HotelsMag January-February 2018 | Page 39

F & B

Setting up

LOCAL APPEAL

HOW HOTEL RESTAURANTS CAN CREATE A CRAVING – AND A SEPARATE IDENTITY – IN THEIR COMMUNITIES .
Contributed BY MEGAN ROWE

Hotel restaurants at one time freeloaded off their more profitable sibling , the banquet department . Today , smart operators are figuring out how make their onsite restaurants lively spots that compete with the best local eateries .

“ It ’ s a transition that hotels have been trying to make for a number of years , but a lot of hotels are still getting it wrong ,” says Guy Rigby , president and founder of Toronto-based consulting firm Octopus and a former vice president of food and beverage at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts . “ They make the mistake of creating a restaurant that ’ s targeted toward the hotel guest .”
Too often that plays out as an impersonal menu of greatest hits meant to offer something for everyone – and nothing that will entice the local community . But when locals embrace a hotel restaurant , profits follow .
January / February 2018 hotelsmag . com 35