Last month I was at an event catered by La Bohème, a catering company from Madrid.
La Bohème specializes in high-end corporate and private events. But that wasn't what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the waiter.
She wasn't walking around with a tray of pre-assembled canapés. She was carrying a wooden board slung over her shoulders: two silver bowls, fresh flowers around the rim, and a small dispenser bottle of mustard sauce.
He stood in front of me. He took a small brioche roll. Wearing black gloves, he placed the raw beef on top. He added a precise squirt of mustard. He handed it to me.
Thirty seconds. Live. Right in front of me. I ate it before I could think. And immediately I wanted another.
What just happened there… and why your hotel cares
That wasn't a canapé service. It was theater.
The product was steak tartare on bread. Relatively cheap to produce. But the experience of seeing it assembled in front of you, decorated with flowers, served with deliberate care; that completely transforms the perceived value.
The guests stopped their conversations to watch. People were asking where the food came from. The waiter became the center of attention.
La Bohème's own philosophy is that the small details make all the difference: from the floral decoration to the choice of tableware and the service itself.
They understood something that most hotels still haven't understood: the moment of service is a revenue opportunity.
Now let's talk about the revenue chair
The revenue chair has four legs: Room Revenue, F&B Revenue, Ancillary Services, and Experience-Based Revenue. Remove one leg and the whole chair wobbles.
Most hotels get obsessed with the first leg. Rooms. Rate. Occupancy. RevPAR.
They treat F&B as a cost center that needs to cover expenses. They treat experiences as a "nice-to-have," not as a business strategy.
The waiter at La Bohème has just demonstrated the fourth leg in less than thirty seconds.
That steak tartare wasn't just food and beverage. It was an experience. And experiences, when done right, come at a completely different price.
Research consistently shows that a large majority of travelers will pay more for a better experience. The willingness is there. The question is whether your hotel is giving them something worth paying for.
A live cooking demonstration at the breakfast buffet. A guided tasting led by the bar staff. A chef presenting the catch of the day at the table (instead of a waiter reading from a printed card). These aren't expensive things to implement. They're expensive to ignore.
Three things you can steal from that waiter today
Transform static service points into live experiences. The breakfast station doesn't have to be a buffet that people just walk past. It can be freshly squeezed juice right in front of them, a made-to-order omelet, or a local cheese explained by someone who actually knows the producer. The same food. A completely different experience.
Give your team an accessory. The wooden board with the bowling bowls hanging from it wasn't just practical. It was a signal: something different is happening here. Your team can carry that signal. It doesn't have to be expensive. It has to be intentional.
Turn the service into the upsell. A guest who has just watched a server assemble their meal live isn't in a neutral emotional state. They're engaged, curious, impressed. That's the moment to mention the chef's table. The private tasting. The weekend experience package. Not fifteen minutes later. Right then and there.
The honest version of all this
Most hotel F&B operations serve food. A few hotel F&B operations create moments.
Those that create memorable moments charge more. They get better reviews. They build the kind of loyalty that doesn't respond to a competitor's lowest price.
A wooden board and two silver bowls.
That was all it took.
Want to explore how your hotel's F&B and ancillary strategy can be redesigned around the experience? Book a workshop attorreshospitalityconsulting.com or find me directly on LinkedIn.
