Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 10 Sep

In the midst of the summer of COVID, most patrons relish the chance to comfortably eat outside on a restaurant patio, all adequately physically distanced from other customers. Barring a few staunch objectors, others who would prefer to be seated indoors can empathize with the present state of affairs and bite the bullet.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 7 Sep

An age-old expression that any good chef knows is that people also eat with their eyes. As any manager who runs a successful cocktail bar can also attest, the same is true for beverages, and we can apply this principle to enhance wine sales.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 10 Aug

Pre-pandemic, the operative model for many hotels was to generate core earnings through the rooms division with more-or-less break even or slightly positive support from one's F&B offerings.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 11 Jun

One of the luxuries of self-isolation is that it has afforded me the chance to drink down my cellar, as well as take the time to converse with a few friends who happen to be wine merchants with a few extra bottles on hand to put together some taster packs for me. And upon sampling these individual bottles, it made me think about how wine purchasing behaviors will change after the pandemic.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 2 Jun

In your hotel career, there will probably never be another opportunity when you have the chance for a new lease on life. With your property temporarily closed and little to no reservations on the books, you are unglued from history as no one is going to use the typical 'negative-nelly' reasons for rejecting your bold initiatives.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 1 May

There's an emerging trend that is none-too-friendly to your hotel restaurant's beverage sales. Encapsulated by buzz terms like 'dry January', 'sober curious' or 'mindful drinking', more people nowadays are abstaining from alcohol or are drinking less overall.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 4 Feb

Bear with me on this one, as I see troubles ahead for restaurant wine sales in the not-too-distant future. It comes down to two major economic forces and their effects on overall customer behavior.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 27 Jan

Welcome to the start of this new decade! Now that you've had your fill of turkey feasts and midnight champagne toasts, it's time for you to set some goals for the coming year but also to look ahead at what the 'Roaring 20s' will bring.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 2 Jan

No matter where you stand on the issue of climate change, the one undeniable aspect of this movement is that it is rapidly gaining awareness across the world. With scientists publishing study after study to show just how inhospitable our environment will soon become, this trend is particularly prevalent amongst our youth, and if you don't understand it then your hotel's F&B future may be grim.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 5 Dec

It happens all too often now. I'm dining with my wife, a friend or a business associate for lunch and we are both in need of a morsel of libation. But as the sun is still out, a bottle is simply too much - a point that is metaphorically and literally driven in by the glint of my white Mercedes-Benz station wagon near the far end of the parking lot.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 22 Nov

When one thinks of visiting Vancouver Island, the typical trip includes a day or two in the bohemian provincial capital, Victoria, followed by a trek north into perpetually verdant British Columbian wilderness or hugging the craggy, wind-swept western coast with most roads ending in Tofino. Along the way are picturesque mountain ranges, hiking trails and some truly incredible people of all walks of life.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 30 Oct

Take a moment and imagine the typical minibar in a traditional big box hotel. Stocked with the basic assortment of national beers, a few half-bottles of wine for some plonky mass-produced label, some one-shot servings of the most common hard liquor brands and perhaps a bite or two of sugary snacks, this isn't doing your property any favors.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 9 Oct

Before getting into any specifics here, it's important to understand why a hotel restaurant should engage in vertical or horizontal tastings, or any other experimental program. To sum it up, it helps give your dining outlet legs.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 27 Sep

This is not about 'free WiFi' but by placing the first word last it turns the concept on its head. The proposed idea here may seem a bit counterintuitive because a primary responsibility of modern hotels is to provide for our guests, with internet access being a clear necessity like heating and running water.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 4 Sep

Rewind half a century and you'll find that the best hotels always had the best restaurants. Everyone knew that fine dining could be found at the luxury downtown properties. Typically, a hotel would have at least two outlets - haute cuisine and a café. That age-old formula seemed to work well, until it didn't.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 13 Jun

Up until the hospitality industry started to change over half a century ago, everyone was accustomed to believing that a city's best restaurant would be found at a luxury hotel downtown. Such a property's premier restaurant would often serve as a perennial draw for both out-of-towners as well as locals, with reservations coveted and those seated immediately bestowing status upon their patrons.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 5 Jun

In a recent study that hits the mainstream newsfeeds around mid-March, a graduate student working out of the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus (go Canada!) conclusively found that branding and wine label design affect how a person enjoys the drink itself.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 27 May

While most wines can be enjoyed any time of year and ostensibly anywhere within sight of a corkscrew, the hot summer months present an opportunity to expand your beverage selection with great seasonal offerings, all in the pursuit of greater awareness and revenues.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 23 Apr

What does your wine list stand for? What's its elevator pitch? Is it meaningful for customers? Does it fit with the theme and business plan for the parent restaurant?

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 13 Mar

Quite the statement to kick off the In Vino Veritas series for 2019, but, sadly, it is too often true. To put it more politely, think of this in terms of a series of questions. What does your wine list stand for? Is it meaningful for customers? Does it fit with the theme and business plan for the parent restaurant?

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 15 Feb

Finding myself away at a mountain resort for a food and wine festival last year, it was the perfect opportunity to not only participate in a wine tasting conducted by a vintner from a prominent Oregon winery as well as reflect upon the staying power of these types of events.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 17 Jan

There's an important lesson in the form of what corked bottles - that is, wine that's gone off - can present as an opportunity to wow your restaurant patrons and hotel guests.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 3 Dec

The growing prevalence of outsourced labor within the frontline ranks of many guest-facing departments may have deep-rooted consequences that arent immediately discernable on a balance sheet. Whether your property is thinking of contracting out its valets, bellhops, restaurant servers, banqueting staff or housekeepers, what we stand to lose may be far greater than any apparent cost savings or reductions in employee benefit packages.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 29 Nov

In my youth, my parents would take me to Joes Steakhouse in Montreal where we would eat massive rib steaks on wooden cutting boards with copious amounts of butter and sour cream lathered on baked potatoes. Posh dining equivalent might include a chateaubriand for two, expertly prepared tableside.

Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited · 4 Oct

Food allergies are not only commonplace nowadays but continue to become more prevalent, particularly in a North American context. This means that allergic considerations will only become more prevalent as millennials and post-millennials come to dominate the travel economy as well as the workforce.