Exploring Restaurant Technologies in Hotels: A Conversation with Scot Turner of Auden Hospitality

But scott, for those that aren't familiar with who you are, why don't you introduce yourself and then we can talk about what you get to do for a living.

And we work with hoteliers To go in and look at where the opportunities are for their F and B, proposition. So whether that's a new builds and we look at how we define the F and B strategy or whether that's going into existing operations and looking at where maybe the performance isn't quite hitting the mark that they expect. And we bring our experience of working across various different countries and continents to help bring those opportunities, to grow their performance as well.

also got an F and B inside a newsletter, which sits on sub stack. And every week I give, Tips and tricks to F& B directors, F& B leaders on how they can think differently about some of those little bits that we bring to, we bring to our projects every single day to just try and help add value as much as possible.

And then it feels like we went through a period where it was a necessity, not necessarily a differentiator. And now they're struggling to figure out their way. But if you could take us back just a little bit, you've been in the space for quite some time. Talk to me about how hotel. hotel owners, hotel operators thought about F and B and how it was truly part of the experience that you were there, especially the higher you get into, four and five star type properties.

and it was really the place that people aspired to, to be, that could attract the best chefs that could attract the best bar people that could attract the best talent on the market. And, it was, they were the ones who used to bring innovation. to the F and B space. I think over time what's happened, I think, we've become an entrepreneurial society.

So I think when you're looking at chefs and you're looking at some of these bar guys, the can't get the step into the right Location or the right place with hotels. Maybe the system doesn't work quite right in terms of giving them opportunities. funding cash property has become a lot more available and therefore they have that entrepreneurial spirit to go out and do their own thing. And that's why I think we've seen a surge of really. Good independent restaurants. I'm based in London.

We have some of the best restaurants in the world, New York, LA, some of these places, Miami has got some amazing restaurants now as well. So I think. What happens then is over time, hotels have become a little stale. They've stuck in the ways they haven't evolved with time. And because of that, now they're not seen as being cool. So unless you're going into one of the top five star luxury hotels, you're in a B location.

and you've got the stigma around the hotel side of things and walking through lobbies and things like that. So actually it's much more cooler to have a, a restaurant sitting on a street. Or a sidewalk that's in the middle of, say, Soho in London or, Hell's Kitchen in New York or, Brickle in Miami, those type of places. because that's where people love to go and eat now and go in bars and visit, 30, 40 seat outlets that sit there.

And, when people ask me to describe what I mean by that, I always use one example of, of the all day dining lounge. And I did a post on this recently, the all day dining lounge hasn't changed in the 25 years. I've been in the business now, and I first started out in hotels in, I think it was 1998 as a silver service waiter, the all day dining lounge, I think it was called the Palm Court lounge, was still there serving teas. It was in an environment that might have a grand piano in there.

playing classical music and it was all very well to do. and that hasn't evolved. You can still go into hotels now and it's still very much the same. If you're on the high street. And you want to go get a coffee, you want to work remote, you want to go and meet people and what have you. People now would rather go to speciality coffee shops or brunch places than they would to go to hotels. Why?

Because they're going to these places, there's a great vibe, they get served quickly, there's no pomp and circumstance, there's plugs in every socket, on every table, so if you're going in there to work, you know that you can get a seat. And you'll go into a hotel and you won't be able to get a plug in a socket because it's always those ramping house plugs for the lights, which drive people crazy. the service is all a bit too slow because it's all a bit kind of hotel y and a bit fine.

And, generally the product isn't up to the standard of what you would have in a specialty coffee shop. I think that's a classic example of where hospitality and hotels just hasn't particularly evolved with the times, and therefore now I think they're left behind trying to play catch up and it's a lot more difficult for them to do that because they can't attract the best talent because they're not the cool kids on the block anymore. Maybe they don't have the right innovation.

Maybe it's too much of a risk to start changing and renovation projects and things. yeah, lots of factors that go into it, but I just think over time. They stood still and maybe rested on the laurels a little bit too much and haven't evolved. And I think if you go to some of the best hotels now, they have done that and they have evolved and they have started to look at things very differently to, to do that.

The other thing I would ask that, that we talk a little bit about is the foodie culture, the Instagram culture, the idea that you've got to have something with an experience. You and I were having a chat via LinkedIn the other day about, some of the conversations you've been having, there's this idea that the guests want to share their experience, but it's got to be something special.

And if it's the standard, scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon for breakfast that does nothing for the instagram culture that does nothing for creating anything that's a wow for those guests. Talk to me a little bit about how hotels had thought about it in the past. It was a necessity versus where the world has gotten and why we think that, why we think they're so far behind and I think they, they need to spend some time and energy and, look to brands like yours to help them out with that.

Technology to be able to do it. But why did you go to those restaurants? Because it was special occasion. You're left with amazing memories. if you went there, you knew you could show off to a business partner or a partner or some, or something like that. So it was always there. It was just never, we were just never able to record it like we can today.

I think when we go into any project and it's a timely conversation, this because I had this conversation with a director of sales and marketing yesterday in a five star hotel that we're working with, and we were talking about how we can diversify the content and make it more authentic, because right now it's all a bit Paused it's very much forced. There's always an empty restaurant because, GDPR here in the UK, they're scared to take pictures of people and things like that.

And I was talking about, I listened to a podcast with Gary V the other day and he was like, 2024 is the year of the lives. what can you do in your business to go live? And I was having the conversation with them to say, why don't we just set up a tripod with a phone? And we just go live on TikTok or Instagram, wherever the customer is. And we just let it run for an hour and they just see busy restaurant, people going past, it doesn't have to focus on anyone.

Their immediate response back to that. And I'm coming at this from a hotel point of view is they start thinking about the bigger brand. They start thinking about the hotel brand and Stop thinking about the restaurant and how restaurant and people who go to restaurants think very differently. And that's why I always advocate that your restaurants and bars should be run separately to the hotel. They should have their own identity. They should have their own story.

They should have their own tone of voice, their own market and their own marketing team. Because you can't treat the two the same. So to go live in a restaurant, people love to see it. People love to see restaurants working. it's what you do. And it's, if that's going to get people clicking on and getting into their memories, then it's something you should definitely look at strategically.

And I think, from that, then we always go into menu development and concept development, and we always talk about user generated content. And back to that foodie thing, we always look at menus and go, okay, what are the items on this menu that customers are going to take pictures off because it's so important. I think we're in a stage now where people want all this authenticity. People want to see what's genuine. People want to see real life.

So if you have a timeline full of pictures that you've done with your photographer, that's very official looking, it's not going to turn a customer on anymore. They're more likely to go to the tag section and look at what customers are, or guests are tagging in your restaurant and make decisions based on that. So I think you have to really look at that user generated content, what dishes are going to stand out. And when they do, we always, make a dish.

and we did this in a tasting the other day, we had a tiramisu, and we made the dish and we put it at the table. And we asked 10 different people to come and take a picture of it. And we made sure that every single one of them could take a picture that we would be happy to put on social media. And if it, if they can, we go back and redevelop it so that we can get the shot because that is now your image that's going out.

So you have to play the plating to the worst photographer that can come into the restaurant so that your food is always looking good. So it's not about Being gimmicky or anything like that. It's just about creating those moments. we opened a bakery in 2021. we got to 25, 000 followers from zero on Instagram, baked on, based on a lemon meringue croissant. And it was a croissant with lemon curd in the middle. It had torch meringue on top and we just made sure it went everywhere.

We made sure it just got reposted. We were making sure it was going viral and it just snowballed and the brand literally took off based on this one product. It's really important that user generated content. And I think we always did it. We just couldn't record it like we can today.

We were at a different event across town, but we drove 30 minutes and torrential downpour to go have this experience based on what you're talking about. And to me that the experience exceeded my expectations.

And it was, I looked at the partner that was actually buying my meal that had invited me to dinner and he goes, yeah, that was a very expensive meal, but it was well worth it because we've continued to talk about it where again, Scott, I know that this is part of your business, but I want our restaurants. And our hotels to think about this, because this is part of what makes up your brand.

And when it is just an afterthought, it's no different than making sure that the rooms are cleaned, that the front desk is available when you need them. All of these are part of the experience. And any one of those things can ultimately. hinder the guest experience. If I've just got crappy food or I've got crappy service inside of the restaurant, it ultimately brings that brand image down. And so how should restaurants and hotels be thinking about that experience?

in that regard, I know you've talked about it quite a bit, creating that instagrammable moment. But what is the downside of not even not only not creating an instagrammable moment, but having poor service, having poor experience and not delivering what the guests might want.

It's to create memorable experiences for people, and that could be a holiday in that has a businessman going there, and it just makes their business trip away from home as easy as possible, or it could be the Beverly Hills Hotel or the, the Ritz Carlton where someone's going for a special occasion and they want to remember it forever and ever because it was their anniversary. So fundamentally you. you have to create memorable experiences and you have to create long lasting memories for people.

And I think that's sometimes where we get too bogged down in everything else going on that, that we forget about that. So when we've already talked about at the start of the show, about how there's a stigma around hotels because they've lost the way and in the main and they're not delivering. If you're operating a hotel restaurant, you're already behind the guy down the street in terms of attracting people.

So you have to go out of your way to create great food items, great drinks that people will take pictures of, people will remember. But you've also got to deliver that personalized experience as well. And that's becoming much more prominent in projects that we're working on is going, okay, how do we acquire the guest once, but retain them long term because of what we do while they're in the restaurant, but also while they're out of the restaurant. So what do we do before they come?

That makes them really excited to visit. And then when they leave, what can we do to make sure that they come back again and again, and they don't forget about us? And that's where we've started really automating the process of pre and post arrival, for the guest to really start talking to them and building up that relationship and focusing on retention, because it's become a big part. So we've played a big part of that in all of our outlets.

And then my other advice to people is never create a hotel restaurant for hotel guests. Ever

You won't be asking them to stay in your restaurant. It's a very different mindset. And I always say to people, if you start focusing on the hotel guests too much, you start looking at the amenity side of things and, the one, everything on the menu, because you have different cultures coming in. So how do we appease them? When you look at the local community, you go, this is the concept that the local community want, and we're very sure about it.

And maybe a hotel guest might not like it, but that doesn't matter because the hotel. The restaurant's full, so we don't need every hotel guest to like it anymore. and it just honestly makes you think really differently about it. So my, my underlying thing on, on it would be focus on the local community. That will help you build value. It will help you continually innovate because you have to keep them coming back again and again. And then really look at how you can personalize experience.

And we'll probably talk about tech and how we do that in a bit, but it really does make a big difference to people. Now, when you. When they feel like you're talking to them and them alone and not just a blanket email shot that's coming out.

And they do a fantastic job because they do sushi really well. They're known for their sushi and they become the brand that becomes, the way that they go about it. What's your philosophy on, on building partnerships with a local brand that might be able to enhance that guest experience and you don't have to do all of the investment. You may lose a little bit of margin here and there, but you know that the guests are going to get something special when they're there eating at your establishment.

It's the same. If you're looking at an outsourced partner or bringing in a license deal or something like that, and then once you do that. I think it's about understanding how many outlets you've got. Is it one partner that takes over the whole operation? Or is it just one outlet in silo? And then you'll look after the others. and that goes back to that curation piece.

And then once you do that and you identify that you might want to bring a partner in, I would say that nine tenths of the success is about relationship. It's about finding partners that truly understand what your needs are as a hotel, because hotels do have needs. they have room service, they have banqueting, they have breakfast. And if you're taking on a hotel operation fully, you need to understand what that means, because it's not easy. But you also need to understand.

how the hotels operate, how purchasing operates, how the little intricacies operate, how the marketing for the hotel operates, because they'll need you as the restaurant guy to help them with that, to entertain guests and things. So it's about as a restauranteur really understanding how a hotel operates and then. From a hotelier's perspective, it's about getting with that partner and making sure that you are completely on the same page.

Don't look at a brand and go just because it's the best restaurant in town. I need that person in my hotel, because if the relationship doesn't work, it's not going to, it's not going to be successful. We, we opened an Alan DeCasse restaurant in Dubai, in a form of life and, the owner just didn't understand what it took to run an Alan DeCasse restaurant. From a cost perspective, and it was so challenging managing the brand and managing the owner and trying to find a happy place in the middle.

So it's just a prime example of understand the cost, understand what it takes for the restaurant to operate, understand what their standards are as much as yours and find the partnership that works. If that takes a little bit longer, it's the right thing. It's the right thing to do for both sides of the fence. so I'm a big believer in. Outsourced chefs or brands coming in to help the hotel proposition. I think in the right environment, it's absolutely the right thing to do.

I think if, a hotel group or the hotel in particular doesn't have a desire to operate F& B and they'd rather just lease the space and take the rent and offer the support to the hotel, to the restauranteur. I think that's the absolute right thing to do from a commercial perspective. But equally, if you don't want to give away the reins, It's not going to work if you start handing it over to it, to another brand who has their own brand values and things like that to operate.

So it has to be done, properly, it has to be well considered. but the relationship is always the key thing for me to make sure that's a hundred percent nailed on. And there's some great examples around the world. Is it God and Ramsey is a great example of that. I worked for the Dorchester collection. Alan DeCasse has been there for years. Wolfgang Puck, in a couple of their restaurants has been there for years as well.

when it goes right, it can be a real longstanding relationship that develops and grows together. but when it goes wrong, it can be equally as, as challenging as running your own operation.

How are you going to solve that? Does your product even do well going to room service or does it only do well towards, serve table side? How are you going to deal with room charges and all of those kind of things from the, because some many, especially in the higher end places, they want to be able to just charge it to their room. They don't want to have to carry cash or carry a, carry a wallet to be able to charge these things. And so you've got to make sure that's part of the guest experience.

Scott, I'm going to pivot here for a second because you were telling me a story before we hit the record button. Of a recent trip that you were on, and you've talked about the local community. People have no shortage of places to eat. Everybody needs to eat the shortages, unless you're in the Maldives or you're stuck somewhere and you don't have transportation. But even then.

With the advent of DoorDash and Uber Eats and GrubHub and Caviar and all these different tools out there, there's so many different ways to get food. Years ago, I've traveled for 25 years, there was times when I didn't have a car, somebody dropped me off at the hotel, the only option I had was room service or going down to the lobby and going to whatever was open at the time. Whereas now. You can get food delivered to you anywhere in the world. Essentially.

Talk to me a little bit about how that has changed what the value proposition needs to be from a guest experience within the hotel.

And if you as a hotel cannot deliver that, then people will not enjoy the stay as much because it's not convenient. And we always go into projects and spaces and we walk around and we talk to the team and we talk to guests and look at the operation and we look at where it's difficult for guests to spend money and that's our benchmark. How easy is it in every single touch point for that guest to spend money and where is the opportunity to make it easier?

So two examples, one room service, you go to room service. If you don't have QR codes or a way for digital ordering now in, in rooms, you are losing out on orders and you're losing out on. Average check. And, I work with, a company called Iris, that are global, based out of the UK, but the global that work with W hotels, Marriott hotels, Disney, world resorts, they have some amazing stats about uptaking orders when you implement digital ordering in bedrooms and increasing average check.

So even if. You are against it. The commercial decision would say it's the right thing to do. But, if we go into detail on it, people don't necessarily want to pick up phones and order anymore because they don't have to. It's not like the old days when you used to ring, the pizzas. Place or, dominoes, Papa John's and you'd be like there and I'd go pick it up or the guy would deliver. You can just go on the app and order it and someone will bring it.

So what you're asking to do in a hotel bedroom, if you don't have QR ordering, is you're asking people to now do something differently to what they're doing at home. And when I think about hotels, I think. aspirational. I never think you should get something worse in a hotel than you have at home. That's from the pillow all the way through to being able to order your room service. So if I can go on DoorDash, I can go on Uber and I can order my burger. I want to be able to do that in a hotel.

and I think it's just, it's becoming so necessary now that those who don't have it, really losing out. And I think they'll lose future stays because of it. My second example on it is, and back to the example that you shared is I was recently in Sydney. I was in Australia for a few weeks. I was recently in Sydney. I stayed in a five star hotel, right in downtown Sydney.

And, they had a roof, Pool on the 8th floor and we walked up to this pool and as I walked in, there was the trash bin and it was full of McDonald's, wrappers. I was thinking to myself, that's really strange to have a bin full of McDonald's wrappers in the hotel. So I was looking round and, It was just incredibly difficult for people to order. So the process or the sequence of service of ordering was to ring a phone that looked as though it was an emergency telephone.

If someone was drowning phone down to the lobby has to be put through to room service, order your products, and then your products would come up later. It wasn't attended by a waiter or anything like that. And you looked at all these tables. There wasn't even a menu on the table.

You looked at the tables and thought, a simple QR code now would eliminate all those McDonald's wrappers, which doesn't look good from a brand perspective, you would increase revenue in a space where you're making no revenue right now, and you're not adding any labor. Because you still need the same guy to bring it up anywhere, and you're increasing the average check of the total revenue per available room from your hotel guests, not to mention leaving memorable experiences.

So it's just a couple of examples of where hoteliers, Do what they've always done, rest on the laurels, back to those things again, and they don't necessarily, look at where they can use tech to come in and make life easier. another example, we were in a hotel, we implemented a reservation system. So we use seven rooms in all of our.

Projects and I can explain why in a bit if that makes sense, but, they have the stripe integration, which means you can take a credit card so that if there's cancellation, no shows, you can charge the guests. But more importantly, and what I like to use it for is days like Christmas Day, day like Valentines, where you want to make sure that your inventory is going to turn up, you can prepay. And it makes it really easy because you don't need people to do it.

It's a seamless experience for the guest and you're capturing the revenue. and I had to do a five page deck. To say what benefit that stripe integration could have for the finance person to go in and set up that stripe integration, a hotel, a restaurant wouldn't even think about that. They would just go and sell the stripe. and I know I'm

and hoteliers to really optimize tech in their business, and help deliver revenue and make life easier on the teams.

DoorDash Uber Eats have done a fantastic job of getting food to you and letting you know when it's coming and what the experience is going to look like. Uber and Lyft have done a great job From a transportation perspective of getting you that if hotels can't be on that same page, I'm going to go a different way. And so where are some of the areas where you see people also need to make, is it in the communication pieces on F and B?

Because that's where I see, not only do I not know that I can't get it, but I also have this fear, quite frankly, when I order room service to what is it? Can I be here in 30 minutes? Is it gonna be here in an hour? Is it gonna be here in an hour and a half? And so for me, that's always my fear when I travel is I know, because I can expect door to hash when it's going to be there because I ordered it. I know what I'm paying.

I know what the experience is going to be like, and I don't necessarily know that. Talk to me a little bit about the future and where you see people's investment, because again, I choose hotels based on some of those amenities. Do they have a gym? Do they have keyless entry? Do they have early check in? I'm loyal to one brand, but at the same time, I want to make sure that, and I look through those things before I go experiences.

I look at what their food experience is going to look like, but talk to me a little bit about where you see the future investment. Not only are they so far behind, But for those that are already really winning in this space, Scott, where can you see the investment going and how do you see that, how do you see that manifesting in the guest experience?

amenity focused in what they can get. And then if you can capture them, you can make them brand loyal after. So I think it's flipped a little bit. I think, we spoke about it, but I think those people in rooms, and room service have got to be offering digital ordering now. And what I would say is when you're sitting there with your vendors, make sure that you're benchmarking it against who people would use at home. For example, the DoorJash, the group of.

Look at the features that you do when you're going through an experience on the digital experience on one of those platforms and make sure it can be replicated on the vendor that you go with, because that's what your, that's the benchmark of your guest. So if it can't say I'm going to be there in 30 minutes, if it doesn't give updates when it's leaving the kitchen, because it's integrated with your e post properly, all those things make a big difference to the guest.

Because like you say, instead of sitting there going, Oh, should I get in the shower, or is my food going to come? You can go, I can get in the shower cause I know when my food's coming. And if it comes any earlier, it's going to tell me, so I'm not ever going to get caught out at the door with the room service guy. So I think that's the thing is look at the benchmarks in the market and look at whether the vendors you're working with do it on there as well.

And I'm sure, I've, I think I've heard it on your show before. I'm sure you're an advocate for it is if you look for a platform and some of those non negotiables aren't there. Keep looking, speak to colleagues, listen to shows like this, go to conferences and get the platform that works because it's really difficult to take out a platform that's not working and implement a new one because your team start losing confidence and faith and your guests start losing confidence and faith as well.

for an extra couple of months, don't take a system that's got 90 percent of the features that you need. Wait for the one for 100 percent because it will be out there. It's just about finding it. So that's the other one. Then I think, for me, it's about that communication with the guest as you touched on and we touched on it with seven rooms. I think there's a lot more that can be done, especially from some of the big brands in terms of really messaging food and beverage in.

Pre arrival emails, because I don't think it's done properly. And I get why they have a global standard of how the arrival email should look like and the website should look like. But how many times do you go on one of the big brands websites, go to the hotel and it tells you absolutely nothing about the restaurant or bar, or if it does, it's the elevator pitch with one image and you're left trying to work out what's going on.

and I think that's where they can make some big, Differences from a guest perspective to help keep those, get those people excited about visiting the restaurant. And then obviously, the biggest turnoff for a local guest or a non hotel guest is to go on a, Marriott Hilton intercontinental, a car website that's got a really bland restaurant page on it. It just doesn't attract anyone. And then.

sitting inside food and beverage and what can food and beverage do, I would automate as many tasks as you can back of house to get your team front of house. So if your chef is spending too much time counting stock, get him an inventory system that can scan barcodes or has QR codes on again that can automatically do it. So he can pass that off to a junior member of staff who might need development and get the chef on the floor in front of guests and talking to people.

The same, for labor cost and timesheets and things like the purchase orders, automate it and get your people back on the floor because that's where they'll make the revenue and that's where they'll make guests happy. And it means they can spend more time with them. and then, we touched on it with seven rooms, but I'd really put a lot of effort into as part of that automation, how can you automate guest experience so that your team don't even have to understand.

That stuff is happening in the background and it's working. I'll give you a classic example. I was showing the, the director of sales and marketing yesterday on seven rooms. So we have an automation set up on seven rooms in the restaurant that when someone cancels after one week, they get an email automatically from the system that's preset. That says, we're really sorry. You had to cancel last week. If you're making plans again this weekend, why don't you give us a try?

Here's a private booking link and we'll make sure that you get special attention. We've made, per month in the last four months of it being implemented, we've made about 4, 000 pounds. So what's that about? 5, 000 probably in revenue a month. Just from that one email from where people have canceled and obviously got the email and gone, actually, that's a really nice touch. Let's book to go there next week. And it just shows that attention.

And again, seven rooms is linked to the EPOS so I can start seeing some of that data and I can start really tracking it. But how can you automate personalization to really get the guests to understand that you value their custom and you value their loyalty and you can turn them into fans for the. Business because once you do, they'll keep coming again and again.

And then the challenge with that is how do you tell seven rooms that after every fifth visit, they get a special message from the restaurant manager that says, thank you for coming five times. Next time you come in, have a glass of champagne on me because we really value your custom and all those little things then start adding up and you start really. creating a real base of business on there.

the other one on seven rooms that, and I don't want to plug them too much, but, it's just good examples and lots of other reservation systems do this as well. But, we send feedback forms to every single guest. if it's constructive, it comes straight back to the restaurant manager. We deal with it straight away. if it's positive, they get asked to put a review on Google and TripAdvisor.

and the stats that we've got in some of our restaurants in terms of, Google reviews, frequency before to after is a significant increase. So again, from a social proof perspective, it helps convert some of those people who thinking about coming might've seen some of that user generated content and just need that little final tip over the edge. Getting lots of reviews every week definitely helps with that.

use that automation, personalize experience, help with your social proof, help with your marketing. and it really does make a big difference. And, I always talk about how. I worked in hotels for 15 years and I moved into independent restaurants for nine years and learned how to run restaurants properly in the nine years more than the 15. That's one of the things that great restauranteurs do that hoteliers still don't do in every location. Effectively is that whole.

Personalization and using the reservation systems, not as a booking engine, but as a revenue tool and a yielding tool and an inventory tool that can help them drive revenue, but at the same time, creating amazing, memorable experiences for the guest before they've even arrived or after they've gone.

To go beyond room service and just making a reservation at the main dining room, type of deal. There's lots of different ways that you can engage with those guests, deliverable, memorable experiences, and ultimately drive, top line revenue.

you've had Troy Hooper on here, Pepper Lunch restaurants, installation of kiosks, McDonald's installation of kiosks and click and collect and order on the app and things like that, I, what you've got to remember in hotels is I'm not saying it's right in every single hotel because absolutely in Ritz Carlton, if you walk in and there's a kiosk there, you're going to be like what's going on, but in the right type of hotels, things like that can make a massive difference to it. To stay.

So we work with a hotel group called the social hub based out of Amsterdam. They've got 19 hotels in Europe. we just did a grab and go concept for them. Their target market is lifestyle hotel, and they've got student accommodation. We have a grab and go concept, which is very much kind of specialty coffee shop stroke Delhi. and within that we built, order ahead, click and collect into there.

student app so people can order in the bedrooms, come down on the way to go and study and then just grab the coffee that's sitting there waiting. But equally we have, we have, the kiosk sitting in there as well so that people can just go up and use the kiosk and drop in their order. And then. Because it's a student hotel, they've got lots of people in there that's going through it 24 hours a day. And we looked at vending machines for some of the kind of 24 hour items that you would want.

You come back from a night out, you want maybe one more beer or some munchies or something like that. and we looked at kind of high end vending machines, which. On the market now, that whole space has really developed and it isn't just the cheesy ones used to get in the swimming pools and things like that anymore. You can really give it a luxury feel with the right product placements inside with the right curation of the items to deliver a service 24 hours a day that is still on brand.

That's some other examples. I saw a post the other week about, and I'm actually speaking to the company next week about how you can do a similar sort of thing to Amazon fresh, and Amazon go, but in a hotel in a smaller version. So there's that convenience piece there.

So again, if you've got underutilized spaces that aren't being used, to put something like that in again, in the right location, Could be a great revenue earner, and it doesn't need manning because it's all looked after from a tech perspective. and then if we go out to, beach clubs and pool sides, we're working with a hotel right now. They've got 280 beds.

Their format right now is, if you want to order you go up to the Counter and you order food and when we were going in, everyone, we spoke to whether it was the guests and they have 5, 000 leisure members there as well. So whether it was guests, whether it was team, whether it was management, everyone was frustrated by queues. So again, we looked at, we looked there at how we can install digital menu boards so that when people are queuing.

They can see the menu quicker, we can start using it for day partying and we can start looking at how we utilize promotions to drive spend. We've looked at QR ordering on the beds so that we can, get orders out to people and they're not waiting to queue. And more importantly with that is we're starting to get second drinks. We split counters so that we've got drinks out of one and food out of the other.

We've got the QR code so we can get the upsell revenue instead of someone having to go wait 20 minutes in a bathing suit. To order a coke, for example, so we're looking at all those touch points of what frustrates the guest, what slows them down back to where I said before, you know what, where is it difficult for people to buy and what would they like to see and look at how you can bring. Some of those elements and digitize them so that it doesn't take extra resource.

It makes it more efficient, and this isn't about cutting staff. This is about putting the staff where they needed the most, which is talking to guests and interacting with guests and going back to that old fashioned hospitality, because that's the bit that people are going to remember, because right now, if you make it difficult for them, that's the bit to remember, not the other side of it. So you can put as many people on the floor as you want, but if you still make it difficult to buy.

That is the bit that the guest will remember, not the other side. yeah, so we're doing quite a lot at the minute. We're quite tech focused, we like to digitize things where it makes sense, but still retain the old fashioned hospitality that everyone knows and loves from staying in hotels or being in restaurants and bars as well.

How can they engage with your firm or yourself personally to learn more about how you might be able to help them, their hotel, their whole, their restaurant brand to implement some of the stuff that you're talking about.

A conversation about how we can improve F and B because it's something that I'm super passionate about.