100 days until Christmas: 5 tips get your hotel’s F&B operations ready for the festive period

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The leaves have barely fallen from the trees, so it may seem a little early to start thinking about Christmas… but for hospitality businesses, long-term planning is key to maximising profits during the busiest time of year.

On average, hotels experience a 24% increase in bookings over the festive period. So, preparation is paramount to keep these guests happy, especially when it comes to the most important part of the Christmas experience: food and drink.

But with increased profits, comes increased costs. With extra staff, double pay, premiums on stock and additions such as decorations and entertainment to account for, hotels need to ensure their operations are more efficient than ever to feel the real benefits that the season can bring.

From welcome drinks and buffet breakfasts to NYE parties and the big Christmas Dinner, here are our five tips showing how specialist software can help your hotel’s F&B operations deliver true Christmas magic this festive season, all while reducing unnecessary costs.

#1. Inventory management
Christmas is a time for overindulgence, meaning stock may need to be replenished more often. With higher occupancy rates leading to busier restaurants, it will be vital for both front and back of house staff to monitor inventory levels to keep the festive food and drink flowing and guests happy.

But stock take is a notoriously long and laborious task, taking team members away from serving customers. Specialist software, like Kitchen CUT, can reduce the administrative headache. It can free up precious time by automating inventory management and providing 24/7 insight into stock levels across all fridges, freezers, cellars and stores, on multiple devices.

At Christmas, the customer experience is paramount, and time saved with software enables employees to focus on providing the best possible service.

By tracking waste, usage and consumption, hoteliers can identify what sells across all restaurants and bars, to avoid over-ordering. This information can, in turn, help chefs to adjust menus to save on food waste and cross-utilise ingredients from popular dishes to cut additional stock costs and maximise margins.

Using data like this has additional long-term benefits, as it generates insights into festive trends, to help hoteliers forecast customer preferences, stock ordering and staffing levels for years to come.

#2. Menu Engineering
Your Christmas menus will be your most important sales tool during the festive period. From specialised room service to luxurious set menus, chefs can utilise software to reduce admin time and adjust menus based on trends, occasions, or the type of guest staying over the holidays. Understand your top-performing dishes and calculate the cost per serving when designing them to make sure they are cost-effective.

By using digital menus, Chefs can shuffle dishes in real time depending on what’s likely to sell, whether it’s a casual Boxing Day brunch or a grand New Year’s Eve dinner, and tweak ingredients to cross-utilise leftovers and reduce food waste.

Menu engineering capabilities also allow for dynamic pricing structures, whether it’s an early bird drinks offer in the bar or an early diner’s set menu in the restaurant, hotels can capitalise on guests eating and drinking at different times throughout the day, by adjusting pricing in real-time.

Your job is to make the festive break as stress-free and enjoyable as possible for all guests, but for those with allergies, choosing dishes can sometimes be a worrying experience. With Kitchen CUT’s allergen management capabilities, your hotel can provide complete transparency on allergens and nutritional data to keep guests safe and provide priceless peace of mind.

With automatic menu updates, chefs can swap out ingredients with minimal admin, safe in the knowledge that guests with allergies are well-informed.

#3. Procurement
Nothing can quite derail Christmas plans like a delayed delivery!

Use the next 100 days to secure pre-Christmas delivery slots with suppliers and try ordering in bulk to save costs, before the Christmas premiums kick in.

To simplify orders from multiple outlets across your hotel, try hospitality software that collates multiple purchase orders from different staff members. With all orders visible in one place, deliveries are simplified, improving accuracy while strengthening your supply chain and promoting better relationships with suppliers.

Kitchen CUT’s procurement system enables you to track and trace stock, substitute items as needed, compare costs, drill down into inventory details, and view accurate reports, thereby streamlining your ordering process and ensuring your hotel is well-stocked for the Christmas rush.

#4. Staff management
Staff burnout can be a real issue as the festive period ramps up. Avoid overworked F&B employees by carefully managing your team’s workload with fair rotas that are sent out well in advance, and consider sharing the load with additional seasonal hires to better accommodate guests during the busiest periods.

Customer service is vital! Be sure to manage expectations of the quality of work expected from your team throughout December, to deliver the best experience for your guests, with added festive cheer.

Staff may be stretched more than usual and missing out on family gatherings to work in hot, pressured environments, so make them feel appreciated and ensure support is available. By simplifying their day-to-day operations with specialist software, work stress and manual workload can be significantly reduced, also helping to lighten the mental load and boost team morale.

Staff F&B perks, discounts and a friendly, fun environment will also help to boost team cohesion – the happier the team, the better the service.

#5. Buffet management
Let’s face it – the breakfast buffet is the part of a hotel stay that many of us look forward to most, and at Christmas, it needs to live up to expectations.

But buffets can cause a large amount of food waste, with guests often taking too much food and leaving more than double what they usually would. So, how can hotels provide an unforgettable buffet experience whilst saving on food waste and unnecessary costs?

Kitchen CUT’s buffet management tools help your kitchen accurately track the largest sources of waste and take control of what dishes need to be replenished or returned, all in real-time.

Research suggests that over 75% of customers are more likely to take more food from the start of the buffet, so try placing cheaper items at the beginning of your line-up, making them visually appealing. Luxury items still have a place, especially during the festive season, but more expensive items can be placed on smaller plates, towards the end of your buffet, to reduce costs.

Hoteliers can also provide smaller plates and offer meal-pairing guidance, which acts as a subtle cue to encourage guests to reduce their portion sizes and cut back on wasted food.

And of course, deck the halls!
Bring the Christmas magic! From modern chic to bold and traditional, why not theme your décor in line with the style of your festive food and drinks offering? Special touches can make a massive difference to the guest experience, helping to create unforgettable memories that keep people coming back, year after year.

Preparation is key. By getting a head start and optimising your operations early, your F&B processes will transfer seamlessly into the festive season as your hotel starts to fill up. With the fundamentals in place, your staff will feel the benefits of more efficient operations, enabling them to provide a more memorable (and delicious!) experience for your guests.