Rise & Shine

By Karyn Strauss, Senior Editor -- Hotels, 4/1/2006

Often touted as the most important meal of the day, breakfast is becoming top of mind for hoteliers across market segments as a way to differentiate their offerings and increase customer satisfaction. Instead of just focusing on destination restaurants with a lively bar scene, smart hoteliers note that breakfast has the highest capture rate of daypart and therefore should be as important to their F&B program as catering to an evening crowd. Further, since breakfast is often the last touch point before a guest checks out, operators would be wise to deliver a positive last impression.

Hyatt Revamps Breakfast

“F&B directors don’t traditionally spend much time on breakfast, but since it has the highest capture rate, we decided it was time to send a message about the quality of our breakfast and launched a reinvigoration campaign,” explains Paul Daly, assistant vice president of food and beverage for Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels & Resorts. Last summer, for the first time in the company’s history, Hyatt rolled out a signature breakfast menu of 15 newly created recipes that now are standard on all 120 Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt properties in North America. With the goal of improving quality and presentation as well as consistency across the entire Hyatt portfolio, the menu selections were created via a collaborative effort of Hyatt’s executive chefs and food and beverage directors. The theme was “classic items with an innovative twist.” French toast, for instance, is updated as “sticky bun French toast” made with a cinnamon roll, and poached eggs get fancy served in a pot with a rich tomato sauce, ham and spinach. The entrees were beta tested in six markets prior to rollout to determine the 15 chosen items.

Presentation has also been updated. Rather than the requisite orange slice or parsley garnish, meals are served alongside a stuffed tomato and asparagus—creating not only a more visually appealing plate, Daly says, but also an improved taste profile. In addition, Hyatt has upgraded its food quality overall, including new premium bacon and fingerling potatoes replacing standard hash browns. While the cost of breakfast will differ per market, presentation is standard as is menu language. Hyatt also is working to create a signature look for the breakfast menu—as today it is still not apparent on the menus that the items are signature Hyatt dishes.

While Daly says Hyatt initially was skeptical of standardizing a menu—fearing that chefs would protest their new lack of autonomy (although each menu can contain up to four additional entrees of the chef’s choosing), much to the corporate office’s delight, the program has been very well received in the field. “We were worried chefs would feel infringed upon but they’re telling us they love it because the food looks great, and it frees them up to look to lunch, dinner and banquets,” Daly says. As for the fear of food cost creep, Daly adds that costs actually have gone down. Why? “People are spending more,” he says.

One of the reasons for this, Daly adds, is that the revamped breakfast program is not just about changing the menu, it also contains service components to improve the guest experience. “We wanted to include interactive service elements that would create touch points between servers and guests,” Daly explains. To this end, all the hotels now begin the meal by offering guests a complimentary smoothie. While small in size, this “teaser” is that little something extra that Daly believes will help differentiate Hyatt’s breakfast offer. “The smoothie has been the biggest hit with guests,” Daly says. “It is a little surprise that is unexpected.” Another new high-end touch point is that servers now offer guests coffee prepared in a French press—an optional upgrade wherein a high-quality French press machine is presented on the table for guests to utilize throughout their meal.

As this is a reinvigoration campaign, Daly says the program will be routinely monitored and tweaked where and when necessary. Next on the agenda will be “redefining the breakfast buffet,” Daly says, as for many customers at many Hyatt properties the buffet remains a must-have option. Here, too, Hyatt wants to add a signature touch.

More Full-Service Makeovers

Hyatt is by no means alone when it comes to improving the customer breakfast experience in the full- service segment. Providing that little something extra is also top of mind for Sofitel Hotels & Resorts. The upscale brand is looking to make in-room breakfast a standout event with the launch of its new breakfast tray. Like Hyatt’s program, this lacquer tray will not only deliver a high-quality Continental breakfast with French baked goods, but also will contain a complimentary fruit smoothie that changes daily. And Embassy Suites Hotels—a company for which offering a complimentary, cooked-to-order breakfast has always been a mandate and product differentiator—also is revamping its breakfast agenda to increase operator efficiency and customer satisfaction.

“When Embassy Suites launched in 1984 no national chains were doing the free breakfast. Today some 4,000 hotels [in the United States] are offering some kind of [free] breakfast,” says Kris Beck, brand director of food and beverage. “We’ve always offered fresh fruit, eggs, pastries and cereal—everything you could possibly think of—but we haven’t really changed it since the inception of the brand. So it’s time for a makeover.”

To begin the process, the company worked with a market research firm to learn more about customers’ preferences. “Consumers said they liked our breakfast but wanted it to be a bit easier to navigate, cleaner and more user friendly,” Beck says. “Guests have told us they want control over the experience. The funny thing about our brand is that our breakfast is self-service, but to the guests’ point-of-view it is them taking charge of their experience—they don’t see it as self serve.”

To help customers to take better control, each station of the buffet will have new signage to “lead customers through,” Beck says, explaining that this high-end signage was specially commissioned and features impressionistic paintings. “The idea is not too out-of-the-box, but it’s a little more stylized,” he adds. The brand also is updating its equipment to be more efficient (some hotels serve more than 1,000 guests in a three-hour period). The company had some key pieces custom made. For example, for its bread and pastry offerings, the biggest challenge is that the product cannot sit out in a basket all morning because it will dry up. “So we came up with a cabinet system that uses a half sheet pan-size tray insert so that all product can be pre-staged, and the staff doesn’t have to refill a bowl—they just swap out one tray in the three-tiered cabinet for another,” he says. In addition to the efficiency savings, Beck adds, this new system is more visually appealing and cleaner.

Another byproduct of this US$2 million investment in new signage and equipment is that with greater organization and faster prep time, the staff is better able to interact with guests. “We’re not only giving the hotels new equipment but teaching the hotels about elevating service levels,” Beck says. “We want to allow our team members to have more positive interaction with guests.”

To-Go Options

Appealing on-the-go offerings continue to be a key ingredient in creating standout breakfast programs, particularly in the select-service segment. Here the focus is on improving the quality of the products, according to Mark Owens, director of operations for Carlson Hotels’ Park Inn brand. Park Inn recently launched “Lite On The Go,” a breakfast program that Owens says “focuses on quality on a small scale—good coffee and some high-quality food items.” The breakfast consists of three items that are open to the hotels’ discretion. “It could be fresh fruit in season, a granola bar, a great bagel,” Owens explains. What sets the program apart is the final item—which Owens calls the “pleasant surprise.” This, he explains, could be a regional food item or not even food at all—such as a children’s toy.

Additionally, Owens says much attention was placed on the design of the on-the-go bag itself. It is made of high-quality, clear plastic that encourages reuse. “We designed the bag to be a secondary marketing piece. It has our logo and phone number on it and is very sturdy,” he says, adding that feedback from customers has been very positive.

Another limited-service brand with renewed focus on breakfast is Hilton Hotels Corp.’s Hampton Inn. The company has been putting much effort into revamping its breakfast as part of its overall revitalization campaign called “Make it Hampton.” In addition to upgrading the quality and consistency of its food with branded products, Hampton Inn also is pushing its to-go breakfast package. This fresh, new offering comes with bottled water, fresh fruit, and a branded cereal bar and muffin. Here, too, guests can look forward to that little something extra. Whether dining in the hotels or taking a to-go bag, Hampton guests each receive a surprise item not located anywhere on the breakfast buffet. Currently this means a small box of mints, which are either passed out by the staff to in-house guests or put into the grab-bag for people on the run. This “unexpected delight,” as the company sees it, is a secondary marketing tool as well.

On the opposite end of the hotel spectrum, the luxury segment, too, is looking toward grab-and-go breakfast options. At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel du Rhone, Geneva, for example, “we find guests have less and less time for breakfast and are opting for a Continental in their rooms or our buffet, but their need for a quick breakfast option means we are considering a breakfast-to-go [option] on our roomservice menu that can be preordered the night before or the same morning,” says Glavia Caponi, director of sales and marketing. With the popularity of the Continental breakfast, Caponi says the contents of the to-go breakfast would most likely be bread and pastry items such as croissants or muffins. And at the Oriental Hotel, Singapore, where breakfast is served in the hotel’s World Café—a concept centered on different cooking stations featuring cuisines from around the globe—due to the increased demand for on-the-go breakfast, the hotel now offers a to-go option, be it Asian fare such as dim sum or traditional European baked goods.