The elevation of F&B in the Hotel industry

The elevation of F&B in the Hotel industry

Capturing market share through the delivery of “High Street” quality F&B

Future Food are leaders in Food & Hospitality Consulting to the hotel industry, partnering with developers and hotel operators around the world to maximise the benefit food and beverage can bring to their property.

Throughout 2018/2019 it seemed that every week we were picking up the newspaper and reading announcements of the “Next New” hotel being built in one of our capital cities, or the first of its kind new ‘Lifestyle’ hotel brand entering the market to cater towards new customer demands in the aspirational hotel market.

With the introduction of brands like 25 Hours Hotels by Accor, Voco Hotels by IHG and W Hotels by Marriott, it appeared that the ‘lifestyle’ product was on-trend and in high demand, yet the announcement of global leaders including St Regis, Ritz Carlton and Mandarin Oriental also eyeing off new locations in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne revealed the push across all levels of hotel positioning.

The Tasman Hobart
The Tasman Signature Restaurant, celebrates Chef Massimo Mele’s heritage of traditional Italian cuisine with a local Tasmanian twist, making the most of the abundant local produce.

Image via Trip Advisor

Australia, the once forgotten neighbour in the world of luxury hotel brands, is finally being recognised as a lucrative market by leading global hotel companies and every key player wants a stake.

Many industry experts questioned the justification for such an influx of new brands to the market and questioned where this demand was coming from, to warrant such an upsurge in room keys, yet the announcements kept coming and from Future Food’s perspective, so too did the consultancies. In a period of 18 months, Future Food completed over a dozen new hotel consultancies around Australia, delivering F&B strategies, ascertaining F&B feasibility, conducting gap analysis and competitive landscape assessments and curating F&B concepts for a host of hotel brands in the mid-tier, premium and ultra-premium markets.

Ritz Carlton Melbourne
Opening 2022 – A Future Food Project

True world-class inner city living, with the proposed Ritz-Carlton hotel choosing West Side Place as its home in Melbourne. Destined to be an attraction in its own right as the tallest hotel in Australia

Image via News.com

 It was apparent that this shift in the market brought with it the desire to redefine the role that food and beverage plays in the modern hotel to establish new levels of experiential restaurant and café provision, capable of competing with the high streets. What has historically been seen as a convenience-based offer, hotel operators have finally acknowledged that F&B can no longer be a loss-leader and needs to establish its own market, enticing guests from outside of the hotel to engage with its new to market offers.

Jumping forwards to 2020/2021 and the global Covid – 19 pandemic has devastated the hospitality industry and the hotel industry in particular has suffered the full magnitude of this virus.

“Melbourne’s hotel industry continues to expand despite occupancy rates across the city languishing below 30 per cent for the month of June.

Incoming travellers in hotel quarantine accounted for more than half the guests in the city’s hotels, according to the latest data from industry body the Accommodation Association, which measured average hotel occupancy in Melbourne at 27.4 per cent.”

- Melbourne hotels all but empty, yet more set to open
July 9th, 2021. The Age 

In 2020 the Melbourne’s hotel sector alone experienced a loss in room revenue of $1.4 billion and now in 2021 the regular lockdowns both locally and domestically has brought similar devastation. This ongoing uncertainty and repeat border closures has impacted international and domestic tourism, however the announcement of the aforementioned hotels keeps coming.

The planning and development phase of many of these hotels takes multiple years from conception to completion and as such are far beyond the point of no return.

As specialist Food & Beverage Consultants, Future Food’s involvement in these projects typically occurs in the initial stages of hotel planning, to help inform the architectural design from a fit-for-purpose operational perspective, to devise the direction for food and beverage and progress the design, look & feel for the chosen concept.

“Hotels don’t just come online overnight, the current expansion in Melbourne’s hotel stocks has been years in the making”

- June 18th, 2021. Traveller 

Sebel Ringwood Hotel, Melbourne
Opened 2021 - A Future Food Project

The Sebel Melbourne Ringwood opened early 2021 servicing Melbourne's burgeoning Eastern suburbs growth corridor.

With guest access to impressive onsite amenities including, 103 full apartment style rooms, an ultra-modern fitness centre, four sophisticated and well-appointed meeting spaces and function rooms, a restaurant, delicatessen and bar and an open-air terrace.

Image via Bookings.com

Hotel X Brisbane – Bisou Bisou Restaurant, from the Ghanem Group (Donna Chang, Boom Boom Izakaya & Blackbird Bar & Grill) unleashes their creative talents with a modern twist on traditional French fare.

Image via Delicious

MELBOURNE'S NEW HOTELS IN 2021 (SO FAR)

• Ovolo South Yarra

• Next Hotel Melbourne

• Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street

• Quincy Hotel Melbourne

• Lancemore on Crossley St.

• Movenpick Hotel Melbourne on Spencer

• W Hotel Collins Street

• Melbourne Marriott Hotel Docklands

• Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne South Bank

• Vibe Hotel Melbourne

• Sebel Hotel Ringwood

The Hotel Britomart NZ – Kingi Restaurant, a new all-day eatery in the historic Masonic House as part of the Hotel Britomart development, celebrating New Zealand’s prized seafood and wine.

Image via The Denizen 

The above list of new hotel additions has added more than 2000 new hotel rooms and approximately 18 new restaurants to the city and we are only midway through the year. This influx of ‘new’ supply without associated demand is likely to cause some real challenges for existing hotels, with guests opting for new and interesting properties, with aspirational food and beverage concepts as their preference.

The predilection to partner with established and highly reputable chefs and restaurant groups in delivering new signature restaurant concepts for new properties has further seen the shift towards ‘High Street’ quality within the hotel’s footprint.

This increased competition in a tightly contested market has accentuated the need to fight to attract customers and secure market share in a constantly evolving landscape.

Future Food have witnessed this shift first-hand as existing hotels are seeking specialist advice and consultancy support to refine their food and beverage proposition and reposition and refresh their offer to enabling them to remain relevant.

Food and beverage is being used as an anchor to give hotels greater credibility within the competitive landscape to safeguard a revenue stream, when reliance on room revenue is so ambiguous.

With new to market hotels seeking to establish first-class restaurants and aspirational concepts and existing hotels seeking to enhance their antiquated offering, Future Food are remaining highly active in this space and regardless of room occupancy levels, the future of food and beverage in hotels is looking bright!

25 Hours Hotel Cremorne
Opening 2023 – A Future Food Project

As one of the first outside of Europe, the 25 Hours hotel in Cremorne will become a beacon within the Malt District precinct. Featuring a destinational restaurant, café and bar, this lifestyle hotel will become a key pillar in this urban rejuvenation project.

Image via Realestate.com

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Cover Images Sebel Ringwood. Image via www.hospitalitynet.org