A few months ago I spoke on the evolution of F&B in hotels, I’m very firmly in the ‘hotel restaurants should act as standalone restaurants’ camp, and a recent Colliers report seems to support this view.
The thinner the divide between hotel restaurants and standalone the better as far as I’m concerned. For me it’s all about the customer experience; excellent customer service should be a priority, consistently high quality food must be the norm — customers expect nothing less.
So, what’s the difference between a hotel-based outlet and a standalone? In reality, nothing. Restaurants aren’t going to be held to different standards by the consumer, and in a market like Dubai — where there is so much choice — hotel F&B operations will quickly fail if they rely on or assume that they will automatically generate covers from the hotel guests. If the offer isn’t up to scratch the guests will go somewhere else.
The industry is changing and, although we know it won’t happen overnight, Colliers’ observation that restaurant managers in hotel-based outlets need to be given more autonomy hits the nail on the head.
The identity of the standalone restaurant is developed by its owners and operators. It can be whatever it wants to be and whatever the owners think their consumers want. The identity of the hotel outlets are answerable to the larger corporate identity.
I’ll give you a scenario. The operators of Hotel A want to open an edgy New York-style cocktail bar. They start the process of developing this concept and, from the very beginning, they are restricted by the hotel/corporate brand guidelines. When the operator says ‘we want the restaurant manager to have tattoos and a mohawk’, the hotel says ‘hotel guidelines prohibit any visible tattoos’.
Creating the identity of an outlet whilst maintaining the identity of the hotel and corporate guidelines is not an easy task and most often ends up producing F&B outlets with no personality, such as bland all-day diners and old, uninviting lobby lounges.
Don’t get me wrong; I understand the need for guidelines and the importance of creating strong brand recognition, but if hotels are to compete with standalone outlets, they must loosen the reigns and allow the outlet its independence.
Empower your restaurant managers and let them do their job; the benefits are numerous — from better cost control to staff accountability. Hotels should be grabbing this opportunity to create a food destination.
By shifting the thinking to that of the standalone outlet and creating outlets with individual identities, you can attract and keep guests. Imagine if you had the best French restaurant, New York bar and London club (I’m talking in temrs of style/concept, not brands), in your hotel — visitors have no reason to leave the property, so their whole evening plays out within the hotel.
What could be a better opportunity for customer retention?
As a shareholder in Figjam Hospitality, Sanjay Murthy works closely with investors to set long-term strategies and objectives for individual concepts. With more than 25 years’ experience working with international business, Sanjay also plans & executes Figjam Hospitality’s growth. Visit www.figjamco.com for details.
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