Jim Murphy - PREM Group’s Managing Director

I came across the following article recently and thought it was worth sharing . You can see the full article at http://ehotelier.com/browse/news_more.php?id=D14796_0_11_0_M

“By Dr. John Hogan, CHA MHS CHEUnderstanding the meaning of breakfast

Breakfast -English: 1463, from break (v.) + fast (n.). Cf. French. déjeuner “to breakfast,” derived from L. jejunare “to fast.” The verb dates from 1679. The English word derives from the concept that sleep prevents eating, thus an involuntary “fast” occurs during sleep; this fast is broken by the first meal of the day referred to as breakfast

Understanding the value of breakfast

This definition is included as a reminder of the importance and value of breakfast for today’s traveler. Paying appropriate attention to the markets and guests we serve lessens the risk of losing the loyalty of a guest.

As the industry continues to both mature in some products and refine itself in others over the last generation, many properties of all product segments have elected to offer breakfast as part of their service. The common practice of offering breakfast, unfortunately, increases the danger of it becoming a commodity rather than a unique experience. However, those properties that choose to focus on their ingenuity can still find those special touches to pleasantly surprise and impress their customers.

In early 2008, Intercontinental Hotels conducted a survey on behalf of Holiday Inn Express to examine what business travelers considered important regarding breakfast.

The survey found 70 % of business travelers would rather conduct business during a sit-down breakfast as opposed to cocktails over dinner. It also found that while 87 % enjoyed a hot breakfast with their colleagues, 77 % viewed breakfast with the boss as a guiltless opportunity to get to know them better. Reading the results of this survey prompted me to look at what approaches a number of the major brands were taking and brief overviews of their actions are included at the end of this article.

The following ideas are offered as a reminder for how special the breakfast meal can be and what an opportunity for both delivering exceptional service and building loyalty.

“A Bakers Dozen” of Strategies for Successful Hotel Breakfast Service

1. Keep in mind the charm of Bed and Breakfasts. B&Bs offer charm, a personalized touch and something that is not typically found in many branded hotels. This is not a critique of brands, but an observation that the usually owner operated, smaller B&Bs are often more unique. Marriott hotels have tackled this over the years with their “Stay for Breakfast” promotions and advertising focusing on the enjoyment of breakfast. Take a realistic and fresh look at the space you serve breakfast and decide if it is making guests feel welcome.
2. “Have someone who genuinely welcomes each guest be the host at the door”- Every successful restaurant has a personality and it is often that of the owner or manager. A sincere and attentive greeting by someone who is pleased to see each guest makes the difference. While many full service hotels have a greeter who seats guests, having the restaurant manager, F&B Director or other manager acting as the “host” in at least certain peak times does make a difference and lets the guest and staff know how important breakfast is.
3. Fresh presentations of the room and the offerings are critical Boutique hotels are known as generally small properties that are unlike each other physically, but that are uniquely stylish, consistent in personalized service and welcoming. Update the “small touches” regularly. Use of flowers, interesting table settings and tasteful holiday decorations can all distinguish your hotel restaurant and breakfast, which may be the only meal your guests have at your hotel.
4. Know your customers and serve what they want. We cannot know all of our customers every day, but we should know if they are families, groups on a budget, corporate sales staff with a major project to finish or executives on a strategic planning retreat. Attentiveness to their likely service and food preferences is all within our reach and budgets - if we take the time to examine who our customers are. We all use some form of revenue management and forecasting and we have the ability to better analyze who our customers are than we have done in the past. Breakfast is an optimum time to make the day begin right.
5. Evaluate your menus - healthy alternatives are in demand Many people who travel are looking for a heart healthy, lower fat diet and expect hotel breakfasts to meet those needs. Other guests may look for regional offerings and these special entrees can increase restaurant revenue, attract local residents and differentiate a hotel from its competitors.
6. Be cost conscious, but not “cheap.” There is no doubt that a youth sports team will have different eating preferences to senior citizens or to other markets. Stress choice, value and options when addressing those markets.
7. Keep PAR inventory - As in #6 above, maintain backup items as necessary so that all guests can be efficiently and enjoyably served. A simple PAR system can address both budgetary and quality issues.
8. Speed is often critical Taking inspiration from the boutique hotel trends, many hotels address the breakfast are with bold designs and flexible open space. Many hotels and brands are using freshly prepared breakfast buffets as a means to offering variety and speed of delivery.
9. Everybody sells Breakfast staff often have the opportunity to interact one on one with many guests at breakfast and find out about the future needs of those guests for hotel and related services as appropriate in everyday conversation. Effective managers have incentives for serving staff and others that reward attentive individuals who help support the hotel and the guests needs as well. In these days of uncertain economic times, the expression of “all in this together” rings even more true.
10. Offer something unique and personalized Breakfast is typically the most commonly eaten meal at hotels. Unfortunately, the offerings are too often described as just that … common. Chefs can be more creative and use more local or seasonal foods. Guests also benefit because they have more choices and, maybe, a more memorable hotel stay. If you are a smaller rooms only hotel with no formal culinary staff, there are still many options available from your suppliers, but you need to ask and then listen to their ideas.
11. Listen to guest concerns, compliments and/or complaints - and DO SOMETHING! This sounds so basic, yet too many hotel staff are still waiting to be empowered by their managers to properly respond to guest comments. Ritz Carlton sets the tone for empowering their staff, as evidenced by their Baldridge Awards and their global reputation in almost every community they serve. Look at the referenced article below or online anywhere for additional examples.
12. Forget that “breakfast is a cost center or not profitable” stigma.
    • In full service hotels, breakfast represents a comparatively low food cost activity and a chance to start every guest’s day well.
    • In rooms only hotels, breakfast is a legitimate cost of service with a high perceived value to guests. It offers the opportunity to showcase a special flair at your hotel IF the effort is made
    • In luxury hotels, breakfast is a clear opportunity to outshine the competition by the positioning of your hotel as a center of excellence with attention to detail in all areas.

    It also means effective hotel restaurant managers embrace the “pride of ownership attitude” and take corrective action as needed
    
    

13. Thank you - come again. Check delivery is such a small thing, yet it can be critical as it is likely the last impression. While we are blessed to have multiple generations in our work force and clientele, the phrase “thank you” is so much more powerful than “no problem.” Look back at #1 and remember the lessons of your favorite successful hometown independent restaurant. The owner or manager is often at the door - welcoming each guest individually and saying please come again soon.”

Commenting on Budget 2009, Matthew Ryan, President, Irish Hotels Federation, states, “We acknowledge the efforts by the Government today to steer the economy through this recessionary period and to get the country’s fiscal position back on track. The economy’s recent downturn is significant as the effects of recent financial turbulence, low consumer sentiment and long term uncertainty all impact on our tourism sector. Attempts to stabilise the economy are to be welcomed and the Government’s strong actions to reduce the public sector spend is positive. The sudden economic decline has generated specific difficulties for the hotel industry, which is being adversely affected by falling revenues and rising costs.” Matthew Ryan comments on specific relevant areas as follows:

Tourism funding: “The Federation specifically welcomes the Government’s maintenance of tourism marketing funds for promoting Ireland as a destination both internationally and domestically. Marketing Ireland is crucial to ensure Ireland’s share of lucrative global tourism market. We know that for every €1 spent on tourism marketing brings in €15 in tourism revenue. As such, any increases in marketing funding for Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland represent a sound investment in Ireland’s tourism product.”

No increases in Hospitality VAT: “The IHF welcomes the fact that the Government has acknowledged the importance of labour intensive industries by not increasing the VAT rate impacting on the hotel accommodation and restaurant services. The industry is seeking to be as competitive as possible against a backdrop where energy, labour costs, interest rates and public services charges are eating into hoteliers’ efforts. This has been acknowledged by Government today as there has been no increase in the 13.5% VAT rate.”

Airport Exit Tax: “The €10 airport exit tax is a soft option to create revenue which will sacrifice the long term prospects tourism industry for a short term gain. Ireland is unique in the EU due to its island status – people travelling to our country have no alternative but to travel by air or sea. One of the key drivers of Ireland’s tourism growth in the past decade has been the emergence of low cost air access following the successful Ryanair model. This tax has the ability to undo a lot of the gains and efforts achieved in this area to date.  We can’t blindly follow other EU countries policies seeking to reduce reliance on air travel under the guise of environmental initiatives – these countries have alternative options of rail and road for travellers wishing to visit another country. This is a hugely regressive step that will have lasting consequences on Ireland’s tourism position and the 140,000 jobs it supports.”

NDP - roads will assist spread tourism throughout the country: “We welcome the Government’s commitment to continue to deliver on the infrastructural improvements the National Development Plan. Improvements in this area assist facilitate a better spread of tourism throughout the country.”

The IHF, which represents over 1,000 hotels and guesthouses, maintains that tourism is Ireland’s most important indigenous industry and largest employer with approximately 140,000 people employed in the sector. It provides employment in every single city, town and village in Ireland.  It generated almost €5 billion in foreign exchange earnings in 2007. It provided almost €3 billion in revenues to the exchequer in 2007 accounting for 4% of GNP.

Every few months  we circulate a newsletter of news from the different PREM Group property’s . The newsletter keeps us all updated on the happenings in each property . Who’s leaving or arriving,famous people staying with us , details of births,marriages or anything that might be of interest . The following is are just a few excerpts from the most recent newsletter.

-Premier Apartments Manchester

• We had a performer staying with us for 6 weeks who was one of the stars of the highly acclaimed AFRIKA! AFRIKA! Show.  He was a 6′ 3″ master contortionist and could fit his whole body through the unstrung head of a standard size tennis racquet!!  Luckily he did not do this at reception!

Their show has since moved onto Germany after which Las Vegas is their final performance destination

-Premier Apartments Liverpool

• We have seen a small slow down in business in relation the storming first half of the year, but Liverpool’s Capital of Culture status is certainly helping the city’s tourism sector to weather the storm of the credit crunch and overall business remains good

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• The final few months of the year includes the Biennial arts festival, BBC Electric Proms, MTV Music Awards, BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards and key concerts at the arena including Coldplay and Oasis.  The opening of the final phase of Liverpool One is due at the end of this month; this is a large leisure and retail development similar to Manchester’s Trafford Centre which is another boost major for the city.  Despite a very worrying 90 minutes a few weeks ago, Liverpool FC have progressed to the next stage of the Champions League, this is brilliant news for our business as these matches bring us very valuable high yield business as well as keeping the many dedicated supporters in the company happy!

• We held a Karaoke evening to raise money for Beyond the Moon in the summer and combined with donations from our reception coin box raised just short of £500.00, a big thank you to all staff who supported this event.

• Key changes to our business relate to environmental policies and accessibility.  We have recently introduced an area for guests to deposit recyclable waste, issued guests with tips on how to be green during their stay with us, offer chemical free, reusable laundry balls as opposed to chemical laundry washing tablets and we are in process of installing eco-shower heads to reduce water and energy usage.  In association with our tourist board we had an accessibility audit which was extremely useful and we will be implementing several changes over the next few months, main focus on making two apartments as accessible as possible.

- Days Hotel Parkwest Dublin

• We said goodbye to Amanda O Reilly on the 3^rd of September.  Amanda has gone to do some voluntary work in PERU and hopes to build a school for underprivileged children in Lima.  Amanda will be sadly missed by us all at Park West but we wish her lots of luck in her new venture!!!!!!

-Days Hotel Dublin Airport 

• We would like to congratulate our youngest member of the food & beverage team, Stephen Fearon who recently received his Junior Cert results where he was awarded 8 distinctions. This is an exceptional achievement and we are sure this young man has a very bright future.

 - IMI Residence Dublin

• Romana Voburkova, our accommodation manager/Duty manager is leaving this Friday (26^th). Romana is going home to the Czech Republic to start her own clothing company. There is no doubt that it will be a success and our best wishes go with her.

• Romana Voburkova, our accommodation manager/Duty manager is leaving this Friday (26^th). Romana is going home to the Czech Republic to start her own clothing company. There is no doubt that it will be a success and our best wishes go with her.

-Days Hotel Galway                    

Back in May we were delighted to have secured funding for a Work-Life Balance (WLB) Consultancy, so now things have quietened down a little we are pleased to be working with Tiger Consulting. The purpose of the consultancy is to review current WLB arrangements and see if we can develop any new WLB policies and procedures

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 Holiday Inn Express Antwerp 

• After almost three years as receptionist & shift leader, Ms Karin De Rooy has taken another challenge within the PREM Group as sales executive for the Antwerp Sales Cluster. We wish her all the best in this new opportunity for her and we are convinced that she will do a very good job to sell this property and Express by Holiday Inn Mechelen! 

Holiday Inn Calais

• Last August we had the pleasure to welcome on two occasions 38 members of  the very famous ” Patrouille de France”. They are pilots from the French Army and they were taking part in an airplane show, next to Calais.

Malinda Turi in the PREM Group HR department has done an interesting study of the various nationalities working in the company in Ireland .Current data shows that of the 450 people employed in PREM Group Ireland just under 50% are Irish. Over one quarter of the team comes from Poland, and the three next highest represented nations are Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary. Overall we are very proud to say that we have people from 37 different countries working in PREM Group Ireland at the moment.