Hum-drum hotel dining is a thing of the past. With sumptuous design, delightful service and exquisite food Australia’s high-end hotels are positioning themselves to provide the full luxe experience. But are hotels ready to respond to the evolving landscape of luxury dining?
Millennials. Is it all about them? As the ‘echo-boomers’ there’s no doubt that this large cohort is shaping the consumer market as we know it … along with the future of the high-end travel and dining sector. In a recent post Lisa mused on the impact millennials at large are having on the hospitality industry. How do luxe hotel restaurants meet the needs of millennials while still being relevant as a destination of choice for the global consumer, young and old (and anywhere in between)?
Being Instagram-able and Snapchat-able is a start. And let’s not fool ourselves about which age group is going to post their every awesome and awe-inspiring experience to social media. Yep, it’s those millennials again. Thanks to social media luxury consumers have more information available to them than ever before. Generation X-ers, my own humble cohort, rely on social media posts to make informed decisions about how to spend luxury travel and dining dollars. Which is why a factory-made homogenous approach to the high-end hotel and dining experience is simply not going to cut it. There are so many choices out there for consumers, what’s the best way to create a buzz about your hotel restaurant as the top destination of choice?
Guests young and old are increasingly more interested in time, health, authentic experiences and memorable moments than they once were. Unique and beautiful accommodation paired with a vibrant bar and restaurant will create an undeniable adventure for guests. This is important as modern guests are seeking want to be part of a destination and to be immersed in the local culture and community. A fresh experience can be delivered in so many ways, whether it is local seasonal fare, a celebrity chef, an extensive wine list or a particular cuisine. Whatever a hotel restaurant’s metier is, the goal of the memorable hotel dining experience is to evoke in the guest the pressing need to share their moment with friends and followers on Instagram.
Hotel restaurant and bars aren’t just designed to create unforgettable memories for your treasured guests, but designed to draw in other travellers from nearby hotels. Not to mention the hotel restaurant’s biggest target market – locals. You can’t please everyone all the time so establish your unique culinary offer and stick to it. Trying to please everyone will diffuse and weaken your brand. Why not just make sure you provide options for both the adventurous culinary bon vivants as well a fresh take on familiar foods as a comfort and solace for those weary travellers and less adventurous types. Pricing is a big consideration when drawing in locals, street pricing will up your local presence. Otherwise locals might be tempted to seek out unique experiences elsewhere in town. No matter how you position your brand in the high-end dining and accommodation market, there’s one thing that continues to hold true for all luxury consumers …
Whether your guests are millennials, middle-aged or beyond they have one thing in common. What they all have in common is what they really, really want to experience. What they want is super simple: a stellar service culture. No guest will come to your hotel restaurant for a forgettable travel and dining experience. For this reason, one of the biggest decisions your hotel has to make is deciding what system can optimise the restaurant experience (and, indeed, the holistic hotel experience) for your guests.
H&L provides beautiful and intuitive solutions for the entirety of a complex hotel business. As hospitality experts we know that hotels are looking for an easy-to-use system interface with instant hotel-wide transactions, inventory control and complex reporting. We take pride in doing what we say we will do and in partnering with our clients to provide an end-to-end solution that is right for their business.