Blog / June 20, 2023
12 Tech-Savvy Strategies for Improving Hotel Restaurant Management
Managing a hotel restaurant comes with a set of distinct responsibilities that go beyond those of standalone restaurants. From fulfilling 24-hour room service orders to serving diners in multiple locations throughout the hotel, the demands are complex which can strain operational efficiency and impact the guest experience.
In this article, we’ll cover valuable hotel restaurant management tips and how technology can help F&B operators streamline operations, impress guests and elevate F&B brands.
1. Deliver a Consistent Experience
An important part of hotel restaurant management is delivering a consistent experience across properties and F&B outlets. The food service level at your restaurant should match the hotel’s level of service.
According to SevenRooms’ research, 17% of locals expect hotel restaurants and bars to have a higher level of service than standalone restaurants in their area. And, 26% of hotel guests would reconsider booking with the brand in the future if they experienced poor service at the hotel’s restaurant or bar.
When your CRM shares data instead of siloing it, you can instantly know someone’s loyalty status if they’ve visited your property in Santa Fe and are now visiting you in San Antonio. And when your F&B CRM integrates with your hotel CRM, data sharing can help housekeeping ensure that in-room amenities don’t include nuts if the guest has a nut allergy, for example, and anticipate other needs.
2. Make Business Decisions Based on Data
When hotel management can access data from all revenue streams – including rooms and F&B outlets – it’s easy to unlock powerful reporting that can help you reach the right business decision faster.
Look for a F&B CRM that makes it easy to access your data and integrates with the rest of the tools in the hotel’s tech stack, including your POS, hotel CRM and PMS. Check out our guide below for more insights into how hotel F&B software can improve efficiency and elevate the guest experience.
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3. Leverage Direct Reservation Solutions
Just like direct reservations benefit hotels they’re also great for restaurants.When you use a direct reservations platform, you can collect guest data to own your guest relationships and market to customers directly. Plus, direct booking tools don’t charge commissions, so your costs will be more predictable than if you were using a third-party reservation platform.
4. Make All Hotel Guests Feel Like VIPs…
While all hotel restaurant guests should receive the same courtesy, you need to make hotel guests feel like VIPs because they’ve already spent a considerable amount at the property. Providing the star treatment starts with knowing which restaurant guests are also hotel guests. Use an integrated restaurant customer relationship management (CRM) platform that identifies hotel guests as such when they check in for a table. Your team can thank them for staying at the hotel, see their dining preferences and roll out the metaphorical red carpet.
5. …And Give Regulars and VIPs Special Treatment
This same integrated restaurant CRM system can also help you identify your most loyal and important guests, like local regulars and celebrities, and anticipate their needs. When locals get the special treatment, they’ll come back more often, carry you through the shoulder season and will be more likely to be loyal to your brand when they travel.
Detailed guest profiles show preferences (such as favorite table and dietary restrictions), spend history and more, so every employee can accommodate – without being asked.
Pro Tip: To help all departments quickly spring to action when a VIP visits, automate your guest data profiles across other technology, such as sending alerts to key staff member smartphones or Apple Watches.
6. Save Time Without Sacrificing Hospitality
The labor shortage in the restaurant industry means you have to do more with less. Look for ways to automate manual tasks.
Mobile order and pay technology let guests order food and drinks from anywhere on the property without a server needing to approach them. With this tool, you can increase revenue without adding labor costs. And, auto-tags in guest profiles help you learn more about guests without staff having to manually enter data.
7. Find More Ways to Extend Your Hospitality Through Upsells
Upsells and add-on experiences expand your hospitality and double as opportunities to generate incremental revenue. Introduce upsells, add-ons and experiences to the booking process like adding a bottle of champagne or celebratory cake for pre-order.
8. Host Special Events to Engage Travelers and the Community
Hosting unique events is a great way to position your venue as a worthwhile destination and connect with the community. You could, for example, sell tickets to a New Year’s Eve party at your hotel restaurant or offer a jazz brunch on Sundays. Check out are 19 restaurant event ideas to consider.
9. Use Guest Feedback to Your Advantage
Managers can’t always make it to every table during every shift to ask guests how they enjoyed their meals. Post-visit feedback surveys and online review aggregation tools help you keep an eye on guest sentiment without taking up all of your time.
A solution like SevenRooms sends you daily digests and link feedback to guest profiles so you can identify fans when they walk in or try to make things right with a less-than-satisfied guest.
10. Send the Right Promotions to the Right People at the Right Time
Marketing is a critical part of hospitality management. After all, you need to keep the restaurant and the hotel top of mind for both out-of-town visitors and locals. It’s crucial to target local restaurant guests and hotel guests with different offers, but doing so manually can be difficult.
Marketing automation tools can segment these customers and use artificial intelligence to send the right offer at the right time. For example, it could send a “we miss you” email to a local diner two months after their last visit. Or, it could send an F&B credit offer to an out-of-town customer on their next hotel stay.
When you own your guest data, you can use it in automated marketing to drive repeat visits to every property in your portfolio.
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11. Hire and Train the Right Staff
Your technology investments aren’t as effective if you don’t have the right people in place to see it through. When hiring employees, ensure you take the time to educate your staff on how to effectively use the technology to deliver inspired guest experiences. This includes giving everyone from guest relations to food service managers to front desk staff hands-on experience with the tools as well as your venues and destination sites.
12. Choose an Integrated Restaurant Technology Partner
The right technology can integrate your hotel CRM across multiple properties — allowing for more streamlined hospitality management across the portfolio. (Think: reservations, prepayments, upselling, check-ins and guest preferences.) The more you can equip staff disbursed across departments (or state lines) the better you can deliver an elevated experience.
Case Study: Check out how this luxury hospitality brand replaced its slow, archaic technology with SevenRooms to create an easily-digestible central guest database staff can easily access across 70 properties. The result? Easier reservation booking and better in-service dining experience for guests and staff.
Managing a Restaurant is a Balance of Authentic Human Interaction Aided by Powerful Tech Tools
Hotel restaurant management involves striking a balance between appealing to locals who can sustain your food-service business and making hotel guests feel like VIPs. With the hospitality industry facing an unprecedented labor shortage, it’s more important than ever to focus on streamlining operations and doing more with less.
A hotel restaurant management system like SevenRooms can help you improve operational efficiency while delighting guests at scale. Book your demo today.
Hotel Restaurant Management FAQs
What Is Hotel Restaurant Management?
Hotel restaurant management employees oversee one or several food and beverage operations within a hotel environment. This multi-faceted role often requires recruiting and managing employees, spearheading operations, driving great customer service and generating financial reports.
What Is a Hotel Restaurant Manager?
Hotel restaurant managers wear many hats, but above all, they ensure restaurants within hotel venues run smoothly and efficiently. Their responsibilities span multiple departments, including human resources (hiring and training staff), food and beverage management (ordering inventory and monitoring product quality) and operations management (financial reporting and general manager duties).
What Does It Take to Become a Hotel Restaurant Manager?
To be successful in hotel restaurant management, many will earn a bachelor’s degree in hospitality, business management or culinary arts. Restaurant management degrees are also a common educational path for this job type. Above, all hotel restaurant managers excel in organization, customer service and problem solving.