In some ways, a food & beverage program for a hotel seems like a lower-stakes endeavor than a stand-alone restaurant. The presence of hotel guests might lead one to assume that hotel restaurants don’t need to go to extraordinary lengths to attract clientele; after all, they have a built-in customer base!
But established hotel dining groups know that being the path of least resistance for weary guests is not sufficient for long-term success. For best results, hotel restaurants must also forge an attractive reputation among local residents.
If you’re wondering how to achieve this balance and forge a strong and enduring identity in the hotel hospitality world, read on for expert tips from industry vets.
Focus on Collaboration with Your Teams Both Large and Local
In this day and age, fully independent hotels are something of a novelty; even chic boutique hotels often exist under the umbrella of a larger hotel group. This arrangement has the potential to cause friction between the property’s local team and the “corporate” side of the equation, but Betty Woodward, director of food & beverage for the soon-to-open Hotel Heron in Alexandria, Va. (which is part of the Aparium Hotel Group), emphasizes the positive.
"One of the biggest advantages of building out [our] hotel F&B plan is that we have an extremely talented HQ team building out the bones of our program," says Woodward. "As a local team, we get to walk in on the fun part with an arsenal of support and knowledge at our fingertips."
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