Hospitality Paradigm

In the last five years pasta sales dropped 8% in Australia, 13% in Europe and 25% in Italy. It isn’t a crisis in the U.S. yet but pasta’s down 6% as Americans focus on proteins and shed carbs, or shun gluten. Even carboholics have more nutritious alternatives, including quinoa, chickpeas, lentils, spelt, barley, chia. So it certainly looks like a trend. Vegetable spiralizers are selling like, well, hotcakes. Chefs will experiment with vegetables ribbons – zucchini, asparagus, beets, sweet potatoes, for example, replacing pasta. And look for pastas offering a full serving of vegetables such as purees of spinach, tomatoes, carrots incorporated into the dough. Maybe spaghetti squash will have its limelight moment.

After watching aggressive consumers attack Big Food companies over chemicals and additives (eg Maggi Foods – Nestle), Restaurants are all-of-a-sudden dumping some artificial (and other bad-for-you) ingredients from their menus. We’re looking at the “healthification” of fast- and fast-casual food. A recent survey found that 36% of consumers worried about “chemicals” in their food; in another survey, 40% of consumers report it’s “very important” that foods use all-natural ingredients, free of GMOs and artificial flavors or colors. But it won’t be enough. Consumers no longer equate pictures of pastured cows and leaves of grass on menus with health and wholesomeness. They’re searching for more holistic initiatives from restaurants such as control of waste, water conservation, human treatment of animals (and employees), and a host of other eco-social issues. Next culprits: sugar, salt and fat present even greater challenges.

There is a revolution in high-speed food delivery. Consumers will have access to the world’s largest (virtual) drive-thru window without ever leaving home! Tech-driven delivery is 2015-2016’s Big Disrupter of food retailing and food service aimed at the ultimate consumer convenience – food brought quickly to homes, offices and even hotel guests. Smartphoners, latching onto the ease of locating a restaurant, ordering, paying, and getting loyalty points without ever speaking to a human being are driving this revolution. Muscling into high-speed food delivery are so many established & startup companies nowadays that one cannot keep count anymore. None actually make food as they are middlemen connecting restaurants and customers, collecting fees and personal information about who orders what, when and from which restaurants – all valuable additions to what they already know about you. In contrast, some startups are building commissaries in cheap rent locations.

It’s 2015, which means it’s no longer enough to simply respond to guests who are trying to reach out to your brand via social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And for the brands that are not yet responding — you’re not only behind, you’re now irresponsible. That scenario is equivalent to not answering the telephone when guests are calling your hotel property.

Hilton Worldwide is an example of a company who is using an innovative approach to humanize their brand via social media. In more than 110 markets globally, Hilton has implemented a proactive listening program on Twitter called Hilton Suggests.

When someone tweets a simple question seeking advice about one of those 110-plus markets, an unprompted responder from the Hilton Suggests team will reach out and answer the question — delivering value when where and how the traveler wants to receive it.

They find travelers tweeting for help about where to go, what to do and what to see in their hometowns, and offer advice that only a local could provide. It could range from where to get the best slice of pizza between meetings in New York City to what to do in eight hours in London. The person responding is an expert because they’re a local in the market the traveler is inquiring about. The listening strategy and software queries have been set up accordingly for the Hilton Suggests team to respond to their specific local areas of expertise.

The key point is that the traveler (or guest) hasn’t mentioned Hilton in their correspondence. They haven’t even tagged Hilton. In fact, they may even be staying at a competitor’s property. The traveler is simply looking for help and Hilton proactively intercepts to offer a hand, looking for nothing in return other than to make a connection. And we all know connections lead to relationships and those do in fact convert.

Small plates: Small plates can be served at any time and are seen as ways to help dieters avoid overindulging.

Roll and go: Bun-less creations that are rolled instead of presented as traditional sandwiches are growing in popularity. Even the traditional hamburger filling and rolling the contents in flour tortillas.

Lose the fat-infuse: There has been an increased awareness over the past several years of the downside of fat, as well as the emphasis on gluten free and vegan foods. As a result, chefs are changing to beer braising, cider poaching and quick pickling to infuse flavor while avoiding exposing food to fat.

Back to the future: Traditional items are making a comeback on today’s menu such as meatloaf, liver and onions, shepherd’s pie and pan-fried chicken.

Grab-n-go: Grab-n-go dining is increasingly popular and spans from fresh exotic fruits to house-roasted Himalayan salted pumpkin seeds. Travelers are looking for healthy and convenient ways to satisfy their need to recharge, and stay on track.

Raging ramen:  Once thought to be a food for cash-starved college students, ramen is now breaking into the street food fad. Ramen applications include stir-fry and salad.

Tea mixology: Tea mixology involves infusing simple tea with a variety of herbs and spices.

Slow ride, cook it easy: Many customers are now on the slow food bandwagon at home. This has dramatically increased public interest in restaurants that practice slow food cooking methods. Consumers who appreciate and are willing to pay for slow foods are equally interested in the process used to create them. Many restaurants are showcasing these by putting the process right in the dining room with charcuterie drying, cheese caves and vinegar barrels.

Branding the chef: Guests today want to take home a little more from their favourite eatery. Many chefs are creating their own signature products that they bottle and package for home use.  Bottling items, like signature sauces and dressings are replacing traditional store-bought items in customers’ pantries.

Source: Benchmark Hospitality International 

The future of revenue management is now in looking beyond the top-line sales that revenue managers typically look at. Having exhausted all revenue streams in managing revenues by looking at gross sales, 2015 will now have the advanced revenue managers looking at net sales. Thus revenue management is looking at more revenue streams besides the room and more variables to think about forecasting besides past history. Using top-line revenue as a guide for evaluating a hotel’s performance will need to be supplemented with measures that provide more of an indication of profit contribution, like Net RevPAR and sales and marketing efficiency.