Ask TrueGuest: Improving In Room Dining

Dear TrueGuest,

I am the In-Room Dining Manager of a large hotel.  Our In-Room Dining sales have really dropped over the last year.  Our service scores are also suffering.  Where do a start?

Great question!  Many hotels are reporting a drastic decrease in F&B sales per occupied room.  The In-Room Dining sales have taken the biggest hit during these tough times.  Guests are really cutting back on the more expensive amenities of the hotels and room service is usually at the top.  Here are our recommendations:

1.  Revisit your menu and specifically your menu prices.  Many hotels dramatically increased their room service menu prices over the restaurant prices.  We recommend that the prices are similar, especially if your hotel is near many other restaurants…  especially if they are within walking distance.  Guests typically look at the room service prices and assume they are the same as in the restaurant.  If a guest feels they are too high, you have lost them as a customer in both room service and the restaurant.  Guests will grab breakfast from a quick mart and eat dinner at the restaurant next door.

2.  Review the basics of room service selling with your Room Service Operators.  Now more than ever, they need to maximize the revenue on every call they receive.  Check out this article on how to increase your room service sales by as much as 50 percent!

3.  For help on improving your service, check out this article on how to deliver room service orders the right way!

Have any tips of your own?  Post them below!  Have a question that you would like answered?  Post it below or send it to us via the contact page.

11 thoughts on “Ask TrueGuest: Improving In Room Dining

  1. Hi RK. Thanks for your feedback on the In Room Dining guide. I hope that it helps you. We are actually working on a brief guide for Restaurant Selling Standards. We should have it up soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out a few of the tips we have given for increasing bar sales. Start here.

  2. Greetings of the season !

    I very impressed with the articles posted on in room dinning. If i may ask you what significant can be done to increase food averge per check and beverage average per check ?
    i work for 200 room hotel and want to tap on take way coporate markets.

    Thank you,

    RK

  3. Greetings of the season !

    I If i may ask you what significant can be done to increase food averge per check and beverage average per check ?
    i work for 176 room hotel and want to tap on take way coporate markets.

    Thank you,
    Ali waheed

  4. hiii iam working in star hotel as a order taker,iam always upset with time taken to deliverd inroom dinning order i always promise the guest that i will send in time but,its not happening.

  5. hi.im a student in hospitality industry and doing on the job training in a hotel.we just had our mystery shopper results and i would just like to ask any advice/points on the following comments:
    – not using guest name
    – not pouring water
    although i know that these are procedural challenges, how can we deal with it since we know the procedures by heart?i know my colleagues don’t want to spent a lot of time in training to be treated like children and being reminded blahblahblah…
    are there ways to deal with this that we can hit our target of giving the best guest experience?
    thanks!

  6. Hi Rose. The use of guest name is one of the most missed service standards during our Service Experience Audit. Unfortunately, there is no magic training class that can really help employees use guest names. It is all about practice and becoming comfortable with it. The first thing to remember is that people with difficult to pronounce names are used to having their names butchered. They rarely get offended if you make a mistake. Our analysts with simple names are referred to by name more often than our analysts with more difficult names. Hotel employees are just not comfortable with using difficult names. The only way to improve that is with repetition. Keep practicing!

    The other key to using guest names properly is to remain consistent when you use the name. Our advice is to use the name once as soon as you learn the name and once again to close the conversation. For valet attendants, they will ask for the name and write it on the ticket. They should then immediately use it in conversation such as ‘do you need help with your luggage, Mr. Smith’. Then they will use it again once more to close the conversation with ‘enjoy your stay with use, Mr. Smith’.

  7. hi. could you please recommend to me the book that covers all items, points about food and beverage. not only bar but also food and beverage ? thank you

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