Food & beverage
Beyond appealing to guests, meanwhile, this pared-down approach makes monetary sense. Many hotels are still recovering from the financial hit of Covid, while labour costs increased by 6.9% in the year to September 2021 as found by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics. It goes without saying that following the Think Package model can save money here. As Rothman puts it: “You’re not having to enter [a guest’s] room and set up a table, and then retrieve everything.” Susskind makes a similar point. Describing this type of offering as “room service lite” he says that operators are increasingly “capturing revenue, and providing customers with decent, high-quality types of products” without going all out. Look at what hoteliers are doing and this point seems fair. Many Radisson properties, to give one example, now boast in-room coffee machines, helping guests get their obligatory cup of joe without needing to rely on staff.
While tradition breakfast spreads have vanished, they may return as the world return to a pre-pandemic normal.
65%
Customers claim they picked their hotel based on the breakfast option.
83% 50
Percentage of customers that see breakfast as central to a positive experience. TripAdvisor
something different too. At the Four Seasons in New York, for instance, chefs soon hope to integrate sushi-style conveyor belts into their morning routine. How to understand this slew of experiential breakfasts? For Susskind, it comes down to the time of day that breakfast is served. Think of it like this: both business travellers and tourists are likely to be away at lunch, while most tend to eat out for dinner. But if you’ve just rolled out of bed, stumbling towards breakfast at your hotel often makes sense. “You have a captive audience,” says Susskind. “So, offer them something that will keep them in your hotel – in full service and luxury hotels, that’s additional revenue for you.” And if not everyone is paddling towards floating breakfasts, other operators are channelling the same spirit. Among other things, Rothman says that EOS Hospitality occasionally tries to serve busy guests coffee as they wake up, delivering it 20 minutes before they go to their morning meetings. Yet even as companies like EOS Hospitality are experimenting with personalisation, Rothman also stresses that some of 2020’s tactics haven’t disappeared. One particular focus here is room service. For obvious reasons, eating away from other guests enjoyed a resurgence during Covid. EOS has stuck to this outlook until now, working with Think Package, a custom package design company, to deliver “quality” breakfasts in a box. Clingfilm wrapped muesli and half-stale muffins are gone – replaced by robust, compartmentalised packages complete with coasters and information on what guests are eating. Even better, Rothman emphasises that customers can easily dispose of their leftovers once they’re done, sparing them the frustration of sharing their suite with a pile of dirty dishes, and making them more likely to skip the cafe down the street.
Eating out
What, then, does the future hold for hotel breakfasts? Between the poolside bonanzas at the Amanjiwo and the unadorned approach favoured at EOS, it’s tempting to imagine that traditional breakfast spreads, the erstwhile titans of the hotel breakfast world, have vanished forever. Eventually, though, Susskind speculates that they may return. To explain what he means, he talks by analogy, explaining that at a recent hotel stay in New Jersey, he noticed staff coming in to clean out his bin and replace used towels, something they never did during the pandemic. To put it another way, he says, customers are again “becoming a little more comfortable” with the world that was, with sumptuous sit-down breakfasts high on the comeback list too. “It’s the cost of doing business in the luxury side of the segment,” he says, “that you have to provide for it.”
Rothman makes a similar point, claiming that in a way, Covid and its consequences may actually prompt the revival of old school breakfasts. With 30% of the British workforce now working remotely at least once a week, according to data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), and similar numbers of their American cousins doing the same, Rothman suggests there are new opportunities for hospitality F&B growth. Now that many workers have more flexible schedules, or indeed work from anywhere, he argues that putting on “interesting” breakfasts could draw in new diners who aren’t even staying at a particular hotel. “There are more people who are able to have leisurely breakfasts,” he says. “That would be a great thing for the industry.” Given where hotel breakfasts were 18 months ago, that’s surely something to cheer. ●
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
EOS Hospitality
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