NEW YORK, N.Y. – When the restaurant side of the hospitality equation refuses to add up, the familiar question is inevitably asked: Why aren’t more non-guests walking in the door? It’s a valid question and presenters at HX: The Hotel Experience Powered by AAHOA have answers that you can take back from the big apple and use.
In Marketing Your Hotel Restaurant to Non-Guests, scheduled for Nov. 11, 1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. at the Javits Center, presenters Bill Clarke, director of Sales, Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Milestone and Brian Connors (pictured), managing partner, Connors Davis Hospitality and clinical professor, Florida International University, will provide solutions for attendees hungry for answers. HX caught up with Connors to get a preview of the session that is designed to provide real-world tips and strategies.
HX: In general, what will you be talking about during this session?
Brian Connors: There are going to be three different sections. First is the cool factor. How do you use the cool factor to market your food and beverage outfit for your hotel? Everyone is on the lookout for something cool. The second thing is we’re going to talk about how to create local unique experiences. The key words are local, unique, and everyone’s favorite buzz word—experiences. We’re going to look at local unique experiences.
How do we take this local unique experience and then utilize technology to capture, as well as build, a community? Bill from Milestone will talk about how we can take this cool factor and keep customers coming back. Bill is going to tie it all together and talk about how to utilize technology, social media platforms, analytics, tracking, and engaging. It’s more about building a community. That’s what is going to drive sales, or drive people for sales.
HX: How do you think locals tend to view hotel restaurants?
Connors: I went to hotel school 20-plus years ago, and for years, the reputation of hotel food and beverage was always mediocre at best, or as I like to say—it sucked. Why does hotel food and beverage suck? Because it was always an afterthought. Well, Elizabeth Blau and a few other people out in Las Vegas really changed that mindset right around 1997 when they started putting in the celebrity chefs, and the kind of experience-driven dining.
They didn’t call it that then, but it was that chef-driven type of restaurant. We’ve now seen this morph into a mindset where we want to capture a whole surrounding community that will drive business—where the hotel becomes part of the community. The hotel becomes a meeting place. Having a great food and beverage outlet will always do that—particularly down here in South Florida, in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale—and I’ll be sharing during my talk some of the tricks of the trade that we’re doing. It’s beyond just the celebrity chef, it’s really connecting.
HX: What’s your speaking style?
Connors: This will not be your typical talk. I’m out of my mind in a good way. There will be a lot of energy, and definite significant takeaways for people who are either operators or investors. We always look for; What are we going to give you? We want to be able to give you some good key takeaways.