Last month I was at an event catered by La Boh\u00e8me, a Madrid-based catering company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
La Boh\u00e8me specialises in high-end corporate and private events. But that’s not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the waiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He wasn’t walking around with a tray of pre-assembled canap\u00e9s. He was carrying a wooden board hung from his shoulders: two silver bowls, fresh flowers around the edges, a small squeeze bottle of mustard sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stopped in front of me. Picked up a small brioche bun. Placed the raw beef on top with black-gloved hands. Added a precise drizzle of mustard. Handed it over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirty seconds. Live. In front of me. I ate it before I could think about it. And I immediately wanted another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That wasn’t a canap\u00e9 service. That was theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The product was steak tartare on bread. Relatively inexpensive to produce. But the experience of watching it assembled in front of you, decorated with flowers, served with deliberate care; that transforms the perceived value completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guests stopped conversations to watch. People asked where the food was coming from. The waiter became the highlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
La Boh\u00e8me’s own philosophy is that the small details are what make the difference \u2014 from floral decoration to the choice of tableware to the service itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They understood something that most hotels still haven’t: the moment of service is a revenue opportunity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Revenue Chair has four legs: Room Revenue, F&B Revenue, Ancillary Services, and Experience-Based Revenue. Remove one leg and the whole thing wobbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most hotels obsess over the first leg. Rooms. Rate. Occupancy. RevPAR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They treat F&B as a cost centre that needs to break even. They treat experiences as a nice-to-have, not a commercial strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n La Boh\u00e8me’s waiter just demonstrated the fourth leg in under thirty seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That steak tartare was not F&B. It was an experience. And experiences, when done well, command a completely different price point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research consistently shows that a large majority of travellers will pay more for a better experience. The willingness is there. The question is whether your hotel is giving them something worth paying for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A live preparation at the breakfast buffet. A guided tasting from the bar team. A chef presenting the catch of the day at the table (instead of a server reading a printed card). These are not expensive to execute. They are expensive to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turn static service points into live moments.<\/strong> The breakfast station doesn’t need to be a buffet people walk past. It can be a fresh juice pressed in front of them, an omelette made to order, a local cheese explained by someone who actually knows the producer. Same food. Completely different experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give your team a prop.<\/strong> The wooden board with the hanging bowls wasn’t just practical. It was a signal: something different is happening here<\/em>. Your team can carry that signal. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It has to be intentional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make the service the upsell.<\/strong> A guest who just watched a waiter assemble their food live is not 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most hotel F&B operations serve food. A few hotel F&B operations create moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ones that create moments charge more. Get better reviews. Build the kind of loyalty that doesn’t respond to a competitor’s lower rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A wooden board and two silver bowls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s all it took.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNow let’s talk about the revenue chair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Three things you can steal from that waiter today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The honest version of this<\/h3>\n\n\n\n