Good Morning to Great Morning: Transforming Breakfast in Hotels

When booking a hotel room, travellers consider various factors, such as location, amenities, and price. However, one aspect that often sets hotels apart and leaves a lasting impression with guests is the quality of the breakfast experience and menu offering.

Hotel breakfasts have evolved from a convenience to a significant guest loyalty and booking differentiator. Hotel breakfasts provide a memorable start to the day and help guests feel more than satisfied with their chosen hotel brand and stay. In this post, we will explore the importance of thinking good morning to great morning in relation to your hotels breakfast offering.

In today's competitive hospitality industry, hotels should be constantly searching for ways to stand out and create memorable moments through food, service and beverage that promote a sense of connection and discovery.

A well-curated breakfast menu offering can be pivotal in supporting your hotels reputation and help it to become memorable for all of the right reasons or for those who do not put enough focus into breakfast sadly a reason for your guests to try your hotel competitor. Understanding your hotels segmentation in F&B can help your team tailor a breakfast offering for your hotels key target market. Whether it's providing a certain plate up and presentation style or offering more vegan options, gluten-free alternatives understanding your properties segmentation mix and listening to what they want is crucial to drive loyalty and value.??

This is especially important for frequent travellers who prioritise food and drink as a key reason to book their chosen hotel. By offering a delicious, varied, and a tasty breakfast, you hotel can attract more guests and drive greater market share with a higher ADR. :)

Breakfast is often considered the most important meal of the day, and for a hotel guests, it can significantly impact their day and overall stay experience. A satisfying breakfast can set a positive tone for the day ahead be that at work or for a guest taking a holiday break, A well thought out breakfast provides guests with the energy and nourishment they need moreover, for many travellers, the hotel breakfast serves as the last meal they have before checking out.

A well-designed breakfast buffet setup or menu should focus on providing a balanced selection of menu items. Incorporating a variety of visual and tasty food and beverages encompassing dietary needs with freshness, quality ingredients and flavours that can set you apart from your direct hotel competition. More importantly your guests morning can be transformed from good morning to a great morning.

For me every hotel should have a few menu items that are standout, these can be from local artisan food producers such as deliciously locally made bread, traditionally made cold cuts, or in house prepared fruits, pastry items and a locally ingredient led cooked breakfast speciality. If you are looking for trends you could also look at some of the latest Tik Tok breakfast trends and improve upon them.

This past year I have seen about 80 or so hotel breakfasts. This is for both buffets and à la carte menu operations and in my opinion there is often opportunities to improve upon the basics. To me often presentation is over looked in hot buffets and in quality of certain items.

In my opinion I believe we should have a quality mindset for things like fresh juices, fruits, salads, freshly baked bread, pastries, local charcuterie, local cheeses and for hot food we should have a contemporary approach.

When possible food items should be rotated regularly and, if feasible, we should try to include a live cooking station, where the chef can engage directly with the guests.

Many hotels offer an à la carte menu featuring five to six dishes unique to their hotel to generate additional revenue and profit. This approach ensures guests can have a more personalised experience and choice. Moreover, the importance of rotating buffet items and maintaining the quality of Operating Supplies and Equipment (OS&E) is vital to ensure guests feel their is variety, merchandising within the buffet cannot be overstated, as it keeps the offerings fresh and appealing and interesting.

To avoid being predictable and repetitive, hotels should try to reimagine their traditional breakfast items for example, instead of the usual streaky or back bacon, consider offering a succulent gammon joint cured in house or from a local butcher or farmer. Seasonal, freshly roasted vegetables can add a touch of regional flavour and entice guests to discover local ingredients. I would love to hear what innovative twists on familiar dishes you provide guests at breakfast that offer a sense of regional and culinary exploration.

Highlighting local items on the breakfast menu not only adds a sense of place but also introduces your guests to the culture and culinary traditions of your hotels locality. From regional pastries and cheeses to artisan bread and freshly roasted seasonal veggies, incorporating local specialties into your breakfast allows guests to experience local authentic flavours.

Airbnb does this exceptionally well with some of their hosts through their?cook and eat with locals??It also helps support local businesses and promotes a more sustainable and locally connected approach to breakfast.

While it is important to offer a variety of choices, it is equally crucial to identify food and drink items that end up as food waste. As?food and beverage, culinary leaders we have a responsibility to keep wastage to a minimum. Perhaps some over produced buffet menu items can be reused or sold via food waste platforms such as too good to go. or even better plan to have minimal waste intentionally.

An inviting and well-organised breakfast buffet and table setup can significantly enhance your guests experience. Attention to detail, such as attractive buffet presentations, tableware, appropriate table setup, and comfortable seating, properly programmed music, room temperature and lighting can create a welcoming ambiance that encourages guests to relax and enjoy their breakfast experience.

Additionally, incorporating nutritional considerations, such as having clearly labelled allergens, calories and offering providing healthy options, demonstrates your hotel's commitment to your guests well-being and for some countries this is now required by law. You could even consider going one step further and including farm to plate miles or carbon footprint to help support keeping your hotels overall CO2 emissions down.?

The idea of this post was not to share anything new but to really help us all reflect on our current breakfast offering and ask ourselves do we have room or opportunity to improve and for me personally I hope you will share some ideas and thoughts so we can all learn from each other.

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