By Luis De Souza, CEO of NFS Technology Group
Some of the finest dining in the UK now takes place in hotels, with star chefs making a huge impact – but even if your ambitions are not quite so high, food and beverage is a huge contributor to any hotel business.
The principles of F&B success are the same whatever your hotel company model: great food and great service, provided when your potential guests need it.
But which hotel EPOS software should you choose?
With a wide range on offer, it can seem hard to decide – but it shouldn’t be.
EPOS is providing an incredible boost to restaurants all over the country – and it hotels are eyeing up the software choices to achieve the same results.
Some hotels PMS systems include a limited element of F&B management; others are still managing with paper diaries and order note pads.
But dedicated hotel EPOS software is the powerful management solution that offers tight control over restaurant operations – and helps create an amazing customer experience that encourages repeat business.
5 must-haves in your hotel restaurant EPOS
- If you have a hotel group, choose proven enterprise-level EPOS for multi-site management without duplicating head-office roles
- Web reporting provides a real-time online view of your hotel restaurant operations wherever you are – always an issue for multi-site operations in particular
- Make sure it includes a powerful integrated stock management solution that reduces waste and helps keep costs down
- Ensure it can enable you to build loyalty programmes and offer gift cards easily
- A flexible API – such as that of Aloha EPOS by NFS – means the software integrates seamlessly with your hotel PMS software, with perfect connections to leading systems including Opera and Guest line.
Aloha also allows effortless charging of F&B to guests’ rooms, meaning no items are ever missed – guests find this useful and satisfying. It also integrates with your hotel revenue reporting platform for incredible accuracy and convenience.
Food and beverage continues to contribute more and more to hotel growth, rising at 4.9% in 2017, and around 5% in 2018.
But competition from the hard-pressed restaurant sector never ends. The hotels that benefit are definitely those who box clever by offering a stunning guest experience to go along with their great food.
Who uses hotel EPOS? One example is the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
It uses Aloha to manage its famed 2AA Rosette GB1 Restaurant, developed by Executive Chef Alan White and his passionate brigade, as well as its Terrace, lounge and bar.
Aloha’s everyday features promote the exquisite level of service offered across all of the Grand Hotel’s F&B outlets.
For instance, serving staff at hotel restaurants using Aloha have handheld Pulse devices or tablets to relay orders direct to the kitchen from tableside. It means food prep can start immediately and human error is removed from the ordering equation.
Accurate orders = happy diners + reduced food waste.
In addition, Aloha offers your staff automatic upwelling prompts as they take orders, helping to generate extra revenue on each order.
Analysts PwC believe UK hotels in 2019 will see slower growth reflecting Brexit uncertainty, softer economic and demand trends, and the impact of high levels of new hotel room additions.
The revenue boost provided by F&B, holding up well in these troubled times, is a valuable one.
Aloha hotel EPOS software, with its rapid ROI, is helping to provide hotels with that competitive edge to win diners, to control multi-site operations and costs, and to deliver an outstanding guest experience.
In today’s challenging market, it’s a choice that looks nothing short of intuitive.
* Find out more about hotel EPOS – www.nfs-hospitality.com