Healthy competition benefits everyone

More outlets just mean more competition, and there’s no reason why this isn’t a good thing. Gicqel comments that external brands challenge in-house concepts and how they operate, which he feels is beneficial all around.

Media One Hotel director of operations Felix Hartmann says third-party operators keep the hotel F&B on its toes, and creates a nice, competitive spirit in the building. He adds: “Everyone is driving the business much more aggressively because there is internal competition, if rightly chosen, complementing the offerings in that property.”

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Jason Atherton’s Marina Social is a third-party concept in the up and coming InterContinental Dubai Marina. The hotel’s director of F&B, James Worthington, says having that brand will help bring people into the property, who may not venture there on their own.

He explains: “Suddenly you’ve got this revenue stream that’s coming into Marina Social and they see these other outlets, and the options you have. So that’s how it starts layering up and you get a revenue base from a whole area other than the hotel.”

Amwaj Rotana director of F&B Alban Daubenton agrees and says: “It is important to get a third party, whether a franchise or a lease, because it helps you to bring footfall and to get known in the market.”

Julien Besancon, cluster F&B manager, Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort and Hilton Dubai The Walk, agrees and says it has reached a situation with BiCE in Hilton Dubai Jumeirah, where both brands are associated with each other. He says: “It is part of the variety of the F&B outlets and it benefits the hotel and the in-house guests.”

Operations run differently

In some cases, consumers may have no idea if a restaurant is not an in-house concept, and this is because the third-party brands integrate really well with the property.

However, there’s also a concern of operations and standards. Hotel groups have a SOP, and Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai vice president culinary Sascha Triemer said some brands have their own philosophy, and so does the hotel. “If you can manage that, it’s probably the way to succeed, but it’s very difficult,” he says.

Kaya agrees and says: “If you have a third-party operator or a franchise in your hotel brand, you have to make sure that all international chains have their brand standards. The third-party operator has to follow these these guidelines as well.” He gives the example of hotel guidelines demanding name tags on everyone, but a third-party operator not wanting to do so because it goes against the brand image. How do you overcome this, he asks?

Gicquel points out that as a hotel operator, if a brand is approached, it’s because it is admired. “Taking the brand and not following the brand standards and not keeping the integrity of the brand leads to failure. It shouldn’t be part of a standard hotel audit, otherwise you turn a brand into a hotel operation and that’s wrong.

It would be very difficult for you to explain to an owner that you’ve had to pay a fee just to turn something into a standard hotel operation. So it’s really important that we also as hotel operators keep the brand standards of any brand we bring in.”

There’s also the layers of approvals that separate businesses. Maadad explains: “Don’t forget the layers that any business has to go through — a restaurant manager will go through his F&B director, through his general manager, through the owning company… so by the time the message reaches the decision maker, it’s diluted 50%.

“I don’t think there’s one right business or one wrong business. It’s about keeping the process right and making sure you don’t invest incorrectly. A lot of people in the market are thinking ‘if I invest more in the actual asset, I’m going to make a successful business’ — incorrect. The right operator, the right concept, and the right location [is important].”

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