Attracting Local Guests to Resort Food and Beverage Operations: The Case of the Orlando Resort and Spa

Abstract

Restaurants housed inside lodging operations are often subjected to occupancy fluctuations that minimize revenues during non-peak periods. Attracting local diners to a hotel's food and beverage outlets will mitigate this impact while elevating profit margins. This case study synthesizes marketing and operational practices of a pioneering convention destination for the purpose of demonstrating a real world approach for driving local traffic at hotel restaurants. Primary interviews with the property's executive team provided in-depth insights. It was determined that differentiating product offerings, community involvement, localized advertising, clientele-specific marketing and effective social media coupled with transformational promotion strategies propelled restaurant profits during low occupancy, but that failure to measure promotional strategies was a important weakness.

Keywords:

• hotel and resorts
• marketing strategy
• restaurants
• case study