How to achieve "Café level service" at a hotel and is it worth it
Hello, I hope everyone is doing fine.
The TL;DR here is:
I have to set up and manage six cafés at franchised hotels. I’m 80% there. Already have a section, an RO filter, a 220V outlet, and a two group commercial espresso machine. I’m the property manager (read: excel monkey) and I’m not sure if we should be spending a lot of time in this area of the hotel because of the stigma around hotel F&B. I like coffee and it is an opportunity “not to be like the rest” but I’m wondering if guests will see this through.
* Should I buy grinders or stick to pre ground coffee
* Should I be hiring a trained barista if so, any tips on how to write out the job posting to get the “right” profile given its a hotel and they’re probably gonna be doing a lot of things apart from being a barista/cashier.
* Any tools or installation requirements that you might’ve missed initially that were in retrospect essential.
Full post:
Hello sub, I’m thankful for the opportunity to post and I hope I’m not breaking any rules in the process.
I’m the property manager for six hotels in Mexico. We recently changed from a three star brand to a four star “luxury lifestyle” brand. That’s corpo speak for “wanna-be boutique hotel for people who are a little adventurous but not adventurous enough to actually break away from the big hotelier groups.” Yeesh, that’s depressing to say out loud. But bear with me.
We’re remodeling the locations to fit the new brand, and part of the brand standard states that we need to have a bar with “Café level” service and its own brand identity. We’re, obviously, not really familiarized with this because we used to run the kind of hotel that would serve you an americano for five dollars and you’d take it because that’s what the hotel served and you put it on the company’s credit card. Evidently the new franchiser wants us to be better. This is a fairly new brand from a major hotelier group so we have a lot of leeway when it comes to suppliers, menu items, etc.
I personally really like coffee and I like good coffee shops, but I’ve never been in the restaurant industry and I don’t really know how to get there. Hotel chains put fines if you don’t meet their standards, so we really need to pony up and get better at it. The managing company is also a little lost on this… so even though I’m not the hotel’s manager I have to know what to look out for and try to anticipate a few things. It is my responsibility to set up the property prior to operations.
My biggest worry is the stigma around Hotel F&B. Most people only take breakfast at the hotel - and only do so because its usually included in the room rate- these auxiliary F&B services are hard to market to guests; therefore hard to stomach as the property manager. Nonetheless, it is a profit center, so the property owners will not let me outsource the entire café to a local shop or one of the national chains that would fit the bill perfectly.
As a coffee-lover that would be my first inclination, to outsource this to someone that actually knows what they’re doing. But I just can’t. To some of you this might sound like a dream scenario: captive consumer base, a decent budget, six locations. A part of me thinks that I might have the building blocks for something great, another part of me thinks that no matter my efforts the hotel’s guests will inevitably see my Café as boring and not good value for money. I’m also pretty sure that the property owners aren’t thinking about branching out into the restaurant industry… so the brand would more than likely remain within the confines of their hotels.
We’re like 80% there in all locations. We have a separate area for the coffee shop, we have commercial espresso machines (LaCimbali M24), and we have the requisite power and water lines. We do have the old water filter for the machine but I’m not sure if I need to change it. We also have a brand and menu that already met the franchise standards. This coffee shop would operate from 7AM through to 8PM, and it would have bar service in the afternoon shift. It is a semi-waitered coffee shop with capacity for around twenty guests (as in order at the cashier, get served at a table or to go).
What we don’t have is:
* A commercial grinder (we bought ground coffee) and other kitchen appliances
* A supplier
* Clear guidance on how to hire the baristas.
Addressing each individually:
The grinder would be a CapEx item, and it would have to prove necessary. Our guests will most likely want to have regular and decaf available. I really know nothing about commercial grinders, and I don’t want to run up a tab in this area. Will clients really appreciate freshly ground coffee as opposed to ground coffee (obviously espresso specific for the machine)? Should I get two grinders (one for decaf and one for regular)? What other machines should I get? a mixer, if I do get a grinder should I get one of those puq things?
The coffee supplier is a little bit more complex, the franchiser does include “recommended” vendors but they’re frankly the big box supermarket stuff that tastes meh. I know that there’s a local roaster in one of our locations and I was wondering if we could set up a contract with them. Are these types of vendors risky (as in, usually have problems with supplying coffee, or change quality often, etc). Our coffee corner used to have the “We proudly serve Starbucks” branding, and the coffee was acceptable. I don’t think we can use that branding anymore, but we could probably keep the same supplier.
Hiring is what stresses me the most. I know a couple of friends that own coffee shops and they really struggle with turnover when it comes to baristas. Given the amount of stuff I’d need this person to be capable of doing (manning a kiosk, manning the coffee machine, probably manning the bar in the afternoon shift, etc). I know it would be less taxing than a regular coffee shop at peak hours, but it would still be a role “beyond” what a barista does. Is this something baristas usually resent? Is one person per shift too few? We want to avoid turnover and make sure whoever is coming into this role knows whats going on. We wouldn’t be serving drinks from this area on the breakfast buffet… that would be the typical drip coffee and made in the kitchen.
i don’t know if its clear by now that I’m a little overwhelmed. My biggest concern here is if it’s worth the effort or if I should put up a fight with the franchise company and do The Bare Minimum not to get fined. If we put in the effort we would probably become the best café in two or three of the cities where we operate… based on the limited market research I’ve been able to cobble together. That’s the part that makes me wonder if there’s an opportunity to break the skepticism of hotel F&B.
If y’all have had any experience working within a hotel or like an office building on any place with a captive but also slightly disinterested client base I’d love to know. My F&B gross margin at the moment is around 35%, so I guess my expectation would be to charge around as much as a regular coffee shop.
Thanks in advance.