2021 Hospitality Trends : What changes where implemented by Restaurants + Hotels alike and which of those are staying after 2020/21 Pandemic?
Saying this past year and half was disruptive to hospitality industry is truly an understatement!
Those who were able to keep their doors open pivoted their strategy and implemented some innovative delivery + pick up services. We caught up with our friend Chef Jordan Andino owner of FlipSigi an American-Filipino Taqueria in NYC with new location opening up Jersey City. Some owners like Chef Jordan had one of their best years during the pandemic. While many places were closed during the start of the pandemic, they were able to provide their full menu to their customers to enjoy in their comforts of their own home.
What major thing was implemented to allow people to be safe during the many partial openings of indoor dinning?
Many cities opened indoor dining at partial capacity as they monitored Covid cases, one major thing that was quickly implemented upon partial opening of indoor dining was the enforced social distancing rules this provided an opportunity for guest to visit their favorite F&B locations and still feel safe.
So what where the major implementations below we go through some key take always:
Many places are looking to make things more assessable and efficient for their customers.
1. Express Kitchens/ Ghost Kitchen
The concept of “ghost kitchen” also know as delivery only restaurant/ virtual kitchen or shadow kitchen was taken up a notch.
This term is typically for spaces designated for “kitchen only for places for order and pick up food only. This was the case for all restaurants through 2020 to early 2021. Many places also accepted phone and mobile orders
2. Pick-up/ Walk- up Windows
What can owners do to make this experience more unique? One major feature is the kitchen so why not make that viewable for customers so they can experience all the great smells and sounds. With business required to reduce their capacity due to Covid 19 walk-up pick-up windows were added to many existing restaurants.
We feel this addition will continue to help business have designated area for pick up only and allow better flow at the entrance for those who are waiting to just be seated for indoor or outdoor dining.
Generally, pick up windows pandemic or no pandemic provide customers desire for fast service with limited contact while also keeping your staff inside and out of the elements
You may be saying to yourself pick up windows or areas is not a new concept. Yes, you're correct but we have seen increase these being implemented from 2020 pandemic. As some cities are still experiencing high cases in 2021 while other cities around the world. Are opening fully back up and removing all their covid 19 regulations; we feel this great way to help the flow of everyday operations.
3. Outdoor Pods/Outdoor Dining
During the winter months we saw outdoor dining pods become a thing the question is will these Structures that have been built in cities throughout different location globally be allowed to stay. The answer really lies within each city rules let’s see what the power that be say as we move into our new normal.
Outdoor dining has always been popular though not typically a year-round pursuit in areas that have colder seasons, though the pandemic changed this for merely everyone and their mothers. After months of stay at home orders everyone wanted to be outdoors.
Stay-at-home orders really made us all miss having fresh air.
Though in general cities always have had limitation with outdoor dining though with access to build on many rooftops.
Rooftop dining has increasingly become extremely popular especially if your real-estate sits in location that has views.
No matter what the weather looks like owners of bars and restaurants are truly taking lengths to insure that their bars and restaurant are accessible to their customer to dine 365 days of the year.
How do you elevate your experiences for your rooftop besides having incredible views? Our recommendation is creating an experience and adding plants + umbrellas with pattern, fireplace and outdoor patio heaters or water feature to create more warm and sexy ambiance.
4. Hotels/Guest Rooms
We can’t speak about hospitality without speaking about hotels! Hotels around the world got hit hard during the pandemic.
What we saw in hospitality industry was allot of local or nearby travel so in some case depending on the location there was influx of areas booming and doing well.
In NYC we saw New York natives go out east to Hamptons, Catskills, Mexico, and other locations in Caribbean Summer/Fall + Winter of 2020 and stay for extend period of times long weekend trip turned to 10 day or a month or longer stay.
What does this mean for travel – after post pandemic? Many people will continue to travel and stay at that designated area for longer period, one for safety and two now that many of us have more flexibility to work remotely and literally from anywhere around the globe staying longer is quite fesible.
In other cases, hotels around the world are trying new things - allowing locals to dine in their empty hotel rooms to create privacy and safety and blocking 2-hour time slot for dinners. Talk about thinking outside the box. Not actually recreating just moving a service you typically offer in a restaurant in private space that is being under-utilized. We think this brilliant.
5. Beverages/Mixologist
Other areas of hospitality industry that thrived is beverage portion. Cocktail kits to curated subscription services for drinking at home.
Mixologist were kept at work for these highly curated services that provided their talents and insights to their membership group.
Breweries are partnering with subscription services like Tavour, an app-based business that notifies subscribers immediately when new, highly rated craft beers become available for shipping. For wine bars, a hand-selected bottle with a handwritten note from the in-house sommelier makes a special monthly subscription box for wine lovers. These types of services will continue to become more creative and more sought after in the new year.
We can hardly believe that crafted canned cocktails beverages have been trending and quite popular prior to the pandemic though when the pandemic hit it gave a bigger boost to this option.
From ready to drink cocktails to hard seltzer and canned rose wine - let’s be real – this particular offering/ experience doesn’t scream to us “elevated” though you need to consider the safety benefits of this offering to your customers, a prepackaged beverage verses hand-mixed cocktail defiantly gives one piece of mind.
6. Premium Products
Quality over quantity is another common theme for 2021. All the time spent in quarantine has resulted in many drinkers becoming quite educated about mixing their own cocktails. This truly had a far-reaching impact on the industry due to the educated consumers expect the best and they're willing to pay for premium for those spirits and ingredients.
How can bars take advantage of this shift? Well, by offering a smaller cocktail list that features local, sustainable, or top-shelf spirits. Use illustrative drink descriptions on your menu and don't neglect the mixers. Premium bar ingredients like homemade bitters. and infused simple syrups can elevate the cocktail experience even more.
7. Advanced Online Ordering
Online ordering has gained popularity and is pivotal to reduce contact in the hospitality industry and allow consumers to perform most functions digitally.
Instead of ordering drinks directly from a bartender, online ordering and digital payment can be performed by mobile phone to reduce person-to-person contact. We caught ups with VP of Operations as Vinya Wine and they're doing just this, making wine quick + easy for their customers delivered right to their doorsteps.
In the past, online ordering was commonly used prior to arriving at the destination. As the platforms designed for online ordering become more advanced, we will see enhanced options for bar service along with cafe’s such as Daily Provisions located in Flat Iron district in New York City that use their platform as method of ordering drinks and food onsite.
In 2021 and beyond, we'll see online ordering being used as a method ordering onsite along with more touch-less technology implementation to enhance customer experience, with speed of service while keeping them safe.