On the surface, it appears that hotel and resort restaurants have their meal and between-meal bases, a.k.a. “dayparts,” are covered. However, what defines a daypart is constantly evolving with lifestyle, health and culinary trends influencing when and why people dine out. There is also geographic location, hotel category, seasons, staffing and the economy to consider, along with coming to terms with why a once-popular block of time is no longer drawing in customers.
In other words, there are so many moving parts within dayparts that it is no wonder that deciding what to phase in or out can be a daunting process.
“Although (the goal) is to increase covers and boost the average check, it’s about methodical execution with emphasis on flexible staffing, controlling waste, managing food and beverage costs, and setting clear expectations with ownership around what profitability means for each asset,” said Gus Laliotis, Parable Hospitality’s Vice President of Food and Beverage, when putting daypart transitions into context. “Understanding those nuances by market, day of week and season also allows us to tailor strategies that maximize performance.”
A Time and Place for Everything
All of these nuances are influencing breakfast, dinner and other dayparts in wildly different ways, depending on the hotel’s location, customer base and purpose (i.e. a waterfront luxury property versus a business hotel).
Laliotis, for example, noticed that among the 20 Parable Hospitality properties with restaurants, breakfast was expanding but in a highly specific way. With peak demand taking place between 10 am and 2 pm, flexible menus developed to bridge breakfast and lunch are commanding strong sales, especially on weekends and holidays. Dinner had softened slightly in some markets though it has given way to greater “happy hour” popularity.
“Recent national trends show diners are coming in earlier in the day than we saw pre-pandemic,” said Laliotis. “When we offer food and beverage offerings with compelling pricing, as early as 3:00 pm at some of our properties we are able to draw guests in earlier. In many cases, drawing guests in earlier with discounted food and drinks encourages them to stay and join us for dinner.”
He also acknowledged that hours of operation and dayshifts are increasingly dictated by seasonality, location and type of hotel. In some Southern California markets, breakfast may only operate five days a week during slower periods and menus may be scaled down from 20 to a dozen selections. At its beachfront hotels leaning toward the leisure market, hours are expanded, especially on weekends. Its business market-leaning properties are busier on the weekdays, leading to more robust lunch and dinner programs. By shifting an emphasis toward higher-performing dayparts, management can better meet demand and control costs.
W Miami’s dinner traffic, meanwhile, has also declined in recent years. Charles Williams, its director of hotel sales, pointed to the rapid expansion of the dining scene in Brickell, Downtown and other nearby neighborhood, sharpening the competition and redistributing traffic across this market. This necessitated W Miami to change up its F&B programming, optimize staffing and fine-tune operational efficiencies and marketing efforts to ensure W Miami’s margins stay healthy.
“While we don’t view the shift in dinner volume as a positive trend, we recognize it as a natural outcome of the evolving dining landscape in Miami where increased competition has raised guest expectations,” said Williams. “We’re focusing on several strategies in response to balance demand and increase profitability in lower volume dayparts. We are enhancing our breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch offerings to capture guests during periods with higher growth potential while steering incremental revenue through themed events, activations and partnerships aligning with our brand.”
Some of these new initiatives include a “Sunset Sips” extended happy hour program to bring in the post work and early evening crowd through approachable cocktails, shareable bites and a relaxed but elevated atmosphere, and the weekend Brickell Brunch Sessions with a live DJ set. “This activation taps into the social, high energy weekend behaviors that define the Brickell and Downtown Miami market and the W Hotel brand,” he said, noting customer response reflects strong potential for continued growth.
The Andaz West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip is refining its dayparts based on current consumer preferences and its 1970s era as “The Riot House,” when touring rock bands made it their stomping ground. “While the pool is open everyday to guests, the pool bar is open to the public on the weekends now and seven days a week in high season,” said Stephanie Lane, the property’s food and beverage manager. While breakfast remains popular with hotel guests, she said her next challenge is finding ways to expand lunch’s popularity among those living in the neighborhood.
“We have seen tremendous growth there, but on the flip side, we have seen a downturn in the restaurant, particularly in the evening. To change things up, the chef and I are collaborating on new food and drink menus that will launch in March at our Riot House Bar. We are also have special activations, such as our ‘Sunday Dinner’ music series, and are continuing to work on more activations in that space to invite our hotel guests and members of our local community to spend time there.”
At STK Steakhouse Fallsview at the Embassy Suites Niagara in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, bar activity and weekday lunch has declined in recent years. In its place, there’s an uptick in snack and lighter dining “occasions” with customers coming in for “casual, shared experiences, ordering multiple appetizers, splitting entrées and opting for lighter fare rather than traditional full-course meals,” according to general manager Sarah Beth Stranges.
“Dinner continues to be our strongest, most consistent daypart, and I absolutely see these changes in a positive light,” she said. “Our increased evening traffic offsets any dips from weekday lunch reservations. For slower dayparts, we focus on tighter labor controls and effectively targeting our promotions. We closely track comments around value, speed and atmosphere to ensure we are surpassing guest expectations. Leveraging hotel guest traffic with improved visibility is also a major opportunity as it can help ensure we are showing up for our guests in how they need us.”
Within the Olympia Hospitality portfolio, late afternoon and dinner shifts continue to carry the weight. Karl McElligott, Director of Food & Beverage, said breakfast and lunch offerings have required market-specific game plans such as streamlining breakfast menus to offer guests efficient solutions that are achievable within a staffing model that makes sense. Lunch dayparts are more market-driven.
“We operate hotels that serve as open spaces for guests and neighborhood residents, functioning as work areas, meeting spots and places to relax and unwind,” said McElligott. “Because of the inherent time pressures during this daypart, we have monolithically structured portions of our menus to meet these needs, (from) options that can be served in 10 minutes or less to elevated casual and grab-and-go choices. This allows the guest who wants a traditional sit-down lunch to coexist with the guest who is more time-sensitive.”
Slimmed-Down Menus and Leaner Labor
As dayparts continue to evolve, menus and staffing approaches are getting a workout and lightening up in some cases, with management focusing on what guests and local customers are eating and drinking ... or not.
Steven Jones, Vice President and General Manager at The Lodge & Club in Ponte Vedra, Florida, credits the increased popularity of the property’s breakfast and lunch to healthier menu options like quinoa bowls, açai bowls and smoothies. The popularity of its bars’ lower-proof drinks and spirits demand dropping, meanwhile, sparked requests for low alcohol wines. In the process, bartenders and culinary teams were motivated to double down on creativity to keep menus interesting, especially to younger customers.
“(Our client base) is a very diverse group, but we are seeing a greater overall push towards healthier menu dynamics,” said Jones. “There will always be individuals coming in for that 10-ounce cheeseburger with bacon and onion rings, but more people are moving towards healthier food. One of the fun things we’re working on in response is creating many variations of classic avocado toast for the menu to make ordering healthy a more personalized, curated experience. We position our menus so breakfast is now part of brunch, and popular lighter items like quinoa bowls are available through mid- to late-afternoon.”
Menu reduction has also been a key driver at Parable Hospitality, with Laliotis finding that streamlining offerings improves execution, reduces waste and helps control both food and labor costs. He and his culinary teams had to counter slow lunchtime dayparts with earlier happy hours, often starting between 3:00 and 4:00 pm to bring guests in earlier and build momentum into the evening. This, in turn, prompts his team to consistently adjust payroll, labor and operating expenses. Economic influences, such as meat and wine pricing, also necessitate menu adjustments, yet creativity remains high in food and drink presentations.
“Rising food costs, particularly produce and proteins, continue to impact menu strategy, while broader wellness trends and health-conscious dining habits are influencing what guests order,” he said. “We’re seeing less interest in heavy meals like steaks and pastas, and more in lighter options and shareable plates. To drive incremental business during slower periods, we’ve introduced new programming including themed wine and spirits dinners, limited-time offers and special event menus (i.e. seasonal promotions, game-day specials) to help drive interest, incremental revenue and strong PR opportunities.”
With the responsibility of overseeing F&B strategy across LBA Hospitality’s 100 hotels covering the southeastern United States (including Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG-branded properties), Chef Chris Moore has had to not only rethink softening dayparts like breakfast, but approach it with overarching lifestyle trends of guests and locals in mind. She has factored in the uptick of GLP1 usage, smaller portion demand, sharable items and lower alcohol consumption. Although encouraging local patronage has helped offset the fall in popularity of breakfast among guests, she cites changes in business travel, including reduced per diems and tightened travel budgets prompted an overhaul alongside health concerns. She has also applied her experience as a frequent business traveler.
“Rather than give up on breakfast, I asked myself how I could capture it differently,” Moore said. “The average check is going down for sure, with just smoothies and some pastries replacing large dishes. However, pulling in the local community has been a positive change. As other hotels like Best Western New Smyrna Beach are in beach towns, we offer brunch all day. This has changed the business model there and been a home run for us. At Caption by Hyatt Chattanooga Downtown, opening March 2026, there is your traditional ground floor restaurant serving plated breakfast and Talk Shop, which will serve healthy smoothies, fresh squeezed juices and other things I personally know I gravitate towards after working out before I start the day. I'm more likely to take that per diem for the day and indulge in an experiential dinner, and I see that a lot in business travelers right now.”
Moore also said that adding more zero-proof cocktails to the beverage program has been a win. While these drinks have outpaced liquor sales at some locations, she noted many guests were willing to spend $20 on a thoughtfully-crafted drink that allowed them to enjoy a night out with friends with peace of mind. Her colleague, Regional Director of Digital Marketing Melanie Shammout, stressed that as the second “Caption” hotel in the U.S., restaurant innovation plays a strong role in defining its market. With its intended audience, Rooftop Bar & Lounge is tailoring menus to keep pace with current dining trends. Small plates and shareable items customers can mix and match allows them to eat lighter, adhere to their GLP1 diets, cut liquor intake and still enjoy a night out in a trendy ambiance.
The well-established W Miami has consistently featured a strong selection of healthy dishes, including gluten free and vegetarian options, Williams said there has not been a need to pivot in response to recent food trends. However, a shift toward lower alcohol consumption recently led to an expanded non-alcoholic beverage program. In the wake of this, the property’s staffing model has been updated to align with daypart strategy that trims team size to the appropriate level for current operational needs.
Speaking the Customers’ Food Love Language
“The first thing that ownership and management have to keep in mind with dayparts is that they have to see who their customers are and understand what they are looking for,” advised Paul Katsch, CEO of Rezku, a restaurant technology platform working with high-volume and multi-location restaurants and hotels. “Not all of the great ideas for the hospitality industry came from technology, but directly from customers who just say, ‘God, I wish I could order an eggs benedict at one in the morning when I'm done working,’ or ‘I'm a different time zone, and I am hungry much earlier, so why doesn’t (the property) adapt to my time zone?’”
Even with software that can track what a customer spent on a given meal, Katsch insists the best thing a manager can do is just sit down with customer to ask how their day is going. From there, the manager can extrapolate what times of day they are the busiest, what situation brought them to the hotel and whether the visit is all business, all leisure or a mix of both. The caveat, of course, is knowing every hotel and every region where the hotels are located is different. For this reason, you can’t rush through these face-to-face conversations, even if social media marketing outreach is designed to be a conversation starter.
“It's when you don't ask is when revenue drops,” he said. “We need to ask our guests what they're really expecting and to find out what they want and need. It’s important to understand that what may not work on a weekday in a given location may work well on weekends. If a customer comes for business but stays through the weekend, it’s like having two different customers in one as needs change when the guest goes into vacation mode and wants a different food experience.”
Asking customers directly about what they want has opened the door to strong late-night daypart opportunities, with many guests staying up and out later and satisfying a demand for late night bites. This also helps put employees where they are needed to carry out guests’ wants and needs. The same strategy can help operators determine if a 4:00 pm wine tasting pre-happy hour will appeal to a particular hotel’s guests and lead to a more robust happy hour, work better on weekends or fall flat based on location and type of customer.
“Part of my daily routine is to read all of the customer feedback we’ve received in a 24-hour period, respond where it's appropriate and make adjustments to our service,” said Andaz West Hollywood’s Lane. “I believe that our best (approach) is to stay in tune with what our guests are looking for and rolling out more robust offerings in our restaurants and marketplace. My understanding of this means elevated food and drink menu items and grab-and-go offerings for guests who are in a rush or those who want to enjoy it their room with a small bottle of wine.”
Laliotis believes Parable Hospitality’s profitability begins with using guest feedback to inform menu development and operational decisions. There is also a rethinking how to reframe “dining occasions.” Rather than labeling a daypart “dinner,” some management teams at different properties may highlight concepts like “After 5” or offer shareable family-style dinners for four at a set price seven days a week. At the same time, he said that some are moving toward flexible scheduling models that align their labor with demand.
“Successful daypart strategy is about aligning what guests want and what each operation can deliver efficiently and consistently,” he said. “Our strong fundamentals include training our servers to upsell thoughtfully and designing menus that are easy to navigate. These (strategies) resonate because they recreate the feeling of a shared, relaxed meal like a guest would have at home ... something they increasingly value.”
Daypart Directions
Hospitality consultant Jane Parmel, founder of Cardinal Profit Strategies, finds that the operators who struggle most are those trying to avoid change, while the most successful are more willing to adjust service hours, menu formats and seating styles to better align with guest intent. Here are some of her thoughts on the shifting paradigms involving dayparts:
- Profitability will always improve when labor scheduling matches actual demand rather than the, “That’s the way we’ve always done it” status quo.
- Based on customer feedback, guests will often signal they value convenience, consistency and perceived value over sheer variety of menu items.
- Overall restaurant profitability can improve even without increasing covers when scheduling, menu curation and marketing are designed around guest behavior.
- Weekday lunch is being adjusted in many locations to appeal to guests seeking lighter fare and faster service. In some cases, lunch has been absorbed into an extended happy hour offering.
- Late night offerings are much smaller, dependent on limited menus or replaced with elevated grab-and-go choices.
- Dinner menus in some locations feature signature dishes that justify price points and allow for main ingredients to be featured in several dishes.
This article was originally published in the April/May edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.