In any hotel food outlet and in particular when buffet spreads are offered, it is important to push beverage sales along with the food offering.

Consider that a quality buffet offers you a soup, salad, entree, dessert and a drink all for a fair price. This strategy provides a balanced meal, enhances sales mix and revenues and boosts profitability.

This is the Buffet spread philosophy.

It is predominantly a sales mix matter. The principle of bundling more than one product is an age old marketing strategy.

Take for example the ubiquitous McDonald’s Value Meal Bundle �" Fries and Soda are offered along with the main food item for a value bundle price.

This is to the benefit of the customer. For the vendor, It helps push sales of 3 products instead of one. A classic Win Win situation.

In the case of hotel food and beverage items, there is similarly a silver lining. Selling four items (soup, salad, entree and dessert) instead of one has enormous benefits. 

Contribution margins are enhanced, service employees can be reduced with a buffet spread laid out and revenues are boosted.

Moreover, beverage costs are much lower than food costs and tend to boost profitability through contribution margin.

The buffet spreads in hotels are their version of the McDonald’s Value Meal bundle. You get a soup, salad, entree, dessert and a drink all for a fair bargain price compared to an a la carte order of these items individually.

In this case, there is something that even the McDonald’s bundle cannot offer �" unlimited consumption of food and beverage items.You can always keep going back to the buffet for more helpings. A unique Win Win situation again.

S Lakshmi Narasimhan is the Founder of Ignite Insight LLC a New York City based consultancy, which specializes in Group Executive Training, Coaching and Consulting.

Prior to founding his company, Mr. Narasimhan was the Vice President Finance of an award winning Hong Kong headquartered luxury hotel chain - Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts. He has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry (14 in a senior corporate level) and has held diverse portfolios from a hotel Financial Controller to a group level Human Resources position, head of Corporate Internal Audit and head of Corporate Financial Systems. His career is epitomized by new and challenging roles.

Mr. Narasimhan has designed and developed a series of 2-Day Finance Courses titled “Optimizing Hotel Profits,” “Restaurant Profits A La Carte” and so on for non-financial managers in the hospitality industry, which he delivers personally. The unique aspects of the course presentations are: jargon free, simplified financial concepts, use of visual teaching methods through color, shapes and movement to reinforce and cement learning, practical exercises in budgeting and financial analysis and many more.

Mr. Narasimhan runs an online financial academy called Cloud Academy �" Master Numbers without a Degree. Visit www.elearningcloudacademy.com for details on the courses that are offered. These courses are self-paced, easy to understand in an inter-active, blended learning environment.

Mr. Narasimhan teaches Hospitality Finance, Business Development, Financial Management courses during the Spring and Fall semesters as an adjunct faculty member at the New York University, School of Professional Studies, Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism. Mr. Narasimhan can be contacted at 201-253 5000 (US Cell), narasimhan@ignite-insight.biz or at LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/slakshminarasimhan