Hotel dining is having a moment.
Hotel restaurants used to have a stodgy, old-school reputation as “a three-meal-a-day café where you just get a club sandwich and a burger,” Ewart Wardhaugh, executive chef at the Epicurean Hotel Atlanta, tells FSR magazine. “But now, the food and beverage within a lot of hotels is just as good as a freestanding restaurant, if not better because they have better support.”
While many hotels’ F&B profits have struggled to rebound post-pandemic, the industry is seeing increases in F&B revenue per occupied room. The drivers: more in-room dining, menu price increases, and event revenue.
Working to boost your F&B in 2023? Look to these trends.
Find inspiration in location
It’s essential to establish a vibrant sense of place. When a hotel restaurant or bar has a strong neighborhood feel and presence, that attracts local diners. And when a restaurant is popular with locals, hotel guests feel that energy and are more likely to want to dine in. The big question: How, exactly can you create that irresistible vibe? Here are some ideas.
Invite diners to taste your city. Here’s a brilliant idea: neighborhood tapas. At Living Room, the small-plates restaurant at W Hotel in Toronto, Executive Chef Keith Pears created a menu of dishes inspired by the city’s diverse neighborhoods. Representing Chinatown: 5-spice donuts with hoisin chicken, mandarin orange and chili peanut brittle. For Little Italy, there’s a cheddar and potato croquette with romaine puree, white anchovy and parmesan.
Take down the walls. Many newer hotels have turned the lobby into the center of F&B operations. “This creates a sense of place and an active environment at check-in and drives greater F&B revenues with greater efficiencies, as well as an overall increase in ADR,” notes Lodging magazine. A flexible lobby setup can be all things to all people: a morning coffee bar, grab-and-go lunch counter, and cocktail-hour gathering spot.
Dream big. Dream Hotel Group has built its brand around nightlife — or, as they describe it, “rare, raw energy drawn from some of the most stimulating cities in the world” — and so invests heavily in creating mesmerizing F&B experiences on-site. This approach has paid off: Dream Hollywood’s chic rooftop bar averages about $1M a week in revenue, CEO Jay Stein says. Overall F&B, brings in 75% of the revenue for that hotel and 50% of revenue brand-wide. Get some ideas: 6 Ways to Elevate the Hotel Bar
Invest in food, streamline service
This F&B trend is born of necessity, as hotels continue to struggle with hiring. Fortunately, today’s guests have adapted, and now they’re happy with limited service as long as the food is great. Or, as Lodging puts it, “the high-quality $25 burger wrapped in paper served at the counter is here to stay.”
How can hotels make the shift to limited-service? Some trends we’re seeing:
- Smaller menus
- Batched cocktails · Simplified cocktail mixing: Consider the Bartesian® Professional Cocktail Machine, which enables any staff member to mix great drinks (including mocktails!) without training
- Mobile ordering
- A renewed investment in in-room dining
Offer healthier (but still free!) breakfasts
Hoteliers already know that breakfast is a major driver of guest satisfaction. Its absence was keenly felt during the pandemic, when more than a third of hotels eliminated their breakfast buffet, and now most properties have brought back breakfast to meet demand.
Guest expectations are high: They want hotel breakfast to be high-quality and also free. “Complimentary breakfast” is the #1 search filter on Hilton’s website, according to the Hilton 2023 Trends Report. And more than ever, guests want breakfast choices they can feel good about.
Eric Leveillee, executive chef at Lacroix at The Rittenhouse in Philadelphia, tells Hotel Management that he’s seen strong demand for healthy breakfast offerings: “Salads and smoothies have replaced the more traditional meat and potatoes.” Some Marriott properties offer a “customization station” with healthy toppings to add to breakfast bowls, such as almonds, coconut flakes and dried cranberries. Hilton’s report notes guests’ “desire for lighter and healthier options, the rise in iced coffee beverages and increased popularity in alternative milks.”
Hamilton Beach Commercial foodservice equipment for hotels can meet these needs. The first essential piece is a high-performance beverage blender to make those frozen coffee drinks and healthy smoothies. Consider a model with QuietBlend™ technology, which keeps blending noise as soft as conversation.
Other equipment to boost your healthy breakfast bar offerings:
- Commercial rice cookers, which can cook almost any grain to the perfect consistency and keep it hot for up to four hours.
- Sous-vide equipment: The PrimaVacTM line of chamber vacuum sealers and the AcuVideTM 1000 Immersion Circulator make protein-packed egg bites or poached eggs ready for sous viding at the correct temperatures.
- Self-service coffee urns with precise, rapid brewing and hands-free dispensing.
Explore Hamilton Beach Commercial’s full line of breakfast bar equipment for hotels.
