What Does the Future of Hospitality Look Like?

Although it is near on impossible to predict the future, many different ideas can be strung together using past and present trends to at least predict what will happen in the near future of the industry. On the 15th March 2008, Amadeus, an IT company for travel and tourism, released a report on the future of the hotel industry, in this report it discussed the short, medium and long term drivers of the industry.

The short term drivers being:
1. “Globalisation
2. New technologies
3. Demanding/educated customers
4. Price transparency”.

The medium term drivers being:
1. “Globalisation/emerging geographic markets
2. New technologies
3. Channel shift
4. Demanding/educated customers”

The long term drivers being:
1. “Demanding/educated customers
2. New technologies
3. Hotel ownership”
(Amadeus, 2008)

From short to long, the customer is the most important part of the future of any industry, not just the hospitality industry, in the hospitality industry, the customer which drives it is said to be educated and demanding, they will expect to have their stay in a hotel of visit to anywhere within this industry to be based around them and their needs and wants.

New technologies also plays a very important role in the future drives of the hospitality industry, with these new technologies being thought to be able to provide a more personal experience. With customer recognition technology being the most important part, hotels and restaurants will be able to store information which will be able to provide help with foods, room preferences and other such personal details on a stay or visit.

The final important part of the future is globalisation, where the industry will spread across the world, with many businesses already doing this, many more will start to globalise. Technology will play a large role in the globalisation of hospitality in the future, with a central control being given where all information will be stored and distributed about the business.

There is also an emerging market with Russia, China, India and the Gulf at the forefront of this market, the Gulf is the heaviest investor in this industry, with markets in Dubai and the city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates being amongst the strongest of these markets. The major reason for growth in the Gulf region is to reduce the huge reliance the economy has on oil, as the region has a massive oil reserve.

References

Amadeus (2008). The Future of the Hotel Industry. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 16 December 2009].

4Hoteliers (2008). Report: Blueprint For Hospitality Industry's Future. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 16 December 2009].

How has the Recession Affected the Hospitality Industry?

Recession - “A period of general economic decline; typically defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. A recession is typically accompanied by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment, and a decline in the housing market” (InvestorWords.com, 2009).

The recession in Britain officially started in the second quarter of 2008, some one and a half years ago. The recession indicates a slow-down in economic activity as a result of less money being spent, and more jobs being lost due to the money not being spent to keep employees in the job, and due to the increased unemployment, less money can be spent, this causes a cycle, which can spiral downwards very quickly which drags the economy down with it. The Credit Crunch played a huge part in the recession; it caused a shortage in finance and disposable income, this along with inflation meant a loss of confidence in the financial sector.

Due to the shortage of disposable income, far less money is being spent in restaurants and bars, and this theory is backed up by a research firm named Mintel, where 2,000 consumers took part in the research, the research found that “66% said they would spend less on going out to restaurants because of the economic climate, while 59% said they are already cutting back on trips to the pub” (Thomas, D. 2009). But, although consumers are eating out less, bar and pub food is still of a relatively high demand. Research carried out by another company, named Buckingham Research, which was carried out on 600 consumers, has produced the data that within April of 2009 and April 2010, 75% of families within the UK will cut back, or stop going out to eat and drink (Kühn, K. 2009).

The hospitality industry seems to have been affected by the recession very negatively, but more research, undertaken by Barclays Local Business, has found that 64% of the 150 hotels and caterers used in this research said their business has become more efficient due to this recession, and 45% have also seen an improvement in their customer service. This may be due to more care being taken when making orders for stock, and being more careful with hours worked and numbers of staff on at any one time. Further more, 20% feel the recession hasn’t affected them at all (Thomas, D. 2009).

References

FinancialAdvice. (2009). When did the UK recession officially start to kick in? [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

Kühn, K. (2009). Recession prompts 75% of British families to eat at home. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

Kühn, K. (2009). Restaurants suffer as slump hits Europe. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

InvestorWords. (2009). Recession: Definition. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

Thomas, D. (2009). Consumers avoiding pubs and restaurants as recession fears grow. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

Thomas, D. (2009). Recession has made us more efficient, say small firms. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 23 November 2009].

Has Heston Changed Little Chef?

In 2008 Heston Blumenthal took on the challenge of revamping the roadside restaurant brand named Little Chef, he started at a single restaurant in Popham, Hampshire. Little Chef, in 2007, was saved from administration by RCapital, a private equity group, where the chain was believed to be losing as much as £3million a year. This revamp was to be filmed during the summer of 2008 to tie in with the 50th anniversary of Little Chef, and aired on Channel 4 early in 2009, with a revisit six months later to see how the restaurants were getting on. These restaurants had been deserted by customers, the chain used to be a very widely known and used restaurant across the country.

Heston gave himself the task of improving the food, from what was a very poor standard, to something he would be happy to serve in his own restaurant, the Fat Duck in Berkshire, although the food he serves there is very scientific in the way it is made and put together on the plate, this would not be expected in a roadside restaurant for families, who would expect to pay no more than £10 for a main course. The revamped menu Heston designed was moved into a further two restaurants in York and Kettering West, the restaurant chain is now doing very well considering it went into administration only two years ago, “with profits forecast at £3m, on turnover of £77m for the 12 months to the end of December 2009”, Kühn, K. (2009). Heston also managed to get the original restaurant he improved into the Good Food Guide whish has only the best restaurants across the country in it, and along with the Good Food Guide, came many extra customers, “since Little Chef at Popham was revamped last year, the restaurant has seen a 500 per cent increase in sales immediately after the programme and is now consistently up 150 per cent year on year” Little Chef (2009).

All of these statistics show Heston Blumenthal has considerably changed Little Chef, with considerable increases in both profits and customers dining at the restaurants affected by Heston so far. All of this is in spite of the difficulties faced when dealing with the chief executive, Ian Pegler.

References

4od. (2009) 4od. [Internet]. Available from: < http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od> [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Afyia, A. (2009) Heston Blumenthal not consulted about Little Chef menu roll-out. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Cockcroft, L. (2008) Heston Blumenthal to transform Little Chef. [Internet]. Available from: < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/> [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Kühn, K. (2009) Heston Blumenthal effect raises profit forecasts for Little Chef[Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Little Chef. (2009) Did Heston Change Little Chef? [Internet]. Available from: < http://www.littlechef.co.uk/promo/channel4> [Accessed: 06/11/2009].

Sharkey, G. (2009) First Little Chef revamped by Heston Blumenthal makes Good Food Guide. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Walton, C. (2008) Michelin-winning chef Heston Blumenthal to revamp Little Chef. [Internet]. Available from: [Accessed: 06/11/2009]

Unsatisfied Workers within the Hospitality Industry

Research has recently shown that caterers, along with workers in the leisure and retail industry are the least satisfied in the working environment. As many as 6 million people are unsatisfied at work, and will most likely leave their jobs when the recent economic down turn improves, a study by SHL, a company that assesses peoples performance within the work place, has indicated.

This survey has indicated that as many as one in five feel very unsatisfied at work, with younger workers feeling the least satisfied of all workers. With as many as 1 in 4 feeling they were not in the correct line of work. This lack of satisfaction will have a huge impact on how the workers perform within the working environment, with lack of motivation, and productivity being major concerns.

Workers in the catering industry are known for low-paid and insecure jobs which will be a large factor as to why workers feel so unsatisfied with their jobs, whilst the hours worked are also very unsociable which has a large implication on the way the workers feel about their jobs. This is all down to workers not knowing their rights within the industry, such as breaks of roughly 15 minutes every 4 hours within a restaurant or hotel. This is not helped by the employees themselves; with staff turnover rates being so high, the employers feeling they must get the most of their employees, whilst at the same time trying to keep them satisfied.

As for my opinion, when I work in this environment, such as the kitchen of a restaurant or hotel, I feel very satisfied, especially when we get comments back such as ‘compliments to the chef’ and also seeing clear plates of food coming back. I feel very satisfied when working in these environments, knowing that paying customers are enjoying dishes you have prepared, cooked and sent out on your own. There is nothing better than to get a comment back from customers and seeing their empty plates coming back into the kitchen. Although, I recently worked in a kitchen where the head chef was far from happy with his line of work, and wished he did not enter the catering industry.

It is very important to feel satisfied in this line of work due to the huge pressures during a service. Everything must be perfect or customers will start to complain, as long as the customers are satisfied, the chef and front of house will stay satisfied, but as soon as the customers start to feel unsatisfied the staff will start to feel the same.

White, E. (2009) ‘Catering staff among the least satisfied workers’ (accessed 2009-10-14)

Sharkey, G. (2008) ‘Keeping staff still a problem in hospitality; (accessed 2009-10-14)

Sharkey, G. (2008) ‘Hospitality staff among the two million forced to endure poor working lives’ (accessed 2009-10-14)