Hotel Operations

🍫 Chamoy, a Mexican condiment, is gaining traction in the U.S. among consumers who enjoy Mexican cuisine. Made from pickled fruit, chiles, and lime juice, it can be liquid or paste-like, combining salty, sweet, sour, and spicy flavors. Market research by Datassential shows that 38% of U.S. consumers recognize chamoy, and 17% have tried it, often with fruits, vegetables, or in drinks like the popular mangonada.

📱 Personalized amenities in hospitality stand out in the crowded market by leaving a lasting impression. Customized QR codes and signature scents brand hosts as distinct and memorable. The strategy aims to enhance reputation in the hospitality business. Interested parties are encouraged to reach out for more information on #PersonalizedHospitality, #CustomerExperience, #BrandIdentity, and #DiversifiedHospitalitySolutions. 📲

🍷 Levan and Bar Levan focus on low intervention wines; half of Levan's wine list is devoted to the Jura region, France. Bar Levan offers a dynamic 'by the glass' list, changing weekly with 12-bottle purchases, a cellar list, and an extensive mezcal selection. Notable wine list recommendations include Brawn in East London, Bokman’s in Bristol, and Planque in East London. Raphael Rodriguez is respected for his wine industry knowledge. The best value wine at Levan is from Stajerska Kollective in Slovenia at £7.50 a glass. A memorable pairing involved a dessert with Westwell's sparkling cuvée Pelegrim, limited to 90 bottles. Andi Mann from Rheinhessen, Germany, is currently favored for producing quality, accessible wines. Alsace, France, is considered an underrated wine region.

🍴 Yannick Alléno, a French chef at Pavyllon in London's Four Seasons Hotel, admires Auguste Escoffier for modernizing cuisine with his brigade system and emphasis on sauces. A transformative moment in Alléno's career was a critique by François Simon in Le Monde, prompting a personal culinary reflection. Alléno's advice to aspiring chefs includes hard work, perseverance, and self-belief. His kitchen essential is a Mauviel frying pan from the M'ELITE collection. He prefers à la carte dining, enjoys chips as a fast-food choice, and would ban eggplant from his hypothetical restaurant dictatorship. Instagram is his social media platform of choice, and his ideal food and drink pairing is a marble-aged wine with wood-fired roasted venison served at his three-star restaurant, Alléno Paris at Pavillon Ledoyen.

🍴 Home restaurant in Leeds, launched August 2017 and relocated to Brewery Wharf in November 2021, is closing due to soaring costs and low consumer confidence. Chef and restaurateur Elizabeth Cottam cited a "perfect storm" for her business with energy bills rising from £2,000 to £10,000 a month and no fixed energy contracts available. The tasting menu started at £65, peaking at £145. Home was shortlisted for National Restaurants Awards Opening of the Year in 2022. Cottam plans to keep her team for future projects, exploring simpler, community-based concepts. Her other restaurant, The Owl, remains open.

🏖️ Capella Kenting, a luxury resort by Capella Hotels and Resorts and Riant Capital Ltd., is set to open in 2028 in Pingtung, Taiwan, covering 99,000 square meters with 65 villas featuring private pools, hot spring facilities, and sea views. Sonesta's Costa Sur Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with 206 rooms, marks its first Mexican property and Classico brand expansion. InnVentures now manages 85 hotels, adding two Embassy Suites in Oregon and Washington, with a total of 596 keys. Hotel 24 South in Virginia celebrates its 100th anniversary, offering 124 rooms and 8,500 square feet of event space.

🏠 French designer Rudy Guénaire redesigned the 200-square-metre Matsuri Japanese restaurant in Paris' 16th arrondissement, inspired by Japonisme and American modernist design. The interior features wooden furniture with lacquer, pastel-coloured domes, a kaiten sushi conveyor belt and a lighting system with subtle colour control. Matsuri, part of a chain established in 1986, displays old posters from Japan. Photography by Ludovic Balay.

💰 Russ Lemmer, CEO of Austin-based fintech Grazzy, saw a rise in e-tipping software interest in 2023, after a low kinetic energy phase. Grazzy, which developed an e-tipping platform in 2021 approved by Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and IHG, notes digital tips average $10, outperforming the average $6 cash tip. E-tipping advantages include enhanced guest experience, with 88% of hotel guests desiring to tip but lacking cash in the past two years, increased employee compensation, tip transparency, morale boosts, promoting guest feedback, and convenient tax reporting.

💻 Martin Soler, a fractional CMO and co-founder of 10minutes.news, Europe's most-read hotel newsletter, discusses hotel tech priorities from a C-level perspective, underlining the need for cloud-based systems to enhance guest experiences. He notes that non-cloud PMS solutions hinder tech evolution in guest services. Soler also addresses the potential of using travel influencers to boost off-season hotel demand, the growing need for flexible workspaces in hotels, and the importance of creativity in hotel marketing. Additionally, he suggests that buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) models, successful in e-commerce, could benefit the hotel industry. Soler emphasizes the tech battle between Airbnb and hotels, advising hotels to invest in digital transformations and become as convenient as Airbnb to avoid losing customers. He proposes the creation of a new role, Guest Experience Designers, to integrate technology into enhancing guest experiences without losing the human touch.

📅 Drury Hotels Company, LLC launched Meetings with More in St. Louis, Missouri, catering to small (