With the varied guest preferences hoteliers must try to accommodate, enhancing the breadth of offerings is generally a best practice. A classic example is guestroom entertainment, where a robust mix of linear TV, streaming, on-demand content, and casting helps to ensure most guests will be pleased. The same approach is advisable when it comes to beverages, which may be considered a relatively minor aspect of the guest experience but is actually an integral and important part of their everyday lives. Whether it’s coffee, water, juice, or soda, “most consumers always have a beverage in hand,” said Melissa Sperry, Brand Marketing Team, Nestlé Professional Solutions. “And since people stay in hotels for different reasons, you really want to make sure that you have options for the guests that fit their lifestyle.” For example, low-sugar options fit the health-conscious lifestyles of some guests and are thus good to have on hand.
In contrast, coffee and generic fruit juices are indispensable offerings because they are part of so many people’s daily lives. “According to the National Coffee Association, 66 percent of Americans drank a cup of coffee yesterday. By contrast, only 20 percent had eggs,” said Gage Johnston, marketing manager, Franke. “So, coffee is clearly something an operator should make accessible to people, because so many Americans consume it.” As far as fruit juices, Sperry noted that “guests still expect the staples of orange, apple, and cranberry, which make up at least 75 percent of our business.”
Beyond those basics, many specific beverage types are trending among what Sperry called “the next generation of cold beverage drinkers,” including the following:
• Flavor-Infused Vitamin Water. Nestlé Vitality offers several varieties of vitamin flavor-infused water, which are an excellent source of vitamins. These beverages allow guests to “get a few things checked off their to-do list first thing in the morning by drinking something that’s lower in sugar to start their day off strong, as well as get a vitamin intake,” Sperry said.
• Dirty Soda. This non-alcoholic soda is “spiked” with cream and flavored syrups. “Dirty sodas and dirty lemonades are coming from Utah and making their way across the country. They add another layer of flavor and play into the customization trend,” said Sperry, citing Coffee Mate Dirty Soda with a core flavor of coconut lime.
• Refreshers/Quenchers. According to Sperry, refreshers are the fastest-growing category of cold beverages, featuring a small amount of caffeine, tropical fruit flavors, and bright colors that make them very Instagrammable.
• Iced Coffee. A highly customizable beverage using syrups and creamers, iced coffee has become very popular with younger people as an anytime beverage, “whereas the older generations generally wanted to start their day off with something warm,” Sperry observed. Espresso-based beverages also tend to be favored by the younger guests, notes Johnston, recommending that hotel operators look for coffee machines that have functions for espresso as well as iced coffee.
Labor-Saving Machines
Especially with the challenging hospitality labor market, many hotel operators are looking for solutions that automate staff functions, and juice dispensers and coffee machines can certainly save F&B staff considerable time while taking up relatively little counter space. “We have several different machines that allow operators to have a full-service coffee shop in one machine with zero personnel manning it,” said Sperry. “So, guests can get a flat white, a cappuccino, and sometimes even a vanilla cappuccino—people customize to their taste by selecting options with a touchscreen.”
Self-cleaning machines save even more staff time. “The cleaning cycle mostly runs by itself, and you don’t need to be hands-on for the entire cycle,” Johnston described. “A descaling solution is affixed inside the machine, and a cleaning tablet is used for regular cleaning cycles. The entire process is much less invasive than traditional coffee brewers and allows you to work on other things while it cleans. You can press start, walk away, and then come back when it’s done.”
Finding the Right Supplier
Beyond offering quality beverages and machines, standout suppliers in the beverage space go the extra mile in three areas:
• Service. As Sperry observed, encountering a broken coffee machine in the morning is among the more frustrating guest experiences, and so readily available maintenance service is key. “We have a 24/7 maintenance piece that comes with every machine … and we have in-house technician staff that can come out and service the machine in any U.S. state. The biggest thing is that there is no downtime for the customer or operator,” said Sperry, adding that Nestlé’s machines have all of the wires and tubes located in the rear of the machine and internally, which helps to protect the components from damage.
• Sustainability. Ensuring that vendors’ products and their operations incorporate sustainable materials and practices is important to many owners and brands. Sperry pointed out that dispensers reduce the need to stock single-serve products and ultimately result in less waste. “Our cold beverage machine is zero waste,” she said. And on the production side, “at our Chicago, Illinois plant, any waste is reduced, recycled, composted, or recovered for energy use.”
• Consultation. One of the main differentiators for any supplier is that they strive to be a partner who offers product and service consultation that factors in the specific business needs of the client. “That’s the first part we focus on,” said Johnston. “What are the business goals, and how do we get there through our solutions?” Based on the hotelier’s budget, production volume needs, and the space, power, and water availability where the machine will be deployed, etc., the Franke team recommends machines from its fully automated A-Line for the hospitality segment. The team also supports its advice with beverage industry data from consumer reports and serves as a resource to hoteliers in that regard.
Bean to Cup
Catering to today’s discerning coffee drinker
With 79 percent of people able to tell the difference between good and bad coffee, according to research from Mintel, it behooves hoteliers to offer the highest quality “cup of joe” possible. And based on blind taste panel results, fresh-ground coffee has the edge over pre-ground and instant coffee when it comes to flavor, as the process preserves more natural oils and aromas. “Our goal is to grind it fresh and brew it fresh, and we do that with our Fresh Brew line of coffee machines,” said Gage Johnston, marketing manager at Franke. “There is no staleness or off notes like the papery flavor that can come from coffee that’s been sitting in airpots all day.”
Bean-to-cup machines, which have been increasingly marketed to the general consumer for the last five years or so, also allow better control of the brewing temperature, which optimizes the flavor. “With every standard coffee maker with a pour-over system where the water goes over the beans in a filter basket, that water is not necessarily getting up to the temperature it needs to be to really brew that coffee. The temperature is just coming right underneath [the proper temperature], or in some machines, it’s simply too low,” Johnston pointed out. Thus, investing in bean-to-cup machines can help to keep discerning coffee drinkers from going off-site to a gourmet coffee shop.
