A GM’s take on the battle between hotel and stand-alone restaurants

 A general manager has
to constantly tackle changes in the industry. The need to redefine approaches,
deliberate opportunities and strategise to meet the new set of challenges in
their individual and collective role was the focus of the Hotelier India General Manager & Leadership Roundtable presented by
Ecolab. A topic which got the panellist of general managers excited was the
importance of food and beverage in terms of profit generation and the role it
plays when it comes to competing with stand-alone restaurants. Here are some of
the opinions the GM’s shared with Hotelier
India:

“Banqueting is a different business altogether. In the hotel industry, we need to be a little more quirky and invest more. We cannot afford to be arrogant enough to not compete with the stand-alone restaurants. For example, we not only need to compare a Mexican-themed restaurant to one in another hotel but also to the one down the street that is filling up every day.” –
Manas Krishnamoorthy, GM, ITC Windsor Bengaluru

“Sometimes, when you try to be something you’re not, you don’t get the desired effect. No matter how easy-going I make my coffee shop look, no one would walk across the lobby and enter it in their hotel slippers. We need to cater to a particular segment and create the impression that we serve quality. On the other hand, a stand-alone can afford to be quirky as they deal with a younger audience.” –
Bhaskaran T, GM, The LaLiT Ashok Bengaluru

“What we can learn from stand-alone restaurants is agility and to observe how quickly they react to changing times, trends and pricing. It’s not about changing a concept all the time. It’s about what we can do with what we have. For example, we don’t need to have a burger festival to compete but we can fly in a Michelin Star Chef for our brand and market that.” –
Sujeet Kumar, GM, Sheraton Grand

“For stand-alone restaurants, the policy is simple – perform or perish. If they don’t compete they won’t survive. For hotels, rooms still contribute to the revenue, so if a particular restaurant doesn’t do well for a particular period of time, you don’t have to shut it down.” –
Bipendra Gupta, GM, Lemon Tree Premier