• by Euan McGlashan , July 18, 2018

The hospitality industry has traditionally looked at food and beverages (F&B) as a loss leader, something provided as a convenience. This type of defeatist thinking results in potential revenue walking out the door. 

Guests are people, and people love good food, drink, and experiences. 

Last year, we created an internal F&B company with a team of experts supporting them in training, design, ad agency support for naming and collateral design, positioning, and a media team focused on social media and digital marketing. Our goal is simple — keeping our guests in-house, and if the property has an external entrance and street presence, attracting locals. 

Trends in F&B have become more diverse, sophisticated, and relevant, so our hotels must do the same. You can’t succeed with microwaved food, limited choice, brightly lit dining rooms, canteens, poor service (or no service), and as much atmosphere as a vacuum. Your guests will leave your property and find a restaurant or bar to spend their money. 

It may be a sports bar serving a great burger, wings, and a selection of drafts. Why doesn’t your property have that offering? Trust me, your guests would rather stay in-house without the hassle of walking, or taking a cab/Uber/Lyft elsewhere. But go they will, and you’ll see revenue going out the door. 

If your hotel enjoys a high street retail location with street access and visibility, don’t think like a hotelier in creating your restaurant. Develop a unique restaurant bar and lounge concept.  Plan, design, develop, market, and open it with a focus on outside guests. If your restaurant attracts locals, it will be an instant hit with your guests seeking a good restaurant recommendation. 

Out-of-town visitors are inherently stressed when deciding dining choices. Making mistakes is easy. They will love a great dining experience without ever leaving the building. 

Strive to please business travelers, especially if they’re alone. Aside from breakfasts, traditional room service should be allowed to die. Unless you have a luxury resort where one can dine on the suite’s balcony overlooking Lake Como, room service needs to be simple, slick, and convenient.

Why do so many guests get pizza delivery? Because it’s easy. And when they do, another business makes dough from your guest (sorry, I couldn’t resist). 

Design your kitchen with a pizza oven. Create a 10-item dinner menu sent in a delivery box or bag attached to an inexpensive cooler with your logo on it for any drinks ordered. When the guest answers the door, get a quick signature, sans other charges, and leave. You’ll be amazed how the power of suggestion and easy convenience will result in more guests eating in-room.

But we want all travelers, especially those by themselves who historically hide away in their rooms for fear of feeling self-conscious or out of place, to move away from room service and hang with us. To encourage that, we need to create multiple seating types and configurations, including lounge seats, sofas, quiet corners, or communal powered-up tables. We make the environment welcoming and comfortable, and they’ll love it. 

No one ever really wants to stay in their room, but the old hotel model and way of thinking forced them into confinement. Four seats at a hard table make the guest feel like a loose impediment. It doesn’t matter if a guest is sitting in an empty restaurant or a busy one filled with unhappy diners. Don’t make guests confine to your rigid environmental order; give them options to sit as they please. They’ll stay longer and probably spend more.

On many midweek nights, we see scores of single travelers relaxed and working on their laptops, reading newspapers and sipping drinks, or knocking back bowls of tasty spaghetti. Each person is enjoying their own tranquil and comfortable space. 

Unbelievably, we even see guests start to interact with each other and become social–– imagine that! 

Trust me, if you can think like a restaurateur about creating and developing your F&B offerings, you'll serve yourself success. 

It’s time the hospitality industry lost its thinking of F&B as a loss leader.