The announcement last summer that New York Hilton Midtown would end room service sparked plenty of industry debate about the direction of this oft-maligned F&B segment and whether it could survive at all in the long term. Now that everyone has a few months of perspective on Hilton’s decision, HOTELS spoke with Corey Nyman, director of operations for Las Vegas-based consultancy The Nyman Group, about the latest trends in room service and the biggest keys to its success going forward.
HOTELS: What was your reaction this past summer when New York Hilton Midtown announced it would eliminate room service?
Corey Nyman: New York City has offered some of the highest wages in the country to line-level hotel employees. You’re dealing with either a business traveler or a leisure guest who is very unique. They’re using the hotel as a base for going somewhere else. As an operator, I completely understand it. As long as you’re hitting your minimum service standards, you’re perfectly in the right.
That being said, the concept they created at the Hilton Midtown (Herb N’ Kitchen) is fantastic. The food and beverage society we’re in now would much rather have an a la carte experience than have to wait 20, 40 or 60 minutes for delivery of a product, pay a service charge to get it up there, a mandatory gratuity on top of that and taxes. When they created this new concept, we applauded it because it captures guest needs for in-room dining and also allows you to maximize that grab-and-go feel where a lot of hotels are going anyway.
At the end of the day, there are two things we look at: guest satisfaction and ROI. [The Hilton Midtown] probably took a look at their expenses and guest demand. Hilton doesn’t make a decision like this lightly. Is it the right decision in Chicago or San Francisco? I couldn’t tell you that off the top of my head. I think New York City is a unique animal.
HOTELS: Do you believe self-service-focused, grab-and-go F&B outlets are a viable replacement for traditional room service going forward in a broader sense?
Nyman: When you’re dealing with the resort environment, room service will always play a role. There is an expectation, and if it’s a 5-star experience, you have to have a certain offering.
As far as grab-and-go, I think we’re going to continue to see a lot of it. That goes back to everything that’s been done at Starbucks. They have created a specialized experience for each individual. Going back to hotels, the hotel lobby is once again cool. The hotel lobby is being used kind of as the neighborhood living room, by hotel guests as well as locals, and having a grab-and-go concept is a great idea because instead of some of these people going to your three-meal restaurant and having a cup of coffee and a meeting and taking up a table and lingering through another meal period, they can get a cup of coffee and an add-on and maximize the energy in your lobby.
Those outlets definitely could replace room service, and I don’t think it’s bad if they’re eating into room service. For so many years, room service was a captive audience, and traditionally it was overpriced, understaffed and forgotten about. This gives us a kind of reboot in the industry. If we are going to offer room service, I think there’s a better way to do it, by making sure we have dishes from the hotel’s signature restaurant or seasonal items, for example. With room service, it used to be you put that menu in the compendium, and it sat there for years. Now, we’re seeing digital menus or TV display menus or even an insert left on a daily basis in certain hotel rooms.
Just like any good restaurant, you have to look at your demand generators. If you know you have business travelers, the Sunday-through-Thursday crowd, maybe you look to do limited room service, either limited hours or a unique menu Sunday through Thursday. Then Friday and Saturday you have more of a leisure traveler, maybe you ramp down room service or have a limited menu that still accounts for what their demands are.
HOTELS: In addition to things like the seasonal items you mentioned, what other hot trends are you observing on room service menus today?
Nyman: In beverage, the concepts of cocktails and instead of just a long wine list offering wine by the glass or half bottles are continuing to rise.
There’s a growing idea of offering packages. You can throw a party in your suite, like a mixology party with house-made snacks, really using that sense of place for each hotel and having more signatures.
Menu carryover is a big deal — seasonal, local and unique presentation.
HOTELS: What about trends regarding room service presentation and unique delivery options?
Nyman: The use of baskets and displays is a big thing — a little bread basket warm out of the oven, for instance. That element of service is really there. If you’re going to do a 4-star restaurant downstairs, match that service upstairs as well. At the end of the day, people are ordering room service for comfort and convenience. We want to make sure we’re taking care of the basic needs of our guests and providing that little extra if they are going to order room service.
HOTELS: What are some specific ways hotels can make room service as cost-effective and efficient as possible?
Nyman: We always cross-train room-service staff in other areas of food and beverage, even providing cross-training in the kitchen. They’re not going to be picking up a knife necessarily, but because they’re in the kitchen they have that awareness. It can offer extra efficiencies during busy times in the restaurant that might be less busy for in-room dining. It also benefits the staff member, giving them a greater sense of achievement and empowerment. Plus it gives restaurant managers and chefs greater awareness of the people they have working for them.
HOTELS: You spoke about offering signature dishes from a restaurant on the in-room-dining menu as well. How does cost play into that consideration?
Nyman: Part of the problem with in-room dining is the cost factor for guests just got too astronomical over the years. It’s a very delicate balance. In our mind, it’s worth the 1% to 3% in food cost it might take to adjust the dish for room service from time to time to have those signature dishes on the in-room dining menu to allow guests to have that experience. We were dealing with two 5-star brands recently, and we went through all the restaurant menus and all the in-room-dining menus so there was a fixed percentage of menu items from the restaurants on those in-room-dining menus.
HOTELS: What bold predictions would you offer about the next big trends in room service?
Nyman: I think in certain big cities we’re going to start seeing it eliminated or scaled back more and more. More hotels will follow Hilton’s lead. It might not be as grand as Herb N’ Kitchen, but I think you will see more grab-and-go because there will be more flexibility.
Guests are using hotels differently nowadays. Obviously they want a comfortable bed, it’s got to be clean, and you want Wi-Fi. Room service is not a top amenity in people’s minds anymore. I think we’re going to see a shrinking of room service menus. Operators will realize what they need to offer and what they don’t.