Food & beverage In other words, the pandemic arguably pushed hotel
Above: Chefs around the world are working to create experiential breakfasts for guests.
Below right: Breakfast service is expected to be more personalised since the pandemic.
Previous page: Post Covid, hotel guests have come to expect more lavish breakfast options during their stay.
Not that Covid has necessarily condemned hotels to becoming Starbucks with a turndown service. On the contrary, with guests desperate for excitement after years of staring at the wall, experiential breakfasts are on the rise, with chefs the world over crafting wildly innovative ways of starting your day. That’s shadowed by more personalised service, with many operators, especially in towns and cities, eager to lure guests away from the countless breakfast opportunities beyond the hotel doors. Not that any of this is easy. Rather, the best hotel breakfasts post-pandemic require thoughtful interaction with customers. Get it right, though, and profits could soon be pushed higher.
“Offer them something that will keep them in your hotel – in full service and luxury hotels, that’s additional revenue for you.”
Professor Alex Susskind Breakfast and furious 6.9%
The amount labour costs increased by in the year up to September 2021. Bureau of Labour Statistics
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What did hotel breakfasts look like before 2019? In broad terms, explains Alex Susskind, the divide can be understood by how much guests were paying. Full-service hotels almost invariably boasted ample morning spreads, something the Cornell food and beverage management professor describes as “differentiators for their brands”. In essence, that meant the luxurious buffets we’re all familiar with, or else à la carte options at top names like the Four Seasons. But as Susskind continues, that’s only half the story, stressing that less posh hotels have long relied on pastries and coffee alone. Albert Rothman, vice-president of food and beverage at EOS Hospitality, concurs. Especially in big city hotels – where guests are likely to rush out early for business or sightseeing – Rothman says some up-market properties long ago started abandoning meat-heavy breakfasts in favour of “quick service” alternatives.
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
breakfasts not to some unprecedented new world, but simply closer to the cheap-and-cheerful approach many operators were already following. Even so, the scale of the shift shouldn’t be underestimated. Examining a couple of major brands is illuminating here. At some Hilton properties, for instance, sit-down breakfasts were dumped for pre-packed yoghurt and bagels. Elsewhere, staff simply gave guests a $10 voucher to buy something elsewhere. Operators went the same way. IHG broadly went down the grab-and-go track, while some Marriott hotels cooked breakfasts. It was a similar story at EOS Hospitality, where Rothman helps manage a number of hotels across the US. “There’s a desire for high touchpoint luxury service within our portfolio and balancing that with safety,” he says, adding that his team hung bags with cheese and fresh pastries on bedroom doors.
Egg-celent ideas Visit Amanjiwo, set amid the palm groves and rice paddies of central Bali, and you might be surprised by the breakfast setting. Certainly, you can have your breakfast in the hotel restaurant, but more adventurous guests are increasingly plumping for the so-called ‘floating breakfast’ – swapping plates for a bobbing wicker basket and a table for a private swimming pool. Allowing customers to eat as they wallow, Amanjiwo’s technique is being echoed across East Asia, with hotels from Thailand to the Maldives getting in on the action. Nor is the floating breakfast alone in pushing the boundaries of what breakfast can be. With the pandemic giving hotel F&B insiders a chance to reset their culinary portfolios, other properties are trying
EOS Hospitality
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