Steve Palmer of The Indigo Road Hospitality (left) and Richard Garcia of Remington Hotels (right) speak during the “Profitable F&B? Sounds Delicious!” panel at the 2022 Hotel Data Conference. — Photo by CoStar

Hotel guests' expectations for food-and-beverage offerings have risen with the record-high average daily rates across the country. But meeting those expectations amid staffing issues is no piece of cake.

Panelists on a session titled “Profitable F&B? Sounds Delicious!” at the 2022 Hotel Data Conference spoke about the shift in dining and drinking trends over the past year and how they’re adjusting to higher guest expectations.Pricing Using Data

Food-and-beverage directors are working more closely with revenue management specialists to ensure menu items are priced at the most profitable rate.

While most hotel restaurants aren’t pushing dynamic pricing quite yet, data being collected at least weekly is helping inform directors when to change the menus, said Steve Palmer, founder of The Indigo Road Hospitality Group. Flexibility has allowed the company to operate currently at its lowest food costs, he said.

The shift in daily thinking based on room rates and raised expectations has forced food-and-beverage directors to think outside the box to deliver on the experiences coveted by guests, Guido Salvatori, senior director of integrations at Duetto, said. Tying all the data together can be a challenge, though.

“How to take this data and make sense of it and now start to be able to adjust the pricing and be able to incorporate it into your overall strategy, it’s difficult,” he said.

Richard Garcia, senior vice president of food and beverage at Remington Hotels, said his staff combs through its budget every day to stay on top of costs. The biggest surprise in the data is not the cost of meat and seafood, but the rise in price of common goods such as flour and sugar.

“If you’re not paying attention to those basic commodities, I would highly suggest you do,” he said.

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)