Banquets/catering generates the highest percentage of revenue at 44.1%, followed by outlets (such as restaurants) with 27.4% and service charges with 11.6%.

　　Jerry Cataldo has food on the brain. The president and CEO of Hostmark Hospitality Group is not particularly hungry. Rather, he’s conducting due diligence on a handful of properties, each of which requires a potential rebalancing of its food-and-beverage operations.

　　“We’re going through an analysis right now where a hotel that’s being acquired needs a renovation throughout the whole hotel. It’s a value-added opportunity to acquire the hotel, properly renovate it to a good position within the marketplace today, but we’re looking at it and saying this restaurant space that’s here would actually produce more meeting space, and we can reinvent the restaurant to become a lounge experience in a different area of the hotel,” he said.

　　Modifying F&B in such a way can yield big returns—provided the refigured outlets complement the tastes of consumers, Cataldo explained during a panel at last month’s meeting of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s F&B Council at the Park Hyatt Chicago.

　　“If we can make sure the food-and-beverage offerings are designed to meet what the demands of our clientele are looking for in a better way than we’ve done traditionally in our industry, I believe then you see an impact on guest satisfaction, what the people are doing and utilizing within the hotel,” he said.

　　One high-profile example of recalibrating offerings involved the New York Hilton Midtown, which last week announced it would no longer offer room service to guests, replacing the unprofitable channel with a more desirable grab-and-go concept instead.

　　F&B revenue varies by component in full-service hotels throughout the United States, according to the 2013 HOST Almanac. The report, which is compiled by STR Analytics, sister company of HotelNewsNow.com, will be released in mid-June. Banquets/catering generates the highest percentage of revenue at 44.1%, followed by outlets (such as restaurants) with 27.4% and service charges with 11.6%.

　　Serving the right offerings

　　Hoteliers must be strategic when determining what offerings and concepts they’ll provide in the notoriously cyclical F&B arena, said Jeff Burns, VP of hotel investments for Behringer Harvard Funds.

　　Chef-driven restaurants, casual atmospheres, the ease of grab-and-go—each is becoming commonplace in the hotel industry, but there’s no telling what new tastes and trends will bring, he said.