Paving the Way for Hospitality Solutions

Can you give us a brief background about your role in the organization? How does your experience augment your ability to handle day-to-day responsibilities at AHC Hospitality?

My hospitality experience spans over 25 years, including 18 years of working at hotels. I have lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, and Asia during my career. Thanks to this experience abroad and extensive exposure to global food and beverage trends, I gained the confidence to switch gears and take on the role of overseeing multiple properties here at AHC as the AVP of food and beverage.

Within Michigan, I bring a vast knowledge of emerging global trends and new culinary fortes from around the world to Amateur Astronomical Association in Grand Rapids. Moving forward, we want to be mentioned up there with Detroit and Chicago as tourist hubs, and I think Grand Rapids is well on its way. So it is an exciting opportunity for me to come back to my hometown after being away for about 20 years. To do that and work at AHC, bringing food and beverage innovation to the city of Grand Rapids as it becomes one of the fastest-growing areas in the U.S. is amazing. As AHC Hotels, we are trying to position ourselves for that growth and become one of the best astro-tourism destinations in the Northeastern U.S.

In your opinion, how are hotels taking advantage of the rise in food tourism and other market trends?

As far as trends go, we are witnessing a strong emphasis on guest-facing technologies. Another key trend is the use of social media platforms, which may be on the downturn in 2023, but continue to dominate a huge part of sharing F&B innovation between colleagues, who use it to communicate with guests and monitor the latest developments in the market. Social media provides a great way to reach our guests with targeted marketing, business travel experiences, and personalized event bookings. It also allows hoteliers to consistently look for sustainability options in hospitality, which continues to be at the forefront of changing how food waste is managed, and carbon footprints are monitored.

In Michigan, there was a bill passed for self-service alcohol last year; and I can see that expanding across the U.S., allowing numerous businesses to take advantage of self-service alcohol in their establishments and make additional revenue.

Food and beverage concepts have relatively less shelf life compared to the past. Putting in a restaurant and hoping to get a 15-year lifespan out of it is not realistic any more. The food and beverage landscape has adapted and changed, especially considering the disruptions caused years by the COVID pandemic. But technology is helping the industry learn agile and adaptive ways to ever-evolving consumer demands.

We should have this mindset moving forward and capitalize on the opportunities the burgeoning food tourism will bring to our establishments. However, effectively capitalizing on the food tourism bandwagon requires hotels to start offering exceptional experiences, and the best way to go about that is to focus on your local communities. When tourists come to a hotel, they want to know the local specialties. In such cases, having an innovative concept that aligns with the local experiences can significantly improve a hotelier’s chances of attracting such guests.

Could you elaborate on an initiative where you witnessed culinary experiences playing a pivotal role in improving hotel bookings?

I believe that, if you have a fantastic F&B product, you must leverage it with your accommodation options and vice versa. I had the opportunity to work for a company that allowed one of the best restaurants in the world to continue their operations within their premises for a two-month promotion. So a top restaurant closed, and the owner and his team came out to the hotel and opened up for two months. Throughout the event, the restaurateur worked within a renovated space, selling high[1]quality dinners and keeping all the revenue for themselves. This was a great deal for them and the hotel, which gets the chance to sell reservations as a special pop-up event to guests. The average daily rate for that hotel exploded because the demand for exquisite meals prepared by world-renowned chefs was incredible. This two-month event sold out in less than two days, which perfectly showcases how an innovative idea can bring a restaurant on the verge of shutting down and reinvigorating it in an entirely different setting.

This collaboration was part of the original pop-up craze that happened in the past decade. We have a similar program for the Independence Day celebration at the Amway Grand Plaza hotel, where we are offering a combination of high-quality accommodations with impeccable dining experiences. A perfect example of this is MDRD, an excellent Spanish restaurant on the 27th floor of the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids. We work with MDRD to create room packages with culinary promotions, helping guests enjoy good food with an incredible view of the Grand River.

By thinking out-of-the-box and doing guest-chef or in-house culinary talent-driven events, hotels can attract newer customer populations, which is especially crucial for hotels looking to remain a ‘destination within a destination’-type business.

Do you believe that food tourism would positively impact the local industries? How can hotels and hospitality businesses take advantage of that?

I think the rise of astro-tourism or food and beverage tourism was at its peak in 2019, which derailed slightly due to the pandemic. But In 2023, hopefully, we are going to reach those levels again as the majority of countries around the world are starting to open up. So, I suspect the demand for food tourism is coming back stronger than ever because we have not been able to do it for some time now. 2022 was a soft opening to this, and I expect 2023 to be the year where the door will open all the way.

As we come out of the pandemic, we can take advantage of this by offering travelers new F&B concepts and ideas, whether it be community events or the vision of making yourself a food destination within a hospitality destination. At AHC, we pride ourselves on offering food and beverage concepts that the local community wants to enjoy. We piggyback on that with hotel guests who come in and want to know where the locals eat and what they say about the Spanish restaurant on the 27th floor of the Amway Grand Plaza.

Hotel guests want to get in on that, which makes your know-how of the local market a critical aspect of winning over new customers. For a hotel, it is a win-win to devise concepts that keep your local community engaged while portraying an attractive experience for travelers visiting Grand Rapids for astro-toursim. Hoteliers must also ensure their ideas balance the two facets and continually incorporate the ‘lessons learned’ into their business model.

We all want to be a business that supports the local community and receives their aid in return, which is possible when hospitality firms focus on building exciting dining experiences, creating unique menus, and establishing an environment guests want to visit multiple times.

As an ending note, what is your advice to your senior leaders and CXOs working in the travel and hospitality sector?

I would say continue to own ‘the bounce back’ and know that a business that is prepared and agile for any changes will reach its desired operational efficiency and market performance. Be happy to have guests back in your restaurants and meeting rooms, and make sure that they know how much you appreciate them.