| Author: | Marchenay, Damien Daniel Marie |
| Title: | Are current hotel restaurant offers failing? An analysis of the main existing business models of food and beverage outlets in upscale and luxury Asian hotels |
| Advisors: | Schuckert, Markus (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Subject: | Hotel management Food service management Hospitality industry -- Management Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xi, 233 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | In Asia, the global food and beverage (F&B) sector is currently experiencing a revolution in codes in upscale and luxury hotels. Twenty years ago, for food and personal safety reasons, on-property hotel restaurants in this region were leaders of upscale dining. Nowadays, the economic explosion in Asia, coupled with strong innovation driven by stand-alone restaurants, has resulted in the F&B offerings of hotels to be seemingly old fashioned and unable to adequately respond to customer demands. The customers are changing as the new generation is well travelled and wants to have more local experiences. Both local customers and hotel guests are seeking experiences which are driven by a relevant concept and are locally authentic. The reputation of in-hotel dining remains bland and hotels are viewed simply as a convenient place to dine. It has been proven through the research that the younger the generation, the less prone they are to choose a hotel setting as a dining destination. Other dining options, coupled with an ultra-connected/ultra-informed millennium generation who are more in favour of other off-property types of dining, such as food delivery, will become the main food revolution of the next decade. As a matter of driving profits, currently, the owners of most hotel buildings — the asset managers — are questioning the F&B spaces' financial relevance. For them, every square metre counts as a potential revenue and profit stream; As a result, hotel operators are minimizing risks and operating their F&B as a commodity for hotel guests and are also reducing their number of outlets. Additionally, in terms of marketing, while in the past, most hospitality brands considered F&B as part of their business' 'DNA', or part of the critical organizational culture, it is not always true now. This, however, seems to be one of the only ways to differentiate from other players such as Airbnb. This study aims to provide a clear picture of the food and beverage component of the hospitality industry and offer solutions for shifting the paradigm of operations for hotel restaurants. The methodology proposes includes two distinct mixed methods: the first employs quantitative analysis to assess customers' feelings on the topic; the second, which is qualitative, is the result of in-depth interviews with 23 hospitality executives at different levels of responsibility, from restaurant managers to CEOs. Feedback from these professionals was in agreement on this topic: there is still a market for hotel food and beverage services, but much needs to change. This paper offers pragmatic and simple advice to the industry to help provide a roadmap for these changes. For example, hotels should be more 'street smart' in their F&B strategies to compete with independent restaurants. They need to hire professionals with specialized restaurant experience. In summary, hotels should adopt similar mindsets to independent restaurants to compete with them. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5442.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.28 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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