Culinary Marketing of Hotel Restaurants 

Smart advice and useful tips that will help you turn the gastronomy of your hotel into an important advantage of your accommodation, leading not only to boosting your restaurant sales, but also to increase your positive reviews

 

(This article is a reprint from Hotelieracademy.gr of the interview of Ms. Elisabeth Kouta Andreadaki, founder of ButterflyStories, regarding the Gastronomic Hotel Marketing)

Must-Do's in Hotel Culinary Marketing

Fascinating, imaginative dishes, seductive flavors, attractive smells and aromas, form the ideal meal for your customers, in an enchanting landscape by the sea. At the same time, at dusk, in the hotel's traditional, stone-built tavern, customers enjoy the traditional spoon dessert made by your kitchen, as well as fresh frozen watermelon under the stars. And just like that, the power and the culinary magic joins the high standard of your accommodation, and leads to the most successful hotel marketing strategy.

Until recently, hotels focused on strategic moves to increase their bookings through the successful promotion of the different types of rooms, the spacious and luxurious areas of the hotel, the comfortable sunbeds and the special signature cocktails next to their pool. Her part gastronomy and the overall dining experience of the customer in the hotel, for several years, it has been steadily gaining ground. It is an area in need special treatment, promotion and presentation, as it aims to deliver much more positive results for accommodations beyond just increasing their restaurant bookings.

Understanding the results that gastronomy brings to the hotel culture will help us to understand on the one hand the need to exist separate marketing strategy for our restaurants and on the other hand importance of utilization of the most modern marketing tools given to us for this purpose.

Advantages of developing culinary marketing in hotels

• A proper use of culinary marketing will strengthen her hotel identity, through the dynamics of food display.
• will increase, also the purchasing clientele of the accommodation, emphasizing its authenticity and diversity gastronomy of the hotel through the creation of unique proposals, food options and categories. The diversified proposals of the hotel's cuisine allow it to present them as innovative, escaping from market competition.
• Then a direct and human-centered approach for Social Networks I will it intensifies the bonds, eliminating the impersonal relationship hotel-client, through the development of a community, discussions, interactions in publications and posts in the various Social Media of the accommodation.
• Finally, its main consequence culinary marketing is real sense of hospitality, of the "feeling", of relaxation and the experience we give to our customer from the first moment he arrives at our accommodation. Such an experience enhances feelings, sensations, fulfills needs and offers the uniqueness — which, in turn, leads to loyal and repeat hotel customers.

The specification of a comprehensive culinary experience for the customer is the basis for every marketing action that the hotel will follow

Ideally, during the initial development of a hotel concept, we should ensure and record all stages of the customer experience in our hotel, in relation to gastronomy and food. Organize the marketing strategy you will follow, planning specifically brochures presentation of your restaurants inside and outside the rooms. Explore more modern ways of promoting the culinary experience in your hotel, such as digital in the common areas, automated messages to the customers' mobile phones via the WiFi network, etc. Upon the customer's arrival, offer a greeting from traditional local flavors of your destination, along with a welcome letter that will welcome him to the hotel and the area. Try to add a personal touch for each of your customers by leaving some inspirational quotes in the room of or some important information about gastronomy of the place and traditional ingredients, which can certainly be enjoyed in your restaurants.

Of course, one of the most important issues you have to deal with is breakfast of your hotel, since that is where the customer will come into direct contact with the flavors created by your kitchen and appreciate its true level, essentially upgrading his overall stay experience. At the same time, look for other ways in which you can bring your customers into direct contact with your gastronomy, such as special packages for the low & high season around gastronomy and its promotion that the customer can buy during his reservation, tasting menu, but also pre-opening restaurant party for your VIP customers, who will have the pleasure of being the first to taste the new cuisine of the year.

 

The moment of the customer's departure is the ideal to complete in the best way his culinary experience. It is the moment when the customer will feel that he received a real one culinary experience to your hotel that filled him, relaxed him and offered him new images that had tastes, aromas and colors.

Give him a heart departing letter together with a next-visit voucher for the restaurant, in order to invite him to visit you again, but also to try your restaurant during his next stay.

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Gastronomy is not only the food that our customer will consume, but all those elements that we took into account before, after and during his meal, in order for him to taste and feel a complete and special culinary experience

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The modern Digital Marketing tools help to strengthen it culinary identity of the hotel but also in the interaction with travelers

Gastronomy has the particularly interesting feature of being able to transmit to you feelings, to restore memories, to draw pictures, to provoke desires and intensify it will of the customer to live such an experience in your hotel. Modern marketing tools and, more specifically, at digital piece, they will help you to view outwardly spontaneous moments but also static through your restaurant (Facebook & Instagram posts), imaginative dishes that just came out of the kitchen as well as interactive images from Friday and preparation of the various dishes (Instagram Stories). They will still help you capture the experience through it perspective of your happy customers, who will record their impressions in the various review channels (eg TripAdvisor reviews).

The culinary marketing it should go along with and follow the overall concept of the hotel, based on the more general marketing actions followed by the accommodation. In this context, the creation is proposed separate Social Media accounts for your restaurants, in order to have their own status and their own reviews, thus giving the customer the impression that he will live a differentiated experience, which will however be perfectly aligned with the rest of his (upgraded) experience at the hotel.

The people of the hotel (from the staff to the customers) are at the center of it culinary marketing strategy

 

 

An immediate and human-centered approach on social networks will strengthen the ties with your customers, as it will give you the opportunity to gain additional insights from customer experiences in order to improve your services.

Be direct while maintaining the seriousness of your business. Access to competitions highlighting the restaurant's dishes, present a human side of partners you in the company, through mini-interviews on the job, celebrate together with your customers important moments of theirs as well as yours. When potential customers see and understand the particularly vivid culinary experience of your hotel through Social Media, the chances of them wanting to experience it themselves also increase, so to convince them to complete the reservation at your hotel.

The best photographers for Social Media they are your own customers! Create your own hashtags and ask them to use them so that there is a reference point for all the material your clients produce for you. Then, after asking their permission, repost the best photos on your official channels, showing your appreciation and building excitement for both your existing and future customers.

The highlighting of local cuisine as well as the emphasis on modern food trends, cover the needs of almost all travelers

Customers are looking for new, unique experiences, which they will not be able to experience in any other hotel, anywhere in the world. The same happens with the gastronomy part, since customers seek to taste the flavors and products of each local cuisine, thus exploring in depth the culture and civilization of each place. Emphasizing the authenticity of our hotel, of environment which is also of local materials, we can present a truly authentic experience for our customer.

Considering them modern food trends but also the need of the traveling public for healthier and more nutritious meals in the wider context of the Wellness lifestyle, include in your restaurant list options for organic, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, healthy & detox, low-fat dishes, as well as kids' menu for your little guests.

Epilogue

While the gastronomy is considered one of the most important parts in a modern hotel, its marketing strategy should take into account all possible customer needs and modern food trends, but also make the most of marketing tools. At the same time, highlighting the local cuisine but also the strengthening of a more innovative approach, can very easily make your hotel stand out, and become a point of reference in relation to both the nearest and the wider competition.

SOURCE: https://www.hotelieracademy.gr/must-do-sto-gastronomiko-marketing-twn-xenodoxeiwn/

 

Butterfly Stories Food Management & Hospitality Consultants is an award-winning company that operates in Greece and Cyprus and pioneers – providing integrated strategy, marketing and advertising services.

An experienced and award-winning pioneering company Strategy, Marketing and Advertising specializing in providing comprehensive advertising and management services in Social Networks (Facebook / Instagram), especially in her field Food Servicing (restaurants, patisseries, bakeries, cafes, bistros), Hospitality (hotels) and Food Products

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