According to a Hospitality GEM survey of 820 diners, hotels are ‘missing out’ on potential customers with almost 50 per cent of respondents admitting to avoiding hotel restaurants because they considered them overpriced.
While 64 per cent of those surveyed eat out more than five times a month, only 15 per cent chose to do so in a hotel they weren’t staying in.
Steven Pike, managing director of HospitalityGEM, said: “As the hospitality industry enjoys ever greater numbers of people choosing to dine out more frequently, it seems the hotel sector is missing out on attracting non-residents to its restaurants.
“Hotel marketing tends to focus on people coming into town to stay, for obvious reasons. But the local market can be used to either fill gaps at quiet times of day or to brand a hotel’s dining offer as a standalone operation.”
Just four per cent of customers said they avoided hotel restaurants due to a lack of variety on menus, and just 14 per cent did so due to poor quality meals.
Over a third of respondents admitted that they were more likely to visit a hotel restaurant if the site had a strong reputation.
“If a hotel leverages its strong reputation well our research demonstrates that this can attract customers and highlights the importance of promoting reputation and also generating positive word of mouth,” said Pike.