Hoteliers had to change how they served food to guests during the pandemic, but as the recovery nears, they must again adapt what food and beverages they serve and how they serve them when large groups and events business return.

When rethinking how they served food, hoteliers kept social distancing in mind by using contactless service to keep both employees and guests safe. They moved away from buffets to offer grab-and-go options and knock-and-drop room service.

With the number of COVID-19 cases dropping across the U.S. thanks to several readily available vaccines, meetings and group business are expected to return in larger numbers as early as this fall.

While large groups are expected to start coming back in greater numbers later in the year, many hotels are hosting smaller social groups right now. Jen Chauvin, corporate vice president of catering and event management at Aimbridge Hospitality, said there’s an accelerated trend in micro-weddings that are more intimate and customizable.

Aimbridge’s teams are being mindful about how they serve food to large meetings, Chauvin said. They’re avoiding congestion points and not having meeting attendees touch or have open access to food. They’re using signs to help guide attendees through a space and understand the space’s flow.

As these attendees return to meetings, many will be traveling for the first time. Hoteliers need to educate these attendees on the new protocols and the increased cleanliness programs in place, she said.

“We're taking the lessons on how we’ve operated and the processes we created to execute events so we can deliver hospitality, but with the understanding they’re going to engage differently with each other, their space and the service deliverables,” she said.

Helping prepare Pyramid Hotel Group’s property teams for the eventual return of large groups is a higher frequency of smaller groups, said Peter Karpinski, executive vice president of operations, independent and lifestyle hotels at Pyramid. The teams are reexamining their physical footprints, operating supplies and equipment needs to sell against and service this demand.

“There is a tremendous amount of wedding business that was delayed during COVID and is now compressing into the later parts of this year and throughout 2022,” he said.

The normal service cycle will return, he said. International travel will increase next year, and the company will appropriately pace its food and beverage offerings for different cultures and lifestyles.

Loris Menfi, general manager of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter and Marriott Riverwalk Hotels, said her properties have already seen convention business pick up from medical, technology and cybersecurity groups. Though these have been smaller groups, both group volume and size are expected to grow.

Things are evolving quickly, and there is more protocol flexibility now in how they can host and serve their guests, she said. Texas has been wide open since March 10, so groups that started planning to be here this summer or later in the year are looking to return to business as usual.

“In the beginning, it was much more individually wrapped and much more grab-and-go,” she said. “Now that we can do more of a banquet-style buffet for these larger groups, it actually makes it a little bit easier for us.”

Guests are still picking buffets as a serving method, said Marcus Marshall, vice president of restaurants and bars at Hospitality Ventures Management Group. These are single-sided buffets with associates serving guests their food. The hotels are also using action stations with specific dishes and foods that guests can walk up to and have their food prepared to order. Salads, desserts and other cold items are still being prepared individually and served.

The way to address guests’ comfort is to show them how prepared the hotel and staff are by continuing to have protocols in place, he said.

“We immediately address not only our brand standards from all of the brand partners we have but also of course, our local protocols and the local mandates,” he said. “As government mandates are being lifted, we'll still respond to the guests’ comfort level.”
Pyramid’s hotels are staying agile by providing different styles of service customized to each group’s needs, Karpinski said. A minority continue to be sensitive to COVID-19 constrictions, but vaccination rates has helped the majority of guests to embrace “the new normal,” he said. This depends on the market, size of the group and type of group.

“In general, we’ve experienced the most increase in short-term bookings from groups that want to experience our properties without restrictions in states that eased mandates early and/or quickly pivoted when the updated CDC guidance was released,” he said.

Karpinski said Pyramid has a meeting bubble offering it started during the pandemic and will continue to offer. It provides guests with a comprehensive experience path that maintains the health of those in the group.

“Even post-COVID, we will evolve this program to serve a broader audience of group types, whether that is just because they’d like more privacy or team-bonding time together or simply would prefer elevated levels of public health and safety protocols on top of our already-high standards,” he said.

While her properties' menus still offer a lot of individually crafted items, they have scaled some of those back to make it easier on teams since more guests are comfortable with buffets now, Menfi said. Staff members are serving guests at the buffets, though.

“We're working with each group individually to meet the needs of the group,” she said. “We just want to make sure that their attendees are comfortable.”

Most of the dining areas are being set up without social distancing, but there are some areas in the meetings spaces set up with social distancing in mind for attendees who aren’t comfortable being in crowded areas, she said.

Aimbridge’s scale has allowed it to invest in staff and creatively enact programs, such as cross training some staff, Chauvin said. The event space will continue to have peaks and valleys until it stabilizes, so properties may call on front-desk associates to be servers and take on other guest-facing roles.

Another advantage Aimbridge has is the ability to share labor across different hotels, she said. The company can shift staff among nearby properties as event demand ebbs and flows.

The company has also begun recruiting programs with trade schools and looked outside the industry for new hires, Chauvin said. Collaborations across lines and businesses have shown people who work in related fields understand the logistics of events.

Properties are working with more flexible schedules to help associates with family needs, such as having children who were learning remotely, she said.

“We're working with creative scheduling to help understand what's meaningful for our associates and how to bring them back on board in a way that works for them and then can also give us the labor that's required for the event,” she said.

While labor shortages persist on a national level, Pyramid has had to adapt to service offerings that can accommodate those realities, Karpinski said. It’s given the company the opportunity to review and, in some cases, reimagine how it attracts, hires and retains talented and quality staff.

The company is investing more in education and training resources as well as cross-training for staff to be more flexible in a variety of service environments, he said.

“Most of that cross-training is bifurcated between front- and back-of-house, but we also are seeing instances of opportunities to continue to blur those lines, as well,” he said.