The Hospitality Knowledge Exchange on ‘Banqueting: The Game Changer’ focused on many key factors driving the growth of banqueting business in hotels, who see it as a significant tool of profitability for the future By Sudipta Dev
At FHW Bengaluru 2016, The Hospitality Knowledge Exchange on ‘Banqueting: The Game Changer’ gave some interesting insights on how banqueting is becoming the major revenue earner in the hospitality industry vis-a-vis room revenue, and the trend will become stronger in the years to come. The panel members were Somnath Sinha, associate director – F&B, The Park Bangalore; Chandra Kishore Dimri, executive chef, Lemon Tree Hotel, Electronics City, Bangalore; Jaison Jacob, F&B manager, The Zuri Whitefield, Bengaluru; Shibiraj Saha, executive chef, IHG Holiday Inn Bengaluru.

In the last three-four years, there has been significant increase in F&B revenues, of which banqueting segment is a major earner, both from social events and MICE. “Previously the contribution was 70 per cent from rooms and 30 per cent F&B, now the latter has grown to almost 40 per cent. This will change more in the future and banquets will become the driver for revenue generation. The number of rooms are become stagnant, but in terms of banquets one can do many things to increase the revenue,” said Chef Chandra.

At The Zuri Whitefield, Bengaluru also, 55 per cent of the revenue comes from rooms and 45 per cent from F&B, majorly banquets. “On weekdays it is mostly corporates, and on weekends it is majorly social events,” informed Jacob. “You cannot do anything with rack rates of rooms, but a hotel can increase profitability by increasing banqueting revenue,” stated Chef Saha. “There is also discounting strategies, which it is important to attract the guests. If you don’t have banquets, you can do other things like DJ nights, etc. However, more than discount it is important to offer good food,” added Chef Saha. “There are other events like kitty parties and social functions, which we target with discounts, the same with corporates over the weekdays,” remarked Chef Chandra.

Sinha averred that discounting is important for all category of clients and depends on how the rates are positioned. Talking about the trends in corporate vs social events, he pointed out that both segments are very demanding. “The corporates are well travelled and their expectation level is a bit higher. For social events, the warmth aspect is more important, for instance a daughter’s wedding,” said Sinha, adding that the challenges ranged from level of service to quality of food. Jacob acknowledged that in social events the expectation is more, but it is important for a hotel to give the best. “In weddings, detailing becomes a key aspect,” he averred. Chef Saha remarked that for corporates, amenities becomes an important decisive factor, however wedding clientele are certainly more demanding as they do not want anything to go wrong.
According to Chef Chandra, corporate catering makes a significant contribution to the hotel’s revenue. The challenge is competition in the market, those who charge low rates. “We have to be sure that we do not lose business nor lower the quality,” he asserted. Sinha reminded that when it comes to the corporate segment, the significant factor is that it is a brand serving a brand. It was an interesting revelation that in most corporate banquets, almost 95 per cent are non-vegetarians, whereas at social events vegetarianism is predominant, particularly among the local business community. Chef Chandra also mentioned that catering to vegetarians is more profitable.
Evolving trends
The panel members unanimously agreed that in the next five years, F&B will be the dominant revenue earner for a hotel, of which banqueting will be the key revenue source. “Hotels are depending on banquets with current trend of standalones coming up. We are catering to industrial catering which was not there earlier. The preference of guests has also evolved from formal to semi-formal setup, which they like,” said Chef Saha. With the current trend of local sourcing becoming popular these days, it is interesting to understand it in the context of banqueting. While Sinha pointed out that all five star hotels source products from vendors with FSSAI certification, Chef Chandra remarked that locally sourced ingredients are cheaper, however licensing is mandatory.
Food safety and hygiene are important factors in banqueting. There are multiple factors, from place of receiving to serving, at every step, measures are taken. For waste management, most hotels have dry and wet garbage management. “We have a wet garbage plant at our hotel and we produce manure from it. Lately, Karnataka government has banned plastic, so we are not entertaining plastic waste. We do not mix the breakages with dry garbage,” informed Sinha. All hotels mostly follow the same practices. When it comes to outdoor catering, sometimes to deal with wastage, the new trend is to tie-up with NGOs.

The F&B heads and executive chefs keep themselves updated with the new trends in crockery design and styles, internationally and in India. Jacob acknowledged that in weddings, people have a lot of expectations. “Many new companies have come in and we keep upgrading ourselves,” he pointed out.
Chef Chandra averred that in banquets, it is necessary to be cautious, and look at non-breakable and non-scratchable crockery. “There has been an ongoing trend of using porcelain in recent years. Porcelain gets chipped less. Even if you invest 10 per cent more, it comes with less breakage. There are also lots of attractive melamine crockery, and if it is an outside catering with more than 2,000 people, it can be used,” added Sinha.
Manpower issues
In banquets, right training of personnel manning the counters is of utmost importance as they are the ones who face the customer. Finding the right people resource is always a challenge in the hospitality sector, along with the factor of training and retaining them. Many hotels hire outside people, particularly for outdoor catering and banquets and it is not easy to train them. “Manpower is a challenge in the industry. Lemon Tree employs 15 per cent people with disability – we train them and they have a contributed a lot, sometimes performing better than regular colleagues,” mentioned Chef Chandra.
More attrition means more people walking in who need to be constantly trained, pointed out Sinha. Training is not just for new comers, but also refresher training to keep updated with skills and knowledge.