Andrew Freeman & Co., a leading hospitality and restaurant consulting firm, released their 2009 Trend Watch List tapping into the pulse of the top restaurant/bar and hotel trends to expect in 2009.
Casualization will be a recurrent theme throughout hotels and restaurants this year. Restaurants will feature shorter menus, dressed down dishes, counter seating, the revival of classic home cooking favorites and an overall neighborhood feeling. Hotels mirror the trend with flexible lobby spaces that lend themselves to business and pleasure; dining, emailing, relaxing, cocktailing, lounging, meeting and dating.
Starwood's aloft brand reflects the
2009 trend of casualization
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Additionally hotels and restaurants will remain flexible in order to give guests exactly what they want, whether it is substituting a salad for a side of fries or offering a magazine library and someone to walk the dog. In 2009, it will be increasingly important to surprise and delight guests with secret offerings and stellar service that meet their needs before they realize them.
“Clear messaging is essential for effective marketing efforts this year more than ever," expert Andrew Freeman advises. "Both hotels and restaurants will need to thoroughly examine and define their brands.”
From the marketing standpoint, the biggest trend will be new partnerships to expand outreach and cut costs. In the past year, we saw the growth of social networking sites, and in 2009, utilizing the most modern technology - email marketing, social media, i-phone applications - to spread the word effectively, efficiently and economically, will be increasingly important.
2009 Trends To Watch List
Business Boons: Hotel & Restaurant Trends
Dining Room Secrets
Don’t tell anyone but secret surprises from off the menu signature dishes and cocktails, to inside-track incentives and exclusive invites are sneaking up in restaurants and hotels.
Mix & Match to Lift & Separate
Hotel and restaurant operators are taking advantage of strategic partnerships with everyone from beverage vendors to charities to extend outreach and share costs.
Techie-Color Dreamcoat
Restaurants and hotels are developing personalities on social networking sites and will be developing content for phone applications getting on the bandwidth wagon using email marketing, yelping, blogging, and other methods to spread the word.
Layer-On the Green
Green is not going anywhere, and what was once a trend is now the standard. Hotels and restaurants are riding the green wave by recycling, conserving energy and sourcing sustainable foods.
Custom-Tailored
Hotels and restaurants will be more and more likely to comply with guest requests as loyalty becomes increasingly important and service needs to be stellar. The guest can have the side dish, wine glass size and mini-bar offerings of choice.
The Un-Uniform
Uniforms are anything but as hotels and restaurants partner with designers to develop a streamlined, consistent look, elevating the culture of the brand and giving people something to talk about.
“Stay”ing Alive: Hotel Trends
The Rating Game
Hotels will be fighting to keep competitive in a challenging economy; expect unique incentives, special offers and price fluctuations.
Loyal, Loyal, Toil & Trouble
Hotels are evaluating loyalty programs, developing creative packaging and upping the ante on amenities to lure guests in an ever-increasing escalation of the loyalty wars.
The Dish on Niche
Hotels are examining guests’ predilections and proclivities to have specific recommendations or itineraries at the ready from gay clubs to swank shops or which wineries to visit.
Regress to De-Stress
In these tough economic times guests are looking for comfort and ways to relax and unwind. Hotels hit home by offering hot chocolate bars, milk and cookies at bedtime, cozy slippers and massage jets in the bath.
The Spandex of Spaces
It’s a bar, it’s a lounge, it’s a café and a workspace; a social meeting room, a restaurant and even an event space - it’s the new hotel lobby.
From Myspace to the Common Space
Hotels are creating social networking opportunities for guests with wine hours, game nights, poolside parties and social events in the common spaces.
LEED the Way
As corporate buildings have been slower to go green, hotels are the forefront of LEED certification installing low flow toilets, automatic lights and decreasing water use; saving money and precious resources by reducing consumption.
Running Strong
Fitness concierges, organized exercise activities, wii yoga and customizable programs keep hotels at the top of their game.
Check In…To Check Out
Hotels grab the staycation market with special day-packages featuring fitness and spa facilities, special deals on museums and exhibits, tours and culinary classes for the whole family - here in SF, it's the "bay-cation."
Eating It Up/Drinking It Down: Restaurant & Bar Trends
Dress It Down
New restaurants focus on a casual environment offering carafes of wine and dishes that your mother might have made in family-style settings, creating a place where guests feel at home even when they go out.
Maximize Your Assets
Restaurants are opening for additional meal periods and offering limited menus during off peak hours - adding a happy hour or a late-night second round "cocktails and desserts" hour.
Scattered Logic
Menu items fall into an array of portion sizes and across a range of categories for a scattered approach. I’ll have a “Nibble” of olives, a “Starter” of ceviche and a flat bread “To Share.”
Neighborhood Night
Restaurants will be reaching out to neighbors and building local loyalty with casualized weekly specials designed to draw regular guests with events like "Meatball Mondays" or a family style "Sunday Supper."
Meet Your Meat
From “Head to Tail” dinners to whole roasted fish, eating the entire animal has become an event. Now you can meet your meat, and often the guy who raised it.
Counter Culture Revolution
Restaurants forgo tables for counter seating overlooking the kitchen. Diners like the casual option of no reservation seating and social dining and watching the chefs at work.
Uncle Sam vs. Aunt Jemima
Restaurants are constantly adopting their menu choices to keep in line with government regulations influencing cooking methods like sous vide, calorie posting, and ingredients like foie gras and trans fats.
Giving the Finger
Finger foods and foods you can eat with your hands proliferate as guests look for comforting, easy, and approachable menu items.
Field-ing Inquires
Chefs and farmers develop personal and profitable relations as chefs request custom grown vegetables and farmers unload a glut of produce for a profit when chefs find a creative use for it.
Sexy Lounge-erie
Flexible lounges blur the line between the dining room and the bar allowing guests a comfortable and relaxed place to drink, people watch, and order in increments as the evening progresses.
Split Personality
They say it’s a wine bar, but really it’s a restaurant – a serious one. Restaurants forgo the name for more casual monikers—it’s happening here and in Europe.
Small Is Big
Small space, short menu, hot concept! Tiny restaurants with only a few items on the menu are big news.
Taking it to the Street
Popular restaurants take to the street, opening their own stands and redefining street food. Seoul Food anyone?
Members Only Jackets
Restaurants and bars boast an exclusive club atmosphere: reservations essential and special members only areas - they’ll even let you store your stash for your next visit.
Airport Cuisine Takes Off
Higher end dining establishments are opening outlets in airports. Now you can get a real meal before you leave the ground or a bento to go.
Raising the Bar: Beverage Trends
Shaken or Sparkling
Sparkling wine cocktails are light, refreshing, and flavorful and popping up on menus all around.
Waiter, There’s Something in my Drink
From tapioca pearls to preserved hibiscus flowers, even spherical orbs of Cointreau; cocktail garniture gets creative.
Organic and Biodynamic Beverages
Growing methods and farming practices used to be reserved to the menu but now wine lists designate sustainable selections, adding green to the list of reds and whites.
All Shook Up
Bartenders are adding egg white and shaking – hard, for frothy cocktails of yore done today. We’re flipping over these eggy delights.
Breakfast Cocktails
They may go down smooth, but they are no smoothie – these so called hangover cures can give you a buzz if you drink too many, but brunch with these benefits brings in the biz.
More Information
2009 Trend Watch List
Click here to download a PDF file of the complete 2009 Trend Watch List
