Why Hotels Are Homes of Restaurant Excellence

London has 80 Michelin Stars. An incredible number of these are won by restaurants affiliated to a luxury hotel. Could this be why, when a restaurant to let in a luxury hotel enters the market, it triggers a frenzy of interest?

Here our London restaurant property experts examine why restaurants within luxury hospitality properties so often achieve culinary excellence.

To the benefit of restaurant landlords and restaurateurs, we explain how the symbiotic relationship between restaurant and hotel is to the benefit of both.

Fine Food and Five-Star Hospitality

There is an astonishing correlation between restaurants to let in hotels and Michelin excellence. The full extent of this trend is astounding.

Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner at the Mandarin Hotel has earned two Stars with its celestial menu, featuring that most-famous dish, Meat Fruit: a liver parfait made to look like a mandarin. It is one of only eleven two-Star restaurants in the capital.

A mandarin’s throw away across Hyde Park is the famous Dorchester Hotel. Here, Alain Ducasse has established a world-leading legacy of fine food. The three Michelin Stars won here are now faithfully defended by Head Chef Jocelyn Herland. This hotel restaurant is one of only two London restaurants to be so highly-rated.

There are so many more to mention. Nathan Outlaw’s sublime fish menu has secured a Star for The Capital’s restaurant that bears his name. Celebrity chef Hélène Darroze achieved two Stars at The Connaught in Mayfair. The list goes on and on.

What Is Behind the Trend?

Leisure property in high-end hotels often has a unique set of assets compared to restaurants to let on high streets and other locations. It is these assets that help them become so successful.

Firstly, hotels succeed in solving a growing problem in the restaurant industry: staff retention. To build success, you need to keep your best staff. But a “revolving door” culture and chronic skills shortage is causing a huge problem where 11,000 more chefs will be needed by 2020 to keep the industry going.

In a jobs market so heavily tilted towards the few, highly-skilled workers (the top chefs), it has become incredibly hard for restaurants to convince big names to stay. But this is just what hotel restaurants are able to do.

How Hotels Attract Successful Restaurant Operators

This is achieved through a combination of assets: desirable locations, obvious extra-salary benefits and the prestige of working at some of the UK’s best-known hotels.

One anonymous Head Chef at a 5-star hotel told BigHospitality.co.uk how “The location of the hotel or restaurant is an important criterion for a change of work for me. The less free time you have, the less you want to spend two to three hours a day on train or traffic jams.”

Luxury hotel’s elite amenities, prime locations and established reputations – as well as their history of excellence and success – all offer a unique attraction to the highly-skilled chefs who build restaurant success. This chance to affiliate with such big brands is just not available in restaurants to let in other types of property.

When you add to this the ‘captive market’ factor – that well-to-do hotel guests will constantly provide the restaurant with a high footfall – it becomes clear that hotels have a great advantage when it comes to building excellent restaurant brands.

The Benefit to Landlords

Of course, it’s not just the restaurateurs who thrive from this partnership. Hotels, too, benefit from letting to world class restaurants. Michelin Stars can attract new guests to the restaurant, increase their reputation and set them apart from other 5-star hotels in the city.

As food tourism continues to grow, hotels can become destinations in their own right by going into business with the right restaurant operator. Instead of being a means to visit an area, a world-famous chef can turn a hotel into the reason for coming to the area in the first place.

At Restaurant Property, we understand that giving over a portion of your property over to leisure usage can be a smart move for property owners. Diversifying your income streams can reduce the risk of sudden losses of income, aiding investment and the growth of your business.

If you are a property owner in London considering finding a new restaurant operation for your property, speak to our restaurant property experts today. We specialise in finding the best restaurant operators for the best property and have an ever-expanding and exclusive database of proven operators.

Call us today on 020 7935 2222 or email enquiries@rparchive.thisisthetreedev.com now.

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