Want to Make your F&B Rock - Forget About Your Guests
Alec Howard
Creating Awesome F&B for Hotels I Founder I Speaker I F&B Consultant I Writer I Chef I
Want to make your F&B rock? Then forget about your guests. A sentiment I’d originally expressed in somewhat saltier terms, but since my last article I’ve promised our increasingly exasperated MD I’d at least try to be, how shall I put this, more professional.?
If you’re working in the resort sector you can stop reading now, if however you’re planning, developing or operating hotels in urban settings, indulge me. Because if you want to make your F&B rock, and let’s be honest why wouldn’t you, forget about your in-house guests.?Focus instead on the other guests, the ones who don’t sleep in your beds. You see it’s your local residential and business communities who’ll make your hotel’s public spaces come to life, and profitable. And the good news is busy, energetic F&B spaces will make your in-house guest happy too. No really it will.?
If you know this already you’ll also know there’s a bit of a catch, as doing so requires something, that as an industry, we’re not great at. In fact all too often we’re terrible. Creating F&B experiences outside guests love is just not in our industry’s DNA. While you probably know what needs to change, you’ll also be worrying about check-in, breakfast, events, alongside improbably low staffing levels and impossibly high budgets.?And then there’s the endless input you receive from your SVP, the value of which is some way below the volume. And frequency. Ignore all of this, believe breakfast really can be served anywhere, be kind but frank with your chef, turn the lights down and the music up, and who knows what you could achieve. Sure I’m conveniently ignoring the challenges inherent in F&B development and operations to make my somewhat laboured point. It’s just that ignoring your guest could just make your F&B rock, and wouldn’t that be something?
Experienced hotel operations management executive with substantial track record of success in operational strategies, cross-functional team leadership, superior guest experience, and general management.
1 年Totally! Need to find a project here in Norway we can work on together.. Would love to create some magic!
Passionate about hospitality since age 6
1 年Catchy headline (and article too). Provocative marketing, Alec ????
Prendergast & Associates
1 年I could not agree more. I have worked on hotel F&B concepts for years, urban, suburban and resort. In the Urban - and to some extent suburban - your public spaces are so valuable to the general public if done correctly that they can generate more PROFIT than your rooms. I love when developers and operators see the benefits. But it is hard in so many cases to convince them it is worth the investment and energy. Bravo.. love the article.