Luxury has traditionally been equated with the time taken to produce something. The more time taken, the better the product. Or maybe that is too simplistic in approach. The more time taken, the higher the chances that the product will be considered luxury.
This still holds true for hand-made goods (suits, bags, shoes) and for a longtime food. The traditional recipes required (a lot of) time and this was considered gourmet. But what has now changed is how our online habits are spilling onto the offline world - sometimes when I am reading a printed report and something is underlined, I tend to think that is a link to more information!.
What Four Seasons has realized and seized upon, is this definitive change that has come about. We are no longer willing to wait for good things. What is special about this offer is also the promise of the time. A time promise is nothing new - Dominos has built a whole brand on it, McDonald's has made it part of internal processes - what is new is a luxury brand adding it to their food.
Most hospitality managers reading this would know that a good IRD operation always mentions the expected time taken for an order to be delivered. This is not an approx, but a promise. What can promises do? Plenty.
Marriott was one of the first to offer the 'promised room preference' or first night free. That made a big difference in the rooms business. Will the Four Seasons's offer change things for F&B?
Yes & No.
Expect more hotels to now offer guaranteed timings for menus and further still maybe offer more gourmet food in that fashion. Also expect hotels start looking at revenue streams outside of the traditional outlet model. Take-away makes sense and there is no reason a hotel cannot compete with the processed or packaged food industry.
No, because, expect Four Seasons to also announce (and very soon) a decadent 4-hour leisurely sunday brunch or a seven course meal. As more people becoming richer, the uber-rich will want to recreate experiences they have grown up believing to represent the rich lifestyle. They will want to wine, dine in what they perceived the rich to be doing when they themselves were still not so.
So what is all this then? Is it a trend, a marketing gimmick or something more profound?
Its Market Segmentation.
A hotel is no longer 'A' hotel. It is now motley collection of smaller hotels under the same roof, offering services and products to different set of people. Each hotel will have to create a very defined set of services and brand promises for each segment it wants to cater to and the ones who state it categorically will win the business.
What should you do?
The important bit is here (at the end!)
You have to find the top 3 market segments your hotel/unit serves. Once done, think like you are creating 3 different hotels with different brand name, logos, staff and processes. Then think about what you would do in each of those hotel if you only have to serve that segment.
That will make all the difference!
- Prabhjot Bedi
Editor
p.s. comments are very welcome. If you would like to discuss your particular hotel/unit/outlet write to me on mail@prabhjotbedi.com or call +91 9872000604
p.p.s for some more interesting studies on time, visit http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/06/10-ways-our-minds-warp-time.php