F&B strategy
The issue of pricing came up again later in the day during a panel discussion entitled ‘Can hoteliers compete in F&B?’, moderated by Hakkasan Dubai director of operations for Middle East and China Henk Bruggeman, who played devil’s advocate and said he believed some hotels do price themselves out of the market.
Jumeirah Group senior vice president food & beverage Gert Kopera admitted that sometimes this was true and suggested that dedicated revenue management for F&B could be a solution.
Kopera suggested the F&B industry could do well to learn from the airline industry and that “we need to learn to yield F&B, we need to learn to yield pricing from our restaurants and that would answer the question of pricing ourselves in the market.”
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He continued: “We remain stagnant with our pricing and... with our offers throughout a full year, but the market in Dubai changes dramatically from season to season — your room rates change, airfare changes but F&B pricing remains stable. So the short answer is that partially we out-price ourselves but if we start yielding it might be a possible solution”.
JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai general manager Rupprecht Queitsch said he wasn’t sure the same principles applied: “I don’t think so, I think there’s a market for everything and at the end of the day the customer decides where to go. You go through any of the malls on any day and you can’t get a seat in some of the restaurants. People will pay for it.
“The airlines have clearly set plans on pricing but the same thing in the restaurant business? I happened to be at La Serre [new restaurant from Emaar Hospitality Group], and if you try and get a seat there at a popular time you can’t get one — with no advertising.”
Rosewood Abu Dhabi managing director Luigi Romaniello said proper research was key to creating competitive F&B. “You’re competing with a lot of restaurants around you,” he added.
Romaniello then disagreed with the panellists about hotels out-pricing themselves from the F&B market, saying it was important to value what outlets provide appropriately. He said: “You find that it’s not necessary that affluent people are willing to spend the money — so you have to price things according to what they are worth.”
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