ROI projects have completely disappeared from 2023 plans of most Hotel GM’s and their investment partners.  An anticipated recession lies ahead along with the double whammy of rising interest rates.  All this means cash is king.  There is also little confidence a hotel will have the team or time to focus on an ROI project anyways.  No matter what the ROI, investing capital in a long-term ROI project is not making sense. 

Vendors have had to adjust.  “We now focus on generating immediate and significant positive cash flow,” said Scott Martiny CEO Strategic Beverage Solutions Inc, “We have had to make adjustments:”

Scott Ostrander, GM at Kona Kai Resort & Marina said, “SBS brings both technology and talent to the project.  We went from 21% beverage costs to running 14’s every month.   The net cash flow impact for us is +9K per month on average.   SBS has an incredible level of focus applied at the outset and a cost-effective monitoring program that we use to insure we stay on track once results are achieved.  We went through a complete turnover of our bar team and 3 different unit managers in the last year, and never lost ROI Result position.”

Strategic Beverage Solutions has been partnering with clients for over a decade helping to maximize revenues and lower beverage costs in hotel bar operations.   Scott Martiny, SBS CEO explained, “Today owners need cash flow improvement and looking to get it from properties which are in position to over perform.  That’s where we are focused.  The GM’s and their teams who deliver those cash flow windfalls are truly the heroes.”

•        July 2021

An Unexpected Obstacle – Management challenges Plaguing Hotel F&B Operations

• August 2018

Hotel F&B Renovations – Increasing Your Success Odds

1. March 2018

Is Your Hotel Bar Underperforming?

1. March 2018

An Assessment Case Study

1. February 2018

Herding Cats – An SBS Customer Interview with Chris Schaefer Dir Corp Restaurants Noble House Hotels & Resorts

1. February 2018

B$RN – How is Your Hotel Bar Doing?

1. January 2018

Scorecarding Your Hotel Bar

1. January 2018

Playbooks – A Way to Drive Comprehensive Change in Your Hotel Bar Operation

1. December 2017

F&B Task Forces – Not Just for New Open Situations

1. November 2017

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

1. October 2017

The Non Hotel Guest Marketing Opportunity In Hotel Bars

1. January 2017

A Bar Performance Improvement Project – Case Study

1. July 2016

Living Room Bar Concepts – A Winning Formula In Hotel/Resorts.

1. June 2016

Is Your Bar/Restaurant Missing The NonHotel Guest Opportunity?

1. August 2015

Assessment Programs – The Right First Step In A Beverage Performance Improvement Project

1. July 2015

Margin Management – A New Way To Approach Improving Bar Profitability

1. September 2013

Making The Leap – A New Banquets Beverage Strategy

1. June 2012

Driving ROI Results With Beverage Monitoring Technology

1. April 2012

The Perfect Bartender

Hotel food and beverage operations have endured incredible business disruption over the last 18 months.  Now as the masks come off, states drop restrictions, and customers are looking to become customers again, a new problem has emerged which is seriously hampering hotels as they restart their F&B units – The Managers Are Gone!

Increasing your odds of success in a Hotel F&B renovation project

According to a recent Asset Manager survey 87% of F&B renovation projects underperformed against the planned revenue and profit growth expectations. Yet owners continue to make that capital investment because the opportunity is obvious. Unless your B$RN ratio is above $15, something is keeping hotel guests from patronizing your bar. (B$RN – How Is Your Hotel Bar Doing) 25 more customers per night in your bar is a $1M annual revenue impact – and those additional customers are often already in the hotel.

What should my hotel bar be generating in terms of F&B revenue? Are we maximizing our revenue opportunity?

Status quo is the path of least resistance when it comes to setting next year goals for most hotel bar operations. But what if you feel your bar is underperforming? How do you convince your management team to take on a performance improvement objective? Try looking through a new numbers window. You won’t find this metrics in your monthly P&L, but there is an easy way to assess your bar results when it comes to maximizing hotel guest customer capture – Beverage $ Per Room Night (B$RN).

An Assessment Case Study – Finding the Explosive Revenue Growth Opportunity in a Hotel Bar By: Scott Martiny

What step can you take when you suspect your existing hotel bar venue is missing a lot of top and bottom line improvement opportunity? As you go through the upcoming year planning process, no matter how hard you push, the F&B revenue and profit targets for next year are the same as last year? Or as you push for capital funding for a venue renovation, ownership does not believe the business growth projections? You may want to consider bringing in a third set of eyes that can confirm and quantify the opportunity, and then define the comprehensive change effort required to achieve that opportunity.

Beverage Revenues Per Room Night – A New Way to Assess Your Hotel Bar Potential By: Scott Martiny

Here comes your monthly property P&L. Total F&B revenues, maybe broken down by venues versus banquets. Hopefully a breakdown of beverage versus food and likely a comparison to last year and budget (a budget which did not likely have a lot of planned revenue growth). If you are a multi property oversight executive, maybe somewhere along the way you noticed, hotel A does 3 times as much F&B as hotel B even though it’s hard to separate them from a market position perspective? Then when you try to make that point to a property team you hear all the reasons why the comparison is not valid.

Scorecarding Your Hotel Bar – Are You Positioned for Maximum F&B Revenue Results? By: Scott Martiny

SBS travels the continent doing hotel bar assessments. (see www.An-Assessment-Case-Study.com) The interview/observation process generates a Scorecard, a red, yellow, green rating for critical components in the success recipe for a hotel bar venue. Scorecards are designed to rate how effectively a hotel bar venue is set up to attract hotel guests and group guests pre/post event. The target guest experience is an extended hangout customer. (see www.Extended-Hangout-Customers.com )

Driving Comprehensive Change in a Hotel Bar Operation is Like Climbing Mount Everest

So you have a scorecard www,scorecarding-your-hotel-bar.com that is spotlighting huge changes in venue setup, menu, service strategy, pricing, marketing, and production strategy. The projected business improvement reward is huge, the proposed changes make sense, but the kind of change being defined seems impossible to execute comprehensively in a short period of time. The consultant is saying it has to be “all or nothing”, and to the local management team being asked to commit to a plan, it looks more like “nothing” is the only possible path.

Using a Task Force Strategy in Comprehensive F&B Change Projects By: Scott Martiny

You have a huge business growth opportunity in your hotel bar. The key to growth is refocusing the operation on the intended target customer experience – extended hang out customers. (see www.Extended-Hangout-Customers.com) You have score carded the operation. (see www.Scorecarding-Your-Hotel-Bar.com). That scorecard documents a comprehensive change mission that cannot be done piecemeal. You have the mission defined in a Playbook. (see www.Playbooks-An-F&B-Change-Strategy.com) But the action steps defined in that plan are an impossible workload for an already busy property F&B management team. In addition you know in many areas the expertise required to get each action step done correctly and efficiently is beyond the local team.