Food For Thought

Since F&B has become a key revenue source for hotels, Vinita Bhatia gets David Mathews, general manager of Trident, Bandra Kurla, Mumbai to reveal some strategies that hoteliers can adopt to leverage their F&B properties.

- David Mathews

Hotel chains in India have started paying closer attention to their F&B outlets and the business it yields. And with good reason too. According to a HVS-Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) report, the revenue from F&B segment (which includes banquets and restaurants) rose to 42.6 percent in 2014-15, up from 36.6 percent in 2010-11. Room revenues for the same period declined to 50.9 percent from 57.2 percent.

These figures show that F&B has emerged as an important revenue source for most hotels, and in case of some properties it contributes almost 50 percent to overall revenues. Today, hoteliers, who are facing competition from standalone restaurants, have to come up with F&B concepts that are relevant and interesting for their target audience. Not only do they have to tap their resident guests, they also have to create concepts that will tempt local guests.

We ask David Mathews to share some pointers on how hoteliers can do all this and more. After all, with over two decades of experience in the hospitality industry, he has worked at premier hotels across India as well as in the Middle East where he used his expertise in F&B to increase room occupancy rates and revenue besides enhancing guest satisfaction scores. Along with his team he initiated many F&B concepts at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, where he was general manager, including the ‘The Fine Wine Affair’, ‘Rivaayat – the Indian Culinary Conclave’ and ‘The Golden Crust – Bakery and Boulangerie Conclave’. Here are his tips: