Many hotels have long-desired to have fine-dining level service in their food and beverage operations and in fact, that was what was originally behind my transition from a free-standing restaurant to hotel manager.

The lure of working in a hotel is surely there for thousands of restaurant professionals today, but it is important to understand that in most hotel settings, even if you are working in a hotel restaurant, the overall atmosphere and expectations are far different in the hotel industry than they are in the restaurant industry.

Now, for some hotels, this conversation is not relevant. That would be properties with legitimate destination restaurants that draw outside diners on a regular basis. The Dallas Omni comes to mind, as it has several restaurants on-site that are successful on their own and they do not rely on the hotel to supply a steady stream of guests. Unfortunately, that is the exception rather than the rule for most hotels.

Changing Your Mindset

The biggest challenge I had when making the transition was the fact the food is no longer the star of the show. Don’t get me wrong, presentation and menu matter, but at my first hotel, the restaurant was initially treated like nothing more than a convenience for the guests.

And while social functions were about the entire experience, most of our meetings and banquets were about room rental and room nights, not the banquet itself. I was brought in to change that, but it took a lot of adjusting my personal mentality because I had to try to change the culture of my staff, the salespeople, and even my direct bosses to an extent.

Concentrate on Service First

In the early stages of my career, as I would expect with most restaurant managers moving over to hotels, I had little influence on the actual menu. Where I was able to make an impression that would help me work my way up through the chain and garner more respect was on the service end of the department. I wanted to change the operation from banquet service you could get at a buffet to restaurant-quality service for every function.

The easiest place to start was with high-end social functions. We put a training program in place to raise the level of service during these functions that rivaled any fine dining restaurant. Guests no longer went to the bar to get drinks during weddings, as our staff waited on them hand and foot during the function. Tables were crumbed between courses and napkins were gathered and folded the moment a guest left their seat. We tried to bring every aspect of what a guest would expect when they sat down to a $200 dinner at a restaurant into our hotel service.

That level of service started to drip down into all our functions, so guests were finally getting real restaurant-level service even though they were “only” at the local Hilton for a lunch banquet. From there, we worked on the presentation, and eventually, we started incorporating items and options on the menus (such as wine service and day-of menu choices) that would allow the staff and the menu to shine rather than simply dropping off food and running into the back room.

Honestly, a restaurant manager with the right attitude can become a rock star in the hotel industry if he or she has the right mindset. It will be challenging at first, but the upside is significantly higher for someone that can rise to the challenges offered by most hotel properties for a food and beverage manager.

Are you considering making the change from restaurants to hotels? Are you getting frustrated because you cannot find the perfect opportunity that will allow you to shine? JDI hotel recruiters has been successfully placing managers in the hotel industry for almost a decade because we work hard to find the ideal position for both the candidate and the property. For more information about our candidate services or to see opportunities currently available, click here.