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HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW

OCTOBER FOCUS: Revenue Management

 

Revenue Management Tactics from Successful Independent Restaurateurs

By Barry Shuster Clinical Associate Professor, North Carolina Central University School of Business | October 2021

My hospitality industry focus is independent restaurant operator management best practices. I would not blame you if your immediate reaction is "what can I learn from restaurants, let alone 'mom and pop' businesses?"

For one, even large national restaurant chain concepts that employ teams of data analysts lack the market beacons at your disposal. Readily available detailed comp data, such as provided by STR, doesn't exist in the restaurant industry, in part because of lack of standardization in restaurant classification. (Parsa, H. G., Shuster, B. K., & Bujisic, M. (2020). New classification system for the US restaurant industry: Application of utilitarian and hedonic continuum model. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 61(4), 379-400).

That said, at the end of the proverbial day, revenue management requires maximizing sales and profits, regardless of the size of the business. Having interviewed dozens of successful independent restaurant operators during the past 18 months of the pandemic, I've uncovered clever practices to drive top- and bottom-line sustainability. Some of them are consistent among top performers, offering pearls of wisdom.

COVID-19 has become a great equalizer in the hospitality industry. In this economic and market environment, the largest hotel brands and the smallest full-service independent restaurant concepts share similar challenges on different scales --- reduced guest traffic at worst and insufficient labor to service guest traffic at best. And then add shortages, supply-chain interruptions, and increased inventory and labor costs. Well, you know the litany.

The struggle to survive is the new mother of invention. To quote one independent operator: "We have no plan B. We have to make this work." Here are some pearls of wisdom I've uncovered in interviews and podcasts with independents restaurateurs that might be worth entertaining in the hotel sector.

The Power of Community

Nearly without exception, independent operators emphasized the importance their relationship with repeat patrons and the community in general, via every communication channel possible, email, social media platforms, and general media. Another take-home point is be genuine and transparent about your tactics to stay in business, whether they are price increases to manage inventory, labor, or operations costs; or service delays and hiccups due to labor shortages.

Overall, operators say they have found their repeat patron in particular to be forgiving and sympathetic. Moreover, their guests tend to respond positively to honest communication and community esprit de corps, especially when there are faces behind the message.

Shila Morris, a young restaurant CEO who grew her family's casual eclectic concept Squeeze Inn from a single-unit in Truckee, CA, to a seven-unit emerging multi-unit franchise, launched a fund-raising campaign to pay for meals for local hospital staff. Reaching out to her list of guests via email and social media, the funds kept staff employed during a particularly difficult stretch of the pandemic and attracted positive media attention.

Certainly, independent operations – including boutique hotels – have the advantage in winning hearts and minds of the community as they often have Main Street cred. Yet as most chain execs know, the battle is fought on the front lines. In the restaurant business, Doug Brooks, (former chairman, president and CEO of Brinker International) and Johnny Carrabba (founder and CEO of the upscale national dining chain Carrabba's Italian Grille) have told me regardless of the size of the business, in hospitality you win and lose at the unit level, and with each guest served.

This is not necessarily news for many lodging brands. There are a number of well-publicized examples of hotel operators supporting their staff and the community in a variety of ways during the pandemic. I believe the real take-home message from independent operators who "get it" is to promote these efforts to guests via multiple communication channels, engage guests in the efforts as appropriate, and to put faces and human stories behind the message. And, of course, let the general media know what you're doing. They are hungry for uplifting stories in this environment.

Digital Hospitality

Based on my experience, the lodging sector had been on the cutting edge of what we now call "digital hospitality" well before the pandemic. Consider online check-in, followed by personalized text messages acknowledging receipt. In the restaurant space, independents were not necessarily the first in the restaurant sector to embrace digital hospitality it as a survival strategy post-pandemic. 

For example, national casual dining chain Chili's was quick to leverage mobile technology to personalize the to-go ordering and curbside pickup experience beyond an unceremonious handoff of food by a masked stranger in a parking lot.

The best and bright independents were quick to follow suit, in part because ubiquitous mobile technology leveled the playing field. I understand the lodging sector is not in the business of to-go food and beverage service; however, in my way of thinking, the same techniques can be applied to personalizing multiple facets of the hotel experience. Consider a short video message cheerfully recorded on a phone by a dining staff member acknowledging an order and the expect time of delivery -- sans mask – sent via text to the guest. Or the power of a message from housekeeping staff to let guests know their rooms have been refreshed. The point is to communicate hospitality in spite of the physical and personal distancing.

I have only scratched the surface of this topic. Digital hospitality can do many things: define a brand through storytelling, reach new audiences, remind loyal fans what your concept can do for them, create signature experiences for your audience in a time when the pandemic is limiting services and a personal touch, and help operators take control of the business narrative.

Virtual Kitchens

A number of restaurant units have become virtual kitchens for other brands. This is subtly distinguished from "ghost kitchens", which are set up specifically for third-party delivery, without any interest in curbside, let alone on-premises dining.

One company, aptly named Virtual Dining Concepts, provide turnkey virtual-kitchen solutions to independent restaurants who want to increase sales and profit opportunities by leveraging the assets and resources of their existing operation. Their model is to leverage online order technology to seamless allow the kitchen staff at an independent operator to process orders to-go for delivery for, let's say, Mr. Beast burgers – one of the virtual brands they represent.

As you likely imagine, this model boosts revenue for operators for whom on-premises dining was curtailed and were forces to ramp up off-premises sales. It is one thing to be able to keep kitchen staff on the payroll with PPP funds, and another to keep them busy.

Yes, I know, this is not necessarily relevant to hotel food and beverage service. However, I can cite one example of something similar employed by The Mayton, a boutique hotel in Cary, North Carolina. The Tarheel state has enjoyed the boom in craft beer brewing and brew pubs, with 350 operations, the largest in the Southeast. And Cary is certainly part of that scene.

As you may very well be aware, many craft brew pubs rely on food service from food trucks to feed hungry patrons and keep them on premises. They want to be in the business of brewing and pouring beer, not foodservice (although this is gradually changing).

The Mayton, which houses an upscale restaurant, also serves as kitchen for a popular nearby craft brew pub named Cotton House. The proximity of the two businesses is a factor in the success of this model, a key advantage to the brew pub is access to a more diverse – and possibly more upscale -- menu than a food truck might offer. The Town of Cary, like many municipalities, have ordinances that restrict food trucks where they might directly compete with local restaurants. The Mayton enjoys additional revenue and branding of its popular restaurant to the brew pub guests.

Menu Focus (but Minding the Veto)

I believe hotel F&B managers have been generally astute on keeping menu sizes in check and being mindful of diversity of tastes. This has been a best-practice well before the pandemic, but I mention it because it has become a proverbial wake-up call for independent operators. With few exceptions, the trend among independent operators is a more focused menu, emphasizing quality over quantity.

Old-school menu engineering is back in vogue, i.e., the process of evaluating menu item sales and profitability to categorize every item into Stars, Puzzles, Plow horses and Dawgs. The details of the technique are beyond the scope of this article, but its value is homing in on what items contributes most to the bottom line, which items to promote better, and which items to 86. This is one area of business in which sophisticate independent operators apply rigorous analysis.

Overlapping this process is assessment of inventory and labor availability and cost and the diversity of the guest market you hope to attract. People often dine -- and travel -- in pairs or even larger groups. There is always a veto vote that makes the difference between dining on-premises at the hotel or stepping out for take-out. For example, independent operators now have to address a growing demand for vegan and vegetarian items.

Certainly, this is critical to restaurants, who are in the business of preparing and serving food. And they can possibly serve hotels looking to squeeze in income out of every revenue stream – including their on-site kitchens.

What's in a Name?

Jackie Spigener built a robust restaurant business at her Silver Sycamore campus in Pasadena, Texas. In the case of her business, a great deal of her success was borne from onsite wedding and special occasions business, which all but dried up in spring 2020. (While not a bonifide hotel, per se, Silver Sycamore offers lodging to guests via bed and breakfast accommodations.)

With the roll out of three vaccines, and states gradually easing restrictions on group gatherings, Spigener cautiously considered how she might reboot banquet and catering, perhaps as your hotel has. Spigener profited from a 2020 trend -- the "micro wedding", which became the vernacular of pandemic-era brides to be. She adopted the term in promoting her business with significant success.

"One thing that is funny," she said, "is we had been hosting what we called 'intimate weddings' for 15 years. These are small gatherings, maybe 20 or 30 people." During the pandemic, small-group weddings became popular as couples sought to tie the knot but lessen the odds the celebration would become a COVID spreading occasion.

Says Spigener, "We changed the term on our website to "micro weddings" and business took off." In fact, her wedding banquet and planning sales increased 10% from 2019 to 2020.

I've been known to say to business associates (in not the nicest way, I admit), they were partying "like it's 1999". Of course, my quip is a play on the words of a song by the great Prince to suggest my colleague's approaches might be dated.

In many ways, hospitality professionals are learning they can no longer party like its 2019. What has impressed me, is how boldly and quickly smart independents change tack in this environment. Again, most likely, because they have invested personal wealth in their businesses and there is no Plan B.

Beyond the Numbers

The numbers are critical. They might not have the comp sets at your disposal, but the independent restaurant operators who are succeeding and growing in this challenging environment review their P&Ls every few days and update cash flow projections quarterly. They realize a lost week can result in a lost month, a lost month can result in a lost quarter, and a lost quarter can result in a losing year – and a lost business.

Yet, beyond the numbers are tactics to do what every business required pre-pandemic, post-pandemic, and in the future -- drive sales and lower costs.

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13. PRIVACY POLICY

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We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

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If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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