.
“The perceived value goes beyond portion size,” writes Matt Rinehart, Vice President of Food & Beverage, HRI Lodging in Lodging magazine. “Guests will measure value through the delivery of a thoughtful dining experience or to-go order that is consistent, guest-focused, and detail-driven.”
Here are four ways hotels are delivering just that.
Dining In Guestrooms
Many hotels are answering the increased demand for private dining by refitting guestrooms as dining spaces. Denver’s Oxford Hotel offers a “steakcation” package, with a night’s stay and dinner served in a separate guestroom. At Hotel Riggs in Washington, D.C., the rooms were pressed into service when local restrictions on indoor dining capacity threatened to cancel holiday reservations. In Detroit, the Apparatus Room restaurant partnered with the Detroit Foundation Hotel to offer private dining, and the response was so enthusiastic they needed a waiting list.
Tips for operators considering guestroom dining:
- Keep it on a single floor, to simplify service.
- Make communication easy. Invite diners to pre-order drinks and text their server.
- Have guidelines in place: a time maximum, an order minimum.
- Consider charging a cleaning fee.
Cocktails At The Door
You already know that restaurants have boosted their business by offering cocktails to go, both in kit form and as single servings. Hotels are venturing into this space too. Ocean House, a luxury hotel in Rhode Island, sends the BarMobile cart to guests’ rooms, “offering evening craft cocktails and complimentary canapes delivered right to your door.”
The Maybourne Beverly Hills has gone one step further, offering a mobile mixologist who brings the bar cart to your home. A masked bartender sets up the cart outside and makes a guest’s choice of signature cocktails from the hotel’s Los Angeles and London menus.
Food Delivery — Both Ways
It’s no secret that hotel guests are getting food delivered through third-party services. While operators might prefer them to order in-house, it’s time to embrace the trend. Just look at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which launched a partnership with DoorDash a few years ago to eliminate delivery fees for hotel guests and reward them with Wyndham Rewards points. Make sure that your guestrooms include an in-room refrigerator to store leftovers. Hamilton Beach Commercial’s compact refrigerators, available in three sizes, are easy to clean (no defrosting needed) and Energy Star-rated for efficiency.
Some hotels are turning things around by offering delivery from their kitchens. The NoMad Hotel in New York City has partnered with Caviar to deliver some of their signature dishes and drinks: the NoMad Chicken for two, dirty martinis and NoMad popcorn with black truffle and crispy chicken skin seasoning.
Pre-Plated/Served Hotel Breakfasts
Bountiful breakfast buffets have long been a reliable driver of guest satisfaction. Many hospitality experts, however, predict the self-serve buffet’s not coming back soon. Many hotels have switched to a grab-and-go model, but packaged muffins and oatmeal cups aren’t to everyone’s taste.
Chains such as Omni and Best Western have moved to attendant-served buffets or pre-plated meals. Hyatt’s app lets guests order and pay for breakfast a la carte. The Four Seasons is exploring new ways of delivering personalized service; John Johnson, executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel New York, describes “individual miniature dishes, instead of traditional buffets, and movable feasts in small personal vessels that move along a touchless conveyor belt.”
If your property opts for a served or pre-plated breakfast, Hamilton Beach Commercial equipment for hotel F&B can make service a snap. Touchless dispensing on Hamilton Beach Commercial’s coffee urns allows a guest or server to simply press a cup against the dispenser.
Commercial rice cookers perfectly cook grains like oatmeal, grits and porridge and hold food at temperature for up to four hours. And the PrimaVacTM line of vacuum sealers and the AcuVideTM 1000 Immersion Circulator team up for precise sous vide preparation of crowd-pleasing breakfast staples like egg bites, scrambled eggs, French toast and bacon.
