JAY RAYNER LAYS DOWN THE LAW

Pablo Alonso, CEO of Intelligence firm HotStats, has said: “The growth in food and beverage revenue over the past 15 years has been well behind the growth in rooms revenue. It appears the food and beverage department has been somewhat neglected in recent years, so refocusing resources on this key department presents a strong opportunity to increase its contribution to overall revenue and profitability.”

Keith Sammels, Executive Creative Director at LAW Creative, says, “In-hotel restaurants have sometimes failed to deliver expected revenues due to a myriad of reasons such as service styles, experience, ambience, design, ‘street cred’, freshness, menus, drinks offers, external competition and lack of content and social media connection. But there are an increasing number of examples where ‘Restaurants in Hotels’ are hugely successful.

The silver bullet to running a successful hotel restaurant seems to be that it must be a standalone operation. Running a hotel and running a restaurant is an entirely different matter. I have eaten in hundreds of very enjoyable hotel restaurants. Hotel restaurants in Amsterdam, for instance, are epitomised at The Conservatorium with Taiko and The Brasserie. The Glasshouse offers a ‘theatre of cooking’ at The Grove in Hertfordshire, Chiltern Firehouse in London is a destination restaurant, The Ham Yard Hotel bar and restaurant offers an ever-changing menu revolving around the freshest seasonal ingredients, and The Pig Hotel interestingly positions itself as a restaurant with rooms.

Some hotels are deliberately choosing not to offer a ‘full’ restaurant, which is absolutely fine. Thousands, however, still seem to want to compound the mistakes of the past, which is why they may be suffering. But the clever ones are realising that consumers don’t have an aversion to ‘in-hotel’, it is just a question of doing it well and ‘they will come’. Give me a great hotel restaurant every time! But whatever the price point, whatever the food style, it has to be great.

LAW Creative is renowned as an agency with an award-winning capability to help hotels increase revenue, and our efforts to achieve this have included enlisting the help of Jay Rayner, an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and food critic (he regularly appears for the BBC on MasterChef, The One Show and hosts The Kitchen Cabinet) and one of the most influential food writers around. This film offers a timely reminder of what Jay thinks about menu science, as he goes head-to-head with LAW director Brett Sammels and delivers fifteen minutes of advice on menu design and content, kitchen sinking, blue chipping, increasing guest diner ratios, menu science and much more. It’s just the kind of advice that hotels can use to increase customer satisfaction and revenues for hotel restaurants.

‘As part of our ongoing commitment to our clients,’ Brett says, ‘we are constantly building upon our knowledge base in every area of operation. LAW Creative is a multi award winning hotel and leisure based integrated marketing agency. We constantly strive to build both our clients’ brands and revenue. Jay Rayner is an industry thought leader, hugely insightful and influential. This interview will be of great interest to anyone who operates a restaurant’.

For specific advice on marketing your hotel or restaurant, please contact

brett.sammels@lawcreative.co.uk
keith.sammels@lawcreative.co.uk
nicola.ellis@lawcreative.co.uk