David Henkes

anquets & catering are a volume and growth driver for hotels, and this is increasingly true for restaurants as well. With hotel F&B executives looking at the dynamics impacting the restaurant community and potential spillover into their foodservice business, it’s helpful to evaluate some of the trends in off-premise orders within the restaurant community. Technomic recently completed a study on catering called LOOP (Large Orders Off Premise), and some of the findings were quite interesting.

Our research centered around learning how and why businesses select which venues to use for offsite catering events. This demographic is a critical group for hotels, accounting for a large percentage of all banquets and catered events.

SELECTION FACTORS

• Overall, nearly 60 percent of catered events
  occur offsite, usually due to size of the group, a
  need for a change of scenery, or an incentive to
  offer attendees.
  
• Only 23 percent of respondents said better
  meal options are a reason to move a meeting offsite.
  However, while food options are not the main
  driver for moving a meeting offsite, once a venue is selected, food selection and quality become critical to the satisfaction of the event.

GROUP DEMOGRAPHICS
Our study also looked at differences among business occupations.

• Medical/ pharmaceutical reps are more likely to be frequent users of off-premise catering. In fact, 40 percent of respondents who were in the medical field reported having a need for a catered event more than once a week. This group is a disproportionate user of restaurants, and it is likely that many hotel business functions are also sponsored by medical and pharmaceutical groups.
• Personnel within the medical field are also more consistent users of off-premise catered events, hosting these events more evenly throughout the year. Other business groups, such as nonprofits, computer services, financial services, and accounting, tend to be more seasonal in nature.

When hotels look to banquets & catering as a source of incremental revenue, there are several implications. First, it is critical to understand how and why meeting planners choose your venue for their event. How does it provide a better location than a local restaurant or an office-centered meeting? How do you compare with the competition? Second, who are the primary customers using your hotel for catered events? How can you do a better job of appealing to others who may not have included you in their decision set?

Catering is a tremendous growth opportunity. Clearly, restaurants are pursuing this, and the lodging industry must stay competitive against newly focused competition.

David Henkes is a senior principal at Technomic, a Chicago-based consultancy focused on away-from-home eating and drinking. For more information, contact David at 312-506-3927 or at dhenkes@technomic.com.