05/11/2014 | 09:56 AM

Holiday Inn updates food offerings

LAS VEGAS—More than half of Holiday Inn guests eat breakfast when they stay—that amounts to four million people per year. But Holiday Inn’s breakfast offerings are inconsistent, outdated and not making the money they should, Maurice Cooper, vice president of the Holiday Inn brand for IHG, told 4,300 delegates to the IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference held last week in Las Vegas. At the same time, Holiday Inn’s heartbeat scores, a measure of guest satisfaction, rise by four points if guests stay onsite for dinner.

IHG has addressed improvements to food and beverage with three new opt-in solutions that should be in place by this time next year.

The first is the Eat Bar & Grill program – which Cooper describes as a “restaurant in a box,” that contains elements of Holiday’s Inns’ The Hub and The Active Lobby. In tests, 75 per cent of hotels that implemented the program grew their bottom line, and some hotels had the system up and running in three weeks.

The second is Burger Theory, a bar-centric, rustic concept now being tested at the Atlanta Holiday Inn Airport South. “We’re expanding it to several hotels this year and more next year,” said Cooper, adding that it is suitable for both renovated and new-build hotels. Cooper said that he has sampled the “mouthwatering burgers, cravable desserts and craft beer” that are cornerstones of the concept.

The concept has to be vetted and tested first, said Cooper. “We’re not going to offer up any solutions until we are convinced it will be successful.” He added that the cost will depend on whether owners build new spaces for Burger Theory, or retrofit existing spaces.

The third is integrated solutions that provide an improved breakfast. There’s the counter to go breakfast, where guests place an order that is ready in seven minutes or less from back of the kitchen.  There are also yogurts, parfaits and grab and go items.

“We’re looking at a better breakfast, not just chafing dish items, with different offerings such as a crepe and pancake cart.  Guests can choose what they want and pay for what they want,” Cooper said.  He added that there could be signature free items, as in “get free pastries and coffee – and a warm hug from Holiday Inn.”

IHG is taking the best from each integrated solution and is testing these in 40 hotels in the U.S. and Canada.  Criteria for test hotels is that they must be passionate about the shape of the future of breakfast at Holiday Inn, there must be geographic diversity, and diversity in types of hotels.