Hotel restaurants striving for competing individual restaurants fail resulting in losing customers. Let us look into 5 reasons not to bypass.
Every year millions of visitors from every corner of the globe come to Greece for their vacation or work.
They mainly choose a hotel as a basis for their activities, which depending on its category and ranking, can offer many additional facilities in addition to a simple stay.
One of the main “weapons” of a hotel unit, is food itself and consequently its restaurant/s.
In recent years, hotels have invested substantially in this field, proposing new ideas such as Rooftop restaurants, themed restaurants, private dining and much more, in order to “keep” the customer within their walls.
Nevertheless, in many cases, the hotel guests prefer to dine in a nearby restaurant or in a well-known one several kilometers away.
But how do hotel restaurants manage to “drive away” the customer from the accommodation itself?
Lack of concept and clear identity
The customer of a hotel will prefer to dine in a seafood restaurant, in a tavern or in a fine dining restaurant outside the hotel, for this very reason, knowing in advance what he wants to taste and where he can find what is looking for.
Hotels, on the other hand, in many cases, fall into the trap of repetition and standard menus.
Burgers, pizza and club sandwiches are on the menu of almost every hotel and the majority of them do not exceed mediocrity.
An ally in this, is the view that: “If we have customers from all over the world we should be able to satisfy them all”.
This is now an outdated concept since outside the hotel’s premises there are specialized areas providing the best of each product.
The solution is simple. Clear concept, new proposals and identity that will be appreciated by the hotel customers and will visit it again and again.
Multitasking in the kitchen and restaurant
In a restaurant, the main occupation of staff’s employment is the preparation and proper management of work during service.
In a hotel this is complicated as in many cases the staff of the hall and the kitchen, is called to serve a larger volume of work covering the needs of a conference, a bar or restaurant but also the room service by the already existing personnel.
As a result, many times nothing can work perfectly, especially deterrent to the customer.
The aspect of “Ηotel restaurant? It will be expensive!”
How many times have we heard or given thought of this phrase ourselves?
Unfortunately, this view has prevailed for many years and not unjustly, as several hotels have fallen into the trap of overpricing food and wine.
In recent years, however, hotel restaurants have made many efforts to build a good value for money, as well as discounts for their customers.
It is equally important that they aim to create a relationship of trust with their customers by offering incentives to their guests to dine at least once in a hotel restaurant.
Lack of signage and guidance from staff
We mentioned the issue of price above.
Apart from that, however, there is also the issue of lack of signage, i.e the means that will inform the customer that there is a restaurant inside the accommodation, as well as additional information about what it offers.
An important role is played by the staff and especially the Front Desk department, as it is the first contact with the customer.
There needs to be appropriate information by the staff, so that it can effectively guide the customer, not only about the opening hours and the concept of the restaurant but providing essential information about the location (near a historical monument) and the view (mountain or sea).
In addition, flyers can be made available to customers, either using special software (application) or even promotional material inside the hotel (banners, projection screens, etc.)
Furthermore, a very important factor for the correct signage is the updated property’s website with recent gastronomic suggestions of the hotel restaurant and updated photo material.
Promotion and advertising
A key issue and source of many problems and area of controversy in several hotel restaurants, is the issue of proper and targeted promotion along with advertising.
On the contrary, individual restaurants, with serious investments, marketing plan and concept, managed to stand out by taking the lion’s share through their promotion in advertising leaflets and preserving a greater spirit of extroversion and potential even on Social Media.
Hotels having to cope with large commissions on online booking platforms got left behind in this field.
This has a negative effect on the reputation of excellent hotel restaurants, with the result that the efforts of Chefs and businesses go unnoticed and essentially “cannibalize” other property’s departments.
Reaching the conclusion, we need to emphasize the importance of investing in hotel restaurants for the future.
It would be an untapped opportunity if thousands of visitors did not have the opportunity to dine in such a restaurant, to get to know its gastronomic proposal, to get in touch with Greek products and to feel that in their temporary “home” they can savor a nice meal and enjoy themselves like in a “normal” restaurant.
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