Interview: Hilton's MEA vice president of F&B

Hilton Worldwide VP food and beverage for Middle East & Africa Simon Lazarus.

Staving off Competition
The perception of dining in the UAE five years ago was that it was upscale and all about fine dining. However, Lazarus says Conrad Dubai is an example of the changing trend where the consumer wants to eat out wearing their jeans.

The devolution of dress code is matched by the trends for hotel F&B becoming less formal with its food and encouraging sharing-style dining, as well as casting off the ideas of reservation policies.

Lazarus explains: “It works to a certain extent but you may alienate, depending on the concept, people by not being a bit freer.”

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He agrees that “sharing” is one of the food trends that is coming into prominence in the region. He points to Lexington Grill which, although a traditional steakhouse, also has a sampler plate of the different meats available. To nobody’s surprise, according to Lazarus, it’s the top seller.

Can many of these changes in outlook for hotel F&B operators be attributed to the steady rise in the casual dining sector in the region? “Absolutely, that is one of the reasons why we’re doing up our F&B to be purposely built; these are standalone units.

They have their own general manager, their own entertainment person,” responds Lazarus, referring to the decision made by the Conrad Dubai to hire a director to head up its traditional hotel F&B services and another director responsible for the seven bars and restaurants.

This was a planned move by Hilton Worldwide, says Lazarus, to be individual and compete in the busy market, emulating already successful strategies in places such as New York. At Conrad Dubai, Lazarus explains that the hotel still has its traditional F&B manager, with a massive operation in terms of lobby lounge, banqueting and room service, where it is serving a 500-800 capacity ballroom and 20 meeting rooms.

“We are good at that side of things, and we have always been great at restaurants. But now moving into this nightlife and entertainment sector, we have hired in the right people.”
The key to success in this arena will be enabling each outlet to have its own identity.

“Where some hotels will move the banquet business into a particular restaurant, we are not going into that. I’m not going to serve coffee breaks in Cave. There’s a very strict policy about what goes on here. I want people from outside to enjoy the ambience, and there’s nothing worse than 300 people in a restaurant like Cave with badges walking around. I think hoteliers are realising now that the businesses need to stand on their own.”

Don't Mix Business
Just as the bars business is being kept separate from banqueting, Lazarus says the creative process is also separate from operational procedures.

“Hilton took the approach that the ‘conceptualiser’ needs to be removed from the hotel operations, so we hired restaurant people to develop the concepts for the hotel. It’s interesting to see a lot of competitors that didn’t have an F&B presence now doing it,” says Lazarus.

He also explains that F&B in hotels — not just Hilton’s — are the differentiators, the unique selling points for consumers trying to pick from one property to another. “People realised the food element is a massive part of the rooms business. It’s a huge percentage of our daily revenue and it has to be managed independently.

“It’s what actually drives the room business, especially in a place like Dubai. There are a lot of choices, so how do I pick? A room is a room is a room. Sure we have great beds and our rooms are fantastic.

But what will drive somebody in here is our great conference rooms and spaces, and the choice with many different restaurants. It’s now at a point where it’s such a competitive market hotel-wise, that if you don’t differentiate yourself in F&B, you’re going to lose out on that potential of selling more rooms,” he says, visibly passionate on this point.

Lazarus concludes: “I’m really excited about F&B. I think this has been a massive year and it just keeps getting better.”