High Turnover – Low Turnover

Summer brings the beneficial arrival of tourists and the subsequent impact to your seasonal F&B revenue.

Increasing staff schedules to accommodate the demand can bring challenges if your hotel is in a remote locale, yet having a reputable and long-time history for returning staff during the season is tantamount to a best-case scenario. If you are unable to attract quality staff, despite advertising efforts, have you considered peer-to-peer referrals from your current staff and introduce a bonus program for each qualified candidate who is hired. You want to ensure you maintain low turnover among staff and high turnover on dining covers.

Current STR hotel occupancy indicators (April charting) reflecting positive key indicators across the board (i.e., rooms available, rooms sold, revenue, ADR, occupancy, and RevPar) are performing at all-time highs. This means hotel operations met sustainability criteria and also exceeded performance goals in each department. In order for this progression to continue, your F&B operations will need to surpass prior years.

The chain reaction for improved revenue management contains multi-faceted facilities in your operations, not the least of which includes your on-site restaurant, bars, poolside bistro, in-room service, vending machines, hotel-operated specialty stores, and catered events (including off-site catering).

• Maintain a cohesive and well-structured marketing / advertising plan to promote each of your F&B venues.
• Cross-train FOH staff to become part of your excellent branding operations: cross-sell and up-sell.
• Your hotel staff should become the singular point of reference for every guest interaction from the moment of registration and throughout their stay. Room cards, hotel website, mobile connectivity, in-room TV advertorials.
• Business and high-end hotels – Promote the executive club level, continue the menu program throughout the day. Late afternoon reception setups with chef-attended action stations creates the pedigree-level of specialty services one would expect for this hospitality membership. Bar & Butler service notwithstanding.
• Family-style resorts – Create biking, charter cruising tours with pampered picnic hampers with lunches to-go. A day at the polo fields – staff preset a private canopied tent area serving quality delicatessen foods, composed salads, various iced decanters for beverages, oversized fresh fruit topiaries. Memorable eye appeal and exemplary execution for off-site catering should transcend the ordinary pickled ham sandwich and a lukewarm canned soda.

The potential for every hotel to extend its welcoming ambiance starts and ends with a fantastic F&B style you create. Make sure it permeates your guests’ highest expectations and you will see their return visits.

You want high turnover on covers. The staff will enjoy being a participant in your successful operations: Train them for excellence, keep them for a very long time…low turnover.