Sales of Food Fatten Hotels? Bottom Line
by July 31, 2006 12:00 am 81 views
Sales of food and beverages account for roughly 34 percent of revenue at five of Northwest Arkansas’ hotels that specialize in food and banquet service.
The Embassy Suites in Rogers, which tops the Business Journal’s list of largest hotels (see list here), was also No. 1 in sales of food and beverages (F&B) with $3.77 million. That is 31.8 percent of the hotel’s total revenue of $11.86 million.
The Holiday Inn Northwest Arkansas in Springdale had $3 million in F&B revenue, ranking it at No. 2, and the Clarion Inn in Fayetteville ranked third with $1.23 million.
The Holiday Inn’s F&B department accounted for 39.9 percent of total revenue, and the Clarion Inn had 38 percent.
Rounding out the No. 4 and No. 5 spots were the Inn at Carnall Hall on the University of Arkansas campus with $980,000 and the Radisson Hotel Fayetteville with $800,000 in F&B revenue, respectively.
F&B accounted for the biggest piece of the pie at the Inn at Carnall Hall. F&B sales amounted to 46.4 percent of $2.11 million in total revenue.
On the other end, the Radisson had the lowest percentage with 19.7 percent of $4.07 million in total revenue coming from food and beverage.
Joe LaCavera, assistant general manager and food and beverage director at the Holiday Inn Northwest Arkansas, said banquets and catering make up 70 percent of the food and beverage revenue for the hotel.
“It’s another revenue generator for the hotel,” he said. “It wouldn’t make any sense to have banquet service if they weren’t trying to make revenue off it. It’s important to get revenue from every square foot of space they have.”
At the Radisson Hotel, General Manager David McGeady said banquets make up 75 percent of its F&B revenue. The hotel’s restaurant brought in about $261,000 last year — through primarily lunch and dinner.
And according to both LaCavera and McGeady, room service is still very much alive. The Holiday Inn offers room service from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the Radisson offers it from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Lacavera said it’s mostly the business traveler who comes in late looking for a hot meal.