Bigger Is Better

Hoteliers expand breakfast buffets to meet the growing demands of guests.

By Rebecca Oliva, Staff Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 4/1/2001

The breakfast buffet has long been an efficient and cost-effective method of serving the most important meal of the day. A buffet allows a hotel to impress guests by showing off its culinary talent and pleasing them with bountiful choices. Today, guests almost expect a hotel to lavish upon them a spread consisting of sweet rolls, breads, fruit and juices. But recent demands call for many hotels to expand their breakfast buffet even more to include hot items and a larger selection. Expectations of better service and an eye-catching presentation lead many hotels to redesign their breakfast buffet entirely.

The popularity of breakfast is escalating. And according to Hervé Houdré, chief operating officer at Kempinski Hotels, it is due to society’s increasing concerns about healthy eating. “Most of the guests are weight-conscious,” Houdré says. Guests often demand alternate foods with lowered sugar, sodium or fat content for lunch and dinner, but for breakfast, Houdré says, “they are more willing to eat a full meal.”

And, because guests are eating and demanding more, they are willing to pay for it. Hotels can charge more for a full buffet, or, if they prefer to keep it complimentary, they can charge more for room rates.

“Breakfast is usually the only meal guests eat in our hotel,” says Karlheinz Hauser, director of gastronomy at Kempinski-owned Hotel Adlon in Berlin. Hauser insists that the breakfast buffet leave a lasting impression on guests. Hotel Adlon is the test site for Kempinski’s new expanded breakfast buffet program. Since most of Hotel Adlon’s guests are business travelers, they rely on the hotel to serve a complete breakfast. And serving it buffet-style is most pleasing to guests, says Hauser. “Guests love to see a buffet,” Houdré says. “They like to be free to choose what they want.”

Houdré and Hauser both feel that offering a full German breakfast should be the goal of the new buffet. “We feel it is our duty to offer such a buffet,” Houdré says. “The only return on investment is by building up the brand image.” The improved buffet features many kinds of breakfast foods, from eggs and jams and fish to meats. Allowing guests to choose from a large selection was also important to improving the quality of the buffet. The minimum standard at each property is to serve 10 different juices, teas and cheeses. Other items include specialty honeys and jams.

Keeping Food Hot And Fresh

But Hauser admits offering the best quality foods changes the presentation methods, as well. Foods that were pre-made and laid out on chafing dishes are now made and served fresh. “Every hotel will make eggs that come hot from the kitchen and served immediately, not from a chafing dish,” he says. With the new service format implemented, Hauser needed to change labor methods from the old buffet. “It’s less work for the servers but more for the cooks,” says Hauser, who had to hire extra help for this new concept. “It’s important to have one chef for this kind of breakfast. It keeps it consistent.” The Adlon serves anywhere from 150 to 600 breakfast guests a day. While Hauser says the Adlon’s goal is not to attract any new guests, but to offer the best breakfast program in Germany, he does believe the breakfast buffet attracts about 20% of the in-house diners in the hotels.

In keeping with the imminent cooking preparations, Hyatt Regency, Scottsdale, Arizona, has found a similar solution to keeping food fresh with its Sunday Chef’s Champagne Brunch. The buffet, which includes a vast spread of high-quality foods such as veal, scallops, hummus, caviar and patés, is presented in a working kitchen. Guests are invited back into the kitchen to witness master chefs at their best. “People love to be behind the scenes,” says Anton Brunbauer, executive chef at Golden Swan restaurant at the resort.

The restaurant sees about 250 covers each Sunday. There are many different chef’s stations from which guests can choose. The benefit, according to Brunbauer, is the elimination of the “buffet-old” food. Chefs cook about four orders at a time, directly in front of guests. While cold dishes and items that need little or no preparation, are set out all other items are made fresh to order. The buffet has been met with much success. Hyatt has seen a steady stream of revenue from the popularity of the brunch. So popular is the brunch buffet, Brunbauer says, that it is “viewed by the local community as a free-standing restaurant.”

Aesthetically Appetizing

Even with a greater selection of high quality foods, presentation of the buffet must be appealing to the most discerning eye. Lees Inn, Richmond, Indiana, recently made the switch to offer a complimentary hot silver-service breakfast buffet to replace its continental breakfast. As owners of nine limited service hotels in the Midwest, the hotel chain saw the trend to look better as an opportunity to be a breakfast leader in the limited service market. “We did a lot of research and found that’s what guests wanted,” says Jim Pratt, vice president of facilities at Lees Inn. An increase in leisure guests prompted the move to an expanded breakfast buffet, as that demographic expected more, says Pratt.

In keeping with its goal to be on the forefront of limited service breakfast offerings, Lees Inn put away its wicker baskets and paper products and resorted to using crystal, silverware and china. The new look is designed to be both aesthetically pleasing and abundant, which is rare in most limited service hotels, Pratt notes. The silver service breakfast comprises more than 40 items including breakfast sandwiches and biscuits and gravy in addition to sweet rolls and bagels.

But more important than having just an attractive presentation is the guests’ satisfaction. “Guests saw the continental breakfast as a perceived value of US$2 and the hot breakfast as an US$8 value,” says Lees Inn CEO Lester L. Lee. “With the minimal cost difference, it only made sense to move to hot breakfast.” The cost per breakfast jumped from US$3 to US$5. Yet, also a factor in the cost is the increase in labor. Each property previously employed one greeter at breakfast, who prepared the buffet. Now two employees are necessary, one to cook and one to greet, restock and attend to customers. Overall, with the new program, Lees Inn will see about six more hours of labor per day.

Noting that the buffet has been implemented in only six properties, Pratt says the response has been a good one. With an initial investment totaling US$400,000 for all nine Lees Inn hotels, Pratt has already realized the return on his investment in Seamore, Indiana, with an 8% to 9% increase in revenue and occupancy rates stretching well over 25% higher, which he attributes to the larger buffet and other added amenities.

Letting The Market Decide

Offering breakfast buffets is also a way of unifying a chain’s amenities and strengthening the brand, Houdré says. While Kempinski’s goal is to be recognized as a brand that offers a premium buffet, it often depends on a hotel’s market to decide whether to offer breakfast complimentary.

“People just kind of automatically had it in the back of their minds that breakfast would be free,” says Michael Hass, owner and manager of Best Western, Tacoma, Washington. Hass recently opted to offer a complimentary breakfast buffet even though he already offered full service breakfast. While he says his guests often ask for it, it was the competition’s offer of a free breakfast that prompted his action. “It was a beating the market kind of thing,” he says.

Recently, Best Western International made breakfast, either continental or full service, a mandatory amenity for all of its member properties. The breakfast is part of its Best Requests program, which requires standard minimum amenities in all of its member hotels worldwide. The program is designed to promote brand recognition. “We found that breakfast was the most sought-after program,” says Janice Miller, managing director of strategic planning at Best Western, which conducted worldwide research to discover what guests preferred.

However, the requirement was met with mixed reactions from member hotels, whether or not to offer complimentary breakfast. “The upper-mid market is dependent upon their breakfast revenue,” Miller says. Because of the pricing difference throughout Best Western’s worldwide markets, it could not mandate a complimentary breakfast. Hass agrees with the decision to implement the brand-wide breakfast buffet, but opts for a complimentary one. “I just think with my clientele, that’s what they expect,” Hass says. “I try to meet those expectations.”

Others felt the request was a bit demanding. Chief Executive Officer, Best Western, Australia, Rodger L. Powell says most of his hotels don’t offer a complimentary breakfast buffet, as it is not necessary in his market. But, all of the properties do offer a breakfast. Powell feels it is important “particularly in Australia, where there are not many stand alone restaurants that are open for breakfast, to provide an alternative to getting breakfast in the hotel.” The trend in Australia has been to provide a full high-quality breakfast, charging approximately AUS$8.50. “Those properties providing complimentary breakfast advise that it allows them to obtain higher room revenue as a result,” Powell says. “Some as much as AUS$15 per room per night.”