Hotels with bite

The region’s hottest new properties explain how an ambitious portfolio of F&B offerings will help them get their teeth into a decent market share

The classic image of a ‘hotel restaurant’ has undergone a major revamp over the past decade; today’s glitzy, modish offerings are a far cry from the drab diners and lonely lounges traditionally associated with hotel outlets.

Nowadays, F&B can be a make-or-break factor for hotel guests — and as a result, new properties entering the competitive Middle East market are looking to express and differentiate themselves through their food and beverage portfolios.

Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach’s director of F&B, Simone Stanco, asserts: “Today hotels are not about rooms — there is much more emphasis on extras, like the restaurants and the quality of food and service they offer. The outlets have a big impact on the customer’s experience in the hotel.”

In fact, a good hotel is “only as good as its food and beverage department”, according to Kempinski Nile Hotel Cairo’s director of F&B, Raoul Duclos.

At another recently-opened Middle East property, the Radisson Blu Hotel, Abu Dhabi Yas Island, executive assistant manager in charge of F&B Tim Van Veen notes that F&B is “the second highest contributing department in a hotel”.

“Without food and beverage, the property would not be as attractive to guests coming into this region and would find it difficult to succeed,” he says — an idea supported by Salalah Marriott Resort director of operations Hesham Dawood.

“Many tourists come to this region with the idea of experiencing its cuisine — and that’s in addition to the majority who come for leisure trips, where the food and beverage is also a big part of the experience,” Dawood explains.

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But faced with so many options — and so many competitors — how does a property decide which culinary route to take for each outlet?

On Yas Island, developing company Aldar lent a hand, assigning specific themes to each hotel on the island to ensure there would be no cross-over.

“It is a very positive structure that helps attract numerous guests from across Abu Dhabi,” claims Radisson’s Van Veen.

“But we do also have contemporary Italian restaurant Filini at the hotel, which is a restaurant brand created by the Rezidor Group. The concept has proven very successful worldwide, but our Filini outlet is the brand’s first exposure in the UAE.”

At the new Mövenpick Jumeirah Beach, the pre-opening F&B team kicked things off by focusing on main outlet The Talk, then built up other complementary concepts around it, explains Stanco.

“We started with The Talk, which is really three outlets in one, so it was a big project; then we moved on to the West Beach Bistro.

“That was originally going to be a pub, but by looking at the drawings and the direction the design was taking, we could see there was a contemporary flavour that wasn’t really pub-like.

“You have to be flexible during the development process so you don’t end up with an out-of-place offering,” he notes.

“So we started looking at other options — potentially inviting a managing company to take on the space, or a link-up with a celebrity chef. Finally we came up with the gastro-bar idea. This is pretty new here, and we wanted that fresh new concept, because this is a contemporary hotel.

“There’s a lot of the same old restaurants in Dubai, a lot of fine dining; I think this idea is a bit more lively and attractive to the market we’re gearing ourselves towards,” Stanco explains.