Restaurants fail to maximise revenue says IHG exec

Food and beverage managers in the region’s hotels know revenue basics, but fail to understand “who is consuming what, when and where”, according to InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) director of revenue management - MEA Hannes Bos.

“This is information we input into our F&B systems, but we fail to extract and analyse it,” said Bos, speaking at the "Revenue Management in F&B Outlets" workshop at last week’s Great GM Debate in Dubai, organised and hosted by Hotelier Middle East.

He said hotel revenue from F&B outlets in the Middle East and Africa region was already growing 10-20% year-on-year accounting for approximately 30-50% of a hotel’s overall revenue, but there was still room for exponential year-on-year growth.

Over the last year, IHG has piloted a new approach to restaurant revenue management which has involved looking at the collective information found on a usual restaurant receipt, including whether diners where eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, which outlets they were choosing for each meal and how much the average bill was, linked to detailed guest profiles showing segment, company, age and other information, explained Bos.

By collating this information, Bos said the hotel was able to target promotions and menus more effectively to boost hotel guest capture rates, increase the number of walk-in guests and consequentially boost profits.

For more information on IHG’s revenue strategy, read the workshop report in Caterer Middle East October issue.