Friday, September 13, 2013

Business Travelers and Restaurants once like a Hand to a Glove, Not Any More

Should restaurant industry margins start to slip, notice customer migration, or day-part sales slowing,restaurateurs could begin by focusing on the lucrative business traveler once again. Foodservice Solutions ® Grocerant Guru, Steven Johnson said “In an Omni-channel retail world new non-traditional food retailers are targeting restaurant day-part sales and winning".
Regular readers of this blog know we have highlighted how Affinia Hotels partnered with FreshDirect to replace room service, saving money, improving freshness and delivering Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food directly to rooms.

Hotels in an effort to increase dining options and provide an alternative to traditional room service while improving the guest experience for the ever increasing demands of guest have found new non-retailors more appealing two work with than restaurants.
 
Maryam Wehe, senior vice president of Applied Predictive Technologies, which does consulting for hotels said: "While travelers are just as time-starved as ever, they are increasingly health-conscious while on the go”. These options are now preferred by an increasing number of travelers. Wehe went on “Through healthy food delivery options, hotels are taking another step to bring the comforts and lifestyle of home to guests." A growing number of hotels are offering non-traditional food service including:

Hilton:  All of All of Hilton's Homewood Suites hotels also offer a complimentary grocery shopping service. Guests can leave their lists with hotel employees in the morning and return to a fully stocked refrigerator.

Marriott's Residence Inn offers free grocery deliveries to guests with no mark-ups on items. Marriott in Santa Clara, Calif offers GoBites.
Sleep Inn in Phoenix and Hotel Zaza in Huston also offer GoBites. (from GoBites.com)

Country Inn in Buffalo, Minnesota has partnered with GoBites and offers snack boxes to guest.

 In advance the Gobites food delivery can be customized for guest who have special dietary needs, like gluten, diabetes or allergies.

FreshDirect as we previously posted has a”Business Kit and a Healthy Kit, each with such items as fruit, vegetables, Greek yogurt, chips, salsa and cookies. The kits also have four-minute meals such as lemon-dill salmon, which can be heated in a microwave in each room's kitchenette.”

GoBites.com, is a portion-controlled, all-natural snack delivery service with most items containing fewer than 200 calories for more visit: GoBites.com

Business travelers and restaurants once like a Hand to a Glove, are migrating to new tables.  Is your restaurant in need of a day-part or customer migration scorecard review?

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® has been the leader in the grocerant niche.  Contact us via Email at: info@FoodserviceSolutions.us  Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

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