Food and beverage is becoming a more important revenue driver for hotel operators. Last year, F&B revenue per occupied room grew faster than overall hotel revenue, according to CBRE, and the trend is continuing, with hotel restaurant dining by travelers up 13 percent.
While operators welcome F&B’s evolution from an auxiliary amenity to a core profit center, rising operating costs are putting unprecedented pressure on margins. Since 2019, restaurant expenses have increased over 30 percent, driven largely by food and labor.
Hotel operators can’t control the cost of protein or the going wage in their market. They can, however, control the operational decisions that determine how efficiently a kitchen runs – and how much it costs to operate over its lifetime.
The decisions that protect margins are those made through the lens of the entire F&B lifecycle. They don’t prioritize short-term savings only to pay for it later, across every meal, room service shift and banquet event. In other words, short-sighted, transactional decisions compound costs indefinitely, while strategic, long-term thinking delivers lasting savings.
Kitchen Design
Hotel operators can create the conditions for ongoing savings – or waste – long before they welcome the first diner. Strategic kitchen design has the potential to reduce food and labor costs, the two largest operating expenses, every day the kitchen is in use.
The goal is to minimize unnecessary staff movement and reduce the labor required per ticket. Design stations around actual workflows rather than simply the space available. Streamline the path from prep to cook to assembly to eliminate bottlenecks and speed ticket times. Build in adequate prep and storage space to support batch production, improve organization and reduce food waste.
These efficiencies may seem small on their own, but they compound over time. Shave just 10 seconds off each ticket, multiply that by 500 orders a day over the course of a year, and the labor savings alone can exceed $10,000.
Good design isn’t just about fitting equipment into space. It’s about designing an operation that can produce the required volume and quality with the least amount of waste in labor, food, energy and time.
Smart Equipment Purchases
Kitchen equipment is a significant investment in any hotel F&B operation. But the upfront purchase price isn’t what erodes profitability. The hidden costs of ownership can quietly chip away at margins over time.
Purchase price alone doesn't reflect what a piece of equipment will cost over its full lifespan. That's the logic behind a Total Cost of Ownership analysis, which accounts for expenses such as repairs, downtime, energy and utility consumption, maintenance, useful lifespan, and consumables. By looking beyond the sticker price, TCO gives hotel operators a clearer picture of long-term value and helps them make smarter investment decisions.
Value engineering is another strategy that can reduce both upfront and lifetime costs without sacrificing performance. It starts with understanding the kitchen's actual operational needs, then selecting equipment that delivers the required functionality at the lowest practical cost. Often, that means prioritizing equipment that's multi-functional, energy-efficient, reliable, and less expensive to own over its lifetime. For example, value engineering may suggest investing in a combi oven because it can replace multiple pieces of equipment, while recommending a lower-capacity griddle if the restaurant’s volume or menu doesn’t need the additional output.
Preventive Maintenance
There aren’t many things hotel operators can do that help maximize revenue, protect investments, and enhance the guest experience. Preventative kitchen maintenance can accomplish all three.
A combination of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks performed by hotel staff, along with scheduled maintenance from service technicians, can:
- Increase equipment uptime so F&B operations can capture more revenue.
- Extend equipment life and maximize investments.
- Lower energy and utility consumption.
- Ensure food cooks efficiently to proper temperatures, speeding ticket times while improving food quality and safety.
- Reduce costly emergency repairs and downtime.
For any hotel looking to capitalize on F&B’s growth, a preventive maintenance program should be viewed as a requirement for long-term operational success.
Protecting The Bottom Line
The opportunity for stronger F&B performance is growing as covers served take their place alongside room bookings as an important measure of property performance. But increased demand alone doesn’t guarantee profitability. Operators need to think beyond upfront costs and consider how decisions will affect operations for years to come. Strategic kitchen design, smarter equipment investments and disciplined preventative maintenance can create efficiencies that compound considerably over the lifecycle of an operation.
John Schroeder is vice president of business development at TriMark USA.