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Something to Chew On: Examine the Hotel F&B Business
March 19, 2008

Welcome to Something to Chew On, where each week I will provide insights into what makes successful restaurants and food and beverage spaces within hotels.

With the ever-rising costs associated with each hotel room unit, hoteliers are looking outside the room to not only raise revenues to offset the rising room costs, but also to increase their perceived brand value in the marketplace. Enter Restaurants.

In this blog, I will address strategic and global ideas and trends that can make or break the food and beverage portion of your hotel. There are several overarching themes that I will focus on:.

 1.) Key considerations for understanding your market and creating restaurant concepts with profit power.

In order to have a successful restaurant that serves as a profit center for a hotel, it is important to understand how to create a successful restaurant that not only serves the needs of hotel guests but reaches a broader market of regular local customers. In understanding how to create a place that fits into the market it is important to consider culture and lifestyle changes which are driven by a variety of influences, including economic trends, technology, personal style, and family size, among many other variables. In this blog, I will look at changing lifestyle and cultural trends and how they impact the industry and restaurants.

2.) Create an experience and they will come—how your restaurant can impact the value of your brand.

It is also important to consider the impact of your restaurant on your hotel’s image. These days, when making a hotel choice, customers not only check what the hotel offers in terms of rooms, but they look at the other ways they can interact with the hotel as well—they aren’t just looking for a place to sleep, they are looking for an experience. How do you create an experience for your guests? How can you create a restaurant that increases the value of your hotel brand?

3.) Designing for profit.

When investing in the design of a restaurant it is essential to first consider the economic feasibility. That is, what /who is your market, what does the competition look like, how big is this market and how much can they spend? Once you consider those factors, then you can determine what concept would best suit the market. You can then build your design around an economic model rather than shooting in the dark with what might work.

4) Marketing a hotel restaurant in a mature market place.

Today’s restaurant consumers are savvy and it is not about discounting or goofy promotions—today is all about authenticity. You need to learn how to surf the market and stay current with trends.

5) The world is flat.

International travel and style has and is influencing our neighborhood restaurant. How does globalization affect your restaurant and hotel and which trends should you pay attention to and which should you ignore?

I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you weekly, and I greatly anticipate your feedback and comments and hope to create a forum for discussion and ideas.

Posted by Bob Puccini on March 19, 2008 | Comments (1)