F&B: A Blend of Puzzles

Each department in a hotel has its own culture and personality. They come together to create the whole experience for the guest, pick each other up when someone falls, and have a moment when it’s their time to shine. Each department brings pieces that when removed, make it impossible to appreciate the full picture.

In hotels, Food & Beverage departments are a puzzle within the puzzle. The department almost feels like a Rubik's Cube that adapts to your movement. Travelers and guests have multiple entry points to experience a meal or drink. Each outlet has a unique appeal to a different guest and has different pain/stress points that leaders must know.  It’s the one department where if a guest has a negative experience in In Room Dining, they won’t try your restaurant, but if they bring their friends to the rooftop bar for a friend’s annual dinner, they might make a weekend of it and book rooms.

Working in F&B (like hospitality in general) there are always common traits needed: like being calm under pressure, having a spirit of service, picking up on non-verbal cues from guests, and creating those moments that a guest wants to come back.  Each outlet is different, and attracts a different guest, which means there’s a unique component to working in each one

And you know what that means, team members often have their preference, what one team member considers a sweet dream, the other a beautiful nightmare (not exactly a big secret). I know banquet team members who run screaming at the thought of working in In Room Dining, and excellent bartenders/mixologists who would feel restricted at the idea of working large banquet bar functions.

So, let’s put the pieces together:

In Room Dining (or Room Service)

Someone who understands the level of trust and service.  To have a meal in the privacy of one’s room is the ultimate statement of luxury and privacy. This team member often sees the guest in their most natural state (you’d be surprised how often guests take this too literally). Here it requires team members to understand how to make a big impact in those fleeting moments, when a guest wants you in, then out of their space.

This is where guest interaction is most controlled, you’re dealing with a limited number of guests at one time.

Restaurant

Setting the stage as host and curator of the dining experience. It doesn’t matter if its breakfast, lunch, or dinner; the team member sets the tone as the host. This person must identify the mood, pace, or energy of the table and adjust to what the table needs.  That early morning guests looking for a quick breakfast before their meeting would return to celebrate the big sale at your same restaurant. Knowing that guest, building that relationship, and matching their needs is what keeps people returning to the restaurant.

Banquets

Knowing the value of precision, timing, and adding a touch of flair through the entire event. Banquets and catering range from the year-end galas, the company conferences, and the intimate family gatherings and birthday parties, most properties have 6 or 7 different events going on at the same time. Hotel banquet/catering events are where a group, company, or meeting planner can show to the world “This is what we can do” and get people talking about it for weeks.  It’s about showing that your events can run smooth, on time, and provide those WOW moments that make people say “I want to have an event like this. 

Pool/Beach

Know when to bring the energy and the calm. Pool and Beach service brings out two main types of guests: The ones who are ready to relax and disconnect and those who are ready to PARTY.  The guests who came to disconnect and relax with a drink in hand? Understand their need to unwind. For the guests who came to unleash and seek relief from their winter? Tap into their energy and make them feel like this is what they need. Working at the pool and beach can get tricky, because often the two types of guests you see share the same chairs beside each other   

Bar/Lounge

Set and manage the “Vibe”. Guests come to mix and mingle, see and be seen and will base their perception off who’s there in addition to how drinks are moving.  Also, since it’s more of a free-flowing crowd with guests coming in and out of a non-enclosed space, team members and leaders need to keep an eye on the energy shifts. Those can occur when the business conference gets out for happy hour, when sport fans leave the stadium, or guests are waiting to check in and the room isn’t ready.  The bar and lounge are great outlets, face-paced, high energy; but if you don’t know where to look and when those pain points kick in, it can feel chaotic and out of control.   

Coffee/Retail/Grab N Go

Small but mighty, must bring the cheer and be organized. Could you imagine starting your shift with 80-90% of your guests either partially sleep or grouchy because they hadn’t had their morning coffee? This doesn’t even count people who partied a little too hard and forgot they had an early meeting the next day.  The ones who work here are trusted to remember the matcha latte and three oat milk cappuccinos each with an extra shot, one with vanilla, and two with extra foam, come out accurate and at the same time.  Working in the coffee shop you must have nerves of steel; we’ve all seen the coffee shop where you get 20 people lined up instantly, then it becomes an assembly line of foamed milk, military precision and the mad dash to refill the cream and sugar station to keep everyone in high spirits.    

It’s eye-opening to stop and witness in real time how those core skills translate into the revenue centers. Each venue is working towards the same objective and approaches it from a different perspective, adding a puzzle piece to how F&B drives revenue to the hotel.  That department is a healthy mix of center and corner pieces with a lot of vibrancy to help fill in the gaps.