Staying in for breakfast: hotels experiment with new programs to convince guests to eat in, not out

Nation's Restaurant News, August 11, 2008 by Elizabeth Licata

Conventional wisdom tells us breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that idea remains startlingly accurate for hotel operators, who are finding that breakfast is not only a good way to boost food and beverage sales but also to build brand loyalty with guests. But as a slew of new options opens up around hotels, high-end operators are looking for creative new ways to keep their guests within the four walls of the hotel for breakfast instead of hopping outside for a quick bite.

Omni Hotels last year rolled out an upscale buffet breakfast program dubbed "The Art of Breakfast." It features organic coffee and high-end tea, organic cereals and a European-style breakfast station with cage-free eggs, nitrate-free meats and artisanal breads and cheeses. The Art of Breakfast appears in all 40 of Omni's current hotels, with more still in development.

"Approximately 50 percent of guests at higher-end, luxury hotels have breakfast on the property," said Caryn Kboudi, vice president of corporate communications for Irving, Texas-based Omni. "And 50 percent is a huge number; it's our largest meal period."

In addition to the buffet offerings, the chefs at Omni hotels on any given day might put out their own signature dishes.

"It might be eggs Benedict or eggs Florentine," Rosenstock said. "And it might have a New Orleans-style to it, or a Chicago style to it, based on the location.

"We really let our chefs and their culinary teams go over and above what is already on the buffet to come up with dishes that are more localized to their area," he continued. "In Texas they might add salsa, jalapenos and peppers."

One of the most popular sections of the buffet is the European breakfast station, where nitrate-free bacon and sausage actually sizzle in frying pans on the buffet table.

"I'd been looking at some breakfast trends," Rosenstock said. "And year over year, breakfast menus in restaurants continue to add items--particularly the crusty, artisanal European breads with cheese and cured meats."

Breakfast programs offer an excellent opportunity for hotel chains to build their brands, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, the Chicago-based foodservice consulting firm.

"If a hotel satisfies the customer, that has a positive reflection on the brand," Tristano said. "And that gives them an opportunity to sell the hotel to that patron."

Many hotels are capitalizing on the breakfast beverage trend by opening small branded units in the hotel lobbies.

"One trend we're seeing in hotels is small units [like] either Dunkin' or Starbucks locations being built within hotels," Tristano said. "That way you're offering convenience and good-quality coffee. From a hotel standpoint, having those small stations that are focusing on their guests offers a big opportunity."

A high-end beverage program is one of the hallmarks of Omni's Art of Breakfast initiative. The hotels serve organic Starbucks coffee that Kboudi describes as having a slightly bolder profile than most operators offer, which goes over well with guests. With all the attention to coffee, though, Omni is careful not to overlook the tea drinkers.

"Tea drinkers always feel like they take the back seat to coffee drinkers," Rosenstock said. "They'll order the tea, and it will come in the same cup the coffee drinkers get. So what we wanted to do was identify a teacup that could not be used as a coffee cup, and the pots as well. We identified a really high-end silk-purse tea--loose-leaf tea in a silk infuser--so our tea drinkers no longer feel like they're drinking tainted tea."

Breakfast is becoming a particularly strong daypart among business travelers, according to Lesley Whitten, director of operations for Kimpton Restaurants in Washington, D.C. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is based in San Francisco and manages 42 hotels in 19 markets in the United States and Canada.

"People are using breakfast as a vehicle to be one more meeting time," she said. "We've all gotten to the point that there aren't enough hours in the day, and people are using that breakfast time where you may have sat and read the paper and prepared yourself for the day--now people are coming to the table ready, and the day starts at 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. with the first meeting of the day."

At the Kimpton Group's Hotel Palomar in Arlington, Va., the Domaso Trattoria Moderna restaurant works to attract customers with innovative dishes that deviate from the standard "eggs, pancakes, bacon" menu, though all those old classics are available as well.

Among the offerings at the modern Italian restaurant is a panettone French toast with hazelnut syrup and Italian sausage. Chef Massimo Fedozzi makes the dish by dipping traditional panettone, a sweet, fluffy Italian bread with dried fruits, in egg and lightly frying it.

According to her, most people choose to order savory meals at breakfast. But one of the key aspects of designing a breakfast program is being able to cater to everyone. Families on vacation often want to relax and enjoy breakfast as a special indulgence. Whereas, "If you're a business traveler, you probably don't want to splash out like that on a regular basis," Whitten said.