These 9 Towns Are Sick of Your Bachelorette Parties
These 9 Towns Are Sick of Your Bachelorette Parties
Profotosession/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/towns-that-are-sick-of-bachelorette-and-bachelor-parties
Take your celebration elsewhere.
Stratton Lawrence remembers when Charleston’s King Street had a laidback, all-ages crowd in the 2000s. Today, you wouldn’t be able to recognize that area, which he’s seen steadily develop into a velvet-roped club scene—often with big groups of girls and at least one bridal veil in tow. While the local writer thinks there’s nothing inherently wrong with groups going for a vacation, he says, “add the word ‘bachelorette’ (or bachelor) and somehow trouble seems to follow.”
He’s not alone. As bach parties have steadily become all-out weekend destination extravaganzas (costing upwards of $1,300 per person in 2023, according to a study from wedding website, The Knot), some locals describe them with an eye roll, saying they’re loud, tacky, and annoying when you’re trying to enjoy your own town. Now, stricter HOA policies and Airbnb hosts are saying “no” to bachelorette parties outright to curb the more chaotic partiers.
While some towns have emerged as bachelorette havens for a reason—they’re close to a major airport and have heaps of culture, restaurants that can accommodate groups, and centralized entertainment—it’s not always a welcome reputation.
Read on for the towns that are becoming oversaturated with bach parties and the locals who really wish you’d find another location.
1 OF 9
WHERE: Tennessee
Nashville is often called the bachelorette capital of the U.S. for good reason: live country music, nightlife, and Southern charm included. And on any given weekend, Honky Tonk Highway is lined with matching T-shirts celebrating a little bling before the ring. While much of the downtown area bars welcome bach parties with open arms and VIP bachelorette packages—hey, it’s great business—there are some popular tours like NashTrash that have banned bachelorette groups outright.
“The No-Bachelorettes Rule was implemented after years of bad experiences,” their website reads. “We can’t keep you from reserving seats, but if you or anyone in your party is disruptive, you will be asked to leave.”
2 OF 9
Charleston
WHERE: South Carolina
One of the biggest trending destinations for bachelorette parties, Charleston’s appeal is in its top-notch Southern food, bustling downtown, nearby Folly Beach, and wraparound porches that beckon groups to party. Many businesses are capitalizing on the trend: Captain Dicky Brendel’s boat tour company on Folly Beach, Flipper Finders, offers bachelorette-oriented tours, and the demand is so high that he’s even considering purchasing another boat and painting it pink. But sometimes, parties can get rowdy. Lawrence, who often rents out his vacation rental house on Folly Beach, says whenever a neighbor complained or the house was trashed, it tended to be from a bachelor or bachelorette group. Now, like many hosts, he’s added language to his listing to discourage bach parties, warning that porch shouting would prompt a call to the police.
3 OF 9
WHERE: Arizona
A desert wonderland with hiking, relaxing resort spas, and great restaurants, this Phoenix suburb is a no-brainer for bach parties. In Reddit’s “Visit Scottsdale” thread, about half of the posts are about bach parties; one post reads “Enough!” lamenting that “every fourth post” is about bachelorettes. Some Airbnb hosts feel the same: HOAs like McDowell Mountain Ranch have banned short-term rentals under 30 days to curb loud parties. Even bachelorettes themselves have taken note: Rachel Lee Mendelson, who had her party in Scottsdale, said there were “so many” other parties there the same weekend as hers. She said the convivial atmosphere can be nice—but also annoying when it clogs up sidewalks and restaurants.
But it’s important to note that not everyone thinks Scottsdale is overdone. Local destination expert and writer Jill Schildhouse, who’s lived in Phoenix for 25 years, says while the bach groups are more noticeable in Old Town on weekends in the spring, they don’t dominate daily life.
“If you’re out late on a Saturday night in Old Town, you’ll probably see a few bachelorette groups,” she says. “But if you’re hiking Camelback, having dinner in Arcadia, or spending the day at a resort spa, you’d barely notice them.”
4 OF 9
WHERE: Texas
With a stellar live music scene and plenty of parks and lakes to explore, the Texas capital is a natural destination for many bach parties. Mendelson, who lived for years in Austin, said that while they mostly stick to downtown (Dirty 6th, South Congress, and sometimes East 6th), she and her local friends “definitely avoided certain bars or restaurants that cater to groups like that.” She points to Aba, a restaurant that caters to groups and was always busy because of them. “We wouldn’t even try,” she said. Some popular bars on Dirty 6th and Rainey Street have been known to turn away large groups, such as bachelorette parties, to maintain a more relaxed vibe.
5 OF 9
WHERE: Louisiana
Some towns are well-equipped to handle partying, and New Orleans is certainly one of them. At any time of year, Bourbon Street is fair game for debauchery of all kinds, fueled by jazz, open-container laws, and nightlife for days. But when it comes to more local parts of town like Marigny, Bywater, and the Garden District, that’s when locals say they’re fed up with partiers bleeding into their space. One Reddit user said it all when they posted a picture of a girl group cycling on a party bike with the comment, “Oh lord, please don’t let this become a thing,” and “I hope we don’t end up with dozens of these cruising around uptown like Nashville has.”
6 OF 9
Yes, New York is appealing to groups for its Broadway, world-class museums, bars, and restaurants. But some locals have had it (and for some, tourist groups of any kind), saying it’s just not built to accommodate large groups. “
Here’s a secret: There’s no room in New York,” says New Yorker Howard Smiley, a former music business executive, pointing to tiny bars and congested parts of Manhattan. He says while he’s all for people having a good time, he’s not a fan of people getting drunk, spilling out into the street, and screaming at 3 a.m. And don’t get him started about big groups dominating the sidewalk.
7 OF 9
WHERE: Florida
It’s not news that wild parties are big in the Magic City, but with recent Spring Breaks so rowdy that curfews were put in place, it follows that bach parties aren’t as welcome with fatigued locals as they used to be. And then there’s how they’ve changed the landscape. For example, Sweet Liberty once used to be a local-in-the-know bar that’s now host to groups many weekend nights—in a way that can sometimes detract from what it once was: one of the only spots on South Beach to chill away from tourists.
8 OF 9
WHERE: Mexico
While most bachelor and bachelorette parties take place within the continental U.S., about 8 percent take place internationally, according to a study by WeddingWire. And this trendy location has its fair share of bach groups in the past few years. It also happened to land on Fodor’s No List 2026 for good reason: locals are sick of out-of-towners and, last July, even took to the streets protesting short-term rentals with signs painted with “kill a gringo.”
9 OF 9
WHERE: Spain
Outside of Barcelona, where overtourism has led to protests from locals in the past two years, this balmy seaside town on Spain’s Costa Brava gained traction in 2024 when it came right out and not only increased fines for party disturbances but also banned nudity and sexual items (like suggestive straws, for instance) in an effort to curb bach party disruptions. Better luck elsewhere.
Latest news: Four Seasons update; Parable launches; Shatterproof raises $2.1M
https://www.hotelinvestmenttoday.com/Development/Owners/Four-Seasons-Jacksonville-update-Parable-Hospitality-launches-Shatterproof-raises-2-1M?
Breaking news about deals, development, data and more.
Four Seasons Jacksonville update. Chicago-based Shanna Collective and Jacksonville, Florida-based Iguana Investments are developing the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Jacksonville, scheduled to debut in 2027. The project will include a 170-key hotel and 26 private residences and will also have direct frontage to a 78-slip marina. The project has launched residential sales in partnership with Douglas Elliman.
Parable Hospitality launches. Aliso Viejo, California-based Parable Hospitality has launched as a new hotel management platform. The company said rather than applying a standardized operating model, it organizes operations around the individual story, place and potential of each property. At launch, Parable Hospitality oversees more than 30 independent, lifestyle, soft-branded and branded hotels across destinations in California and Hawaii. Expansion is underway into select markets in the Western U.S.
Shatterproof raises $2.1M. Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization and leader in transforming how the health care system addresses and treats substance use disorder, honored Anthony Capuano, president and CEO of Marriott International, with the 2026 Shatterproof Hospitality Hero Award on January 27, 2026, during the Ninth Annual Shatterproof Hospitality Heroes Reception, held in conjunction with ALIS in Los Angeles. The hospitality companies gathered helped raise an all-time high of $2.1 million for the event. Shatterproof was founded in 2012 by Gary Mendell, co-founder of HEI Hotels & Resorts, who lost his son Brian to addiction in 2011 and now serves as Shatterproof’s chairperson emeritus.
Extended-stay occupancy at 12-year low. Despite the fastest quarterly demand growth in 2025, the accelerating increase in supply sank extended-stay hotel average occupancy to its lowest fourth-quarter level since 2013, excluding pandemic-impacted 2020, according to The Highland Group. However, decelerating RevPAR losses towards year-end indicate that the resumption of RevPAR growth is approaching. “The moderation and distribution of extended-stay hotel supply growth, as well as the performance of the overall hotel industry, will be key factors in the timing of a return to positive change in total extended-stay hotel RevPAR,” said Mark Skinner, partner at The Highland Group.
Palm acquires in South Florida. Toronto-based Palm Holdings has acquired the 199-key Delta Hotels by Marriott West Palm Beach in South Florida from an undisclosed seller for an undisclosed price. Kabani Hotel Group brokered the off-market transaction. Originally acquired two years ago as a Holiday Inn, the property underwent a renovation and brand conversion to Delta Hotels by Marriott.
Winnipeg hotel sells. TriCan Advisory has acquired the former Maryland Hotel in Winnipeg from Amarjeet Warraich for an undisclosed amount. The new owner plans $3-4 million in renovations and a new restaurant. The 60-key hotel is closed for now, and renovations are expected to take three to four months to complete. Warraich bought the hotel in 2003, which was known as the Maryland Motor Hotel and Maryland Hotel for decades before it was rebranded around 2012, first as an Econo Lodge and, most recently, as a New Lodge.
‘You’ve got to be willing to “do,” as opposed to getting disrupted by somebody else’: A conversation with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna
Arvind Krishna is chairman and CEO of IBM. Eric Kutcher is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office and serves as McKinsey’s chair of North America.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/youve-got-to-be-willing-to-do-as-opposed-to-getting-disrupted-by-somebody-else-a-conversation-with-ibm-ceo-arvind-krishna?
In five years, Krishna has revived the once-stagnant company. With AI and quantum, he sees lots of opportunity ahead.
In his 30 years at IBM, Arvind Krishna has been driving innovation across core technologies, including AI, quantum, and cloud, to name a few. Since taking on the CEO role in 2020, the company’s market value has tripled. That’s a direct result of the changes he has introduced: doubling down on software, shedding big businesses that weren’t aligned with his new strategy, pursuing innovation, embracing the potential of AI, and getting a 250,000-person company to move with alacrity.
Krishna recently sat down for a conversation with McKinsey Senior Partner Eric Kutcher about IBM’s turnaround and the opportunities ahead, including his vision of the future of quantum computing. This is an edited version of their conversation.
In five years, Krishna has revived the once-stagnant company. With AI and quantum, he sees lots of opportunity ahead.
In his 30 years at IBM, Arvind Krishna has been driving innovation across core technologies, including AI, quantum, and cloud, to name a few. Since taking on the CEO role in 2020, the company’s market value has tripled. That’s a direct result of the changes he has introduced: doubling down on software, shedding big businesses that weren’t aligned with his new strategy, pursuing innovation, embracing the potential of AI, and getting a 250,000-person company to move with alacrity.
Krishna recently sat down for a conversation with McKinsey Senior Partner Eric Kutcher about IBM’s turnaround and the opportunities ahead, including his vision of the future of quantum computing. This is an edited version of their conversation.
Eric Kutcher: The phrase “interesting times” might be the understatement of the century. As a CEO, what are the forces at play today that you think about? How do you lead through those forces in a world where you have very little control over them?
Arvind Krishna: The word I would use is opportunity. Yes, the world is less predictable than it used to be, but when things are less predictable, by definition there’s volatility. When there’s volatility that means that the current world order changes, and as it changes you have to ask, “What’s the opportunity?” Let’s take inflation as an example. A consequence of inflation is higher interest rates. When there are higher interest rates, people are looking for more productivity. As they look for more productivity, there’s a greater appetite for technology solutions. So absolutely, volatility brings all these headwinds. And you could hunker down and say, “Oh, my God. This is not what I was planning.” Yes, it’s not what you were planning, but your competition has the same headwinds. So, I would say whenever there’s uncertainty there’s opportunity, and it’s our role as leaders to help guide our people through it and use it to take our clients to a better place.
Eric Kutcher: Even as they identify the opportunities that volatility can present, I sometimes find CEOs struggle with feeling too constrained to take them—because they still have to hit the earnings and keep the train on the tracks. How do you juggle that?
Arvind Krishna: One could go back and look at history. The pandemic came around, and everybody had uncertainty about what revenues and profits would be. The debates were rife, “How bad is the dip? Is it going to be three months or three years? Will it be a 3 percent dip or a 30 percent dip?” You could say, “Well, I’m just going to try to manage that.” Or you can say, “I’ve got five other tough things to do. Why don’t I just package them all up and take it all on?” In our case, it was: OK, let’s borrow cash so that we are good through the pandemic. We’ve got to spin out a third of our revenue. We’ve got to divest some things that don’t fit our long-term strategy. And hey, let’s set a new M&A strategy. We used the opportunity to take on all the bumps in one go. And then, to try to grow. Deferring pain is never a good idea.
Eric Kutcher: Let’s talk about one of the great opportunities: You are at the center of this moment around AI. What are some of the things you’re seeing in AI that are actually changing the way business works?
Arvind Krishna: This moment on AI is so interesting, because, in fact, the world has been using AI for about 30 years—there are many examples, but machine learning has long been used to make estimates in finance, in economics, and in sports. Then we had the era of AI that started with IBM winning Jeopardy! with a computer system called Watson. The problem with that era was that it was fragile and somewhat bespoke. You used a lot of data, and you used a lot of people to label the data; you constructed a model for a task, and if the task changed, or some of the data changed, you had to start again. What LLMs now do is they put that on an industrial base. If more data comes along, you don’t need to start from scratch, you can just do more training—if the task changes only slightly, you don’t have to change anything at all. So, the moment it’s on an industrial scale, you can begin to deploy it.
On the B2B side, I think the current generation of AI is going to help those who embrace it add about ten points to their bottom line while increasing revenue growth rates. Now, I’m not saying we would all add it to the bottom line. Rather, it frees up money for investment that you can plough back into innovation, R&D, sales. Take your pick depending on where you are on that journey. Where in the world have you seen an opportunity like that?
On the B2B side, I think the current generation of AI is going to help those who embrace it add about ten points to their bottom line while increasing revenue growth rates.
At IBM, we want to leverage AI to become the leanest, most nimble, and most productive company we can be. I looked at a cost base of about $15 billion across what we would call third-party services, procurement, and G&A [general and administrative]. And I said, “We’ll take 20 percent out in the first two to three years, and then we’ll try to double that.” So, we set a bold target that we may not achieve, but if we get to 30 percent, I’ll claim victory. The idea is, this is not about tightening the belt and shaving 4 percent or 5 percent off; it’s reimagining how the work is done.
I think almost every back-office function can become 50 percent automated using AI. We’ve done a lot in our HR processes; we have something like 94 percent of our basic internal HR transactions handled by an AI bot.
We’ve also used AI at scale across about 8,000 of our 40,000 people who write code on products, and on that 8,000, we are getting 45 percent productivity increases. Many people react with, “Oh, my gosh. They’re taking 4,000 people out.” But no, I’m adding 4,000 because if it’s cheaper to build products, I can build more products that appeal to smaller and more niche audiences, whereas previously I might have said it was too expensive. In customer service and customer experience, anybody who says, “AI can’t help me in half of that” is delusional. Right now, we’re only at 5 percent there, but I think 70 to 80 percent is within reach. The opportunity to harness this generation of AI across all of this is here and now.
Eric Kutcher: You’re also at the center of quantum. What happens from an AI point of view when you suddenly have quantum? And where are we right now in terms of quantum versus when we’ll start to see it become more mainstream?
Arvind Krishna: If we define 2022 as the moment when AI went from being of interest to mainstream [use] and recognize that tech cycles move faster after each one, I’d say that quantum today is where AI was in 2015 or 2016. For the short to medium term, which I would define as the next ten or so years, quantum is additive to AI, meaning it’s solving problems that AI can’t solve very well. Think of AI as being great for large amounts of data, finding patterns that are in the data. Quantum is much more about deep compute—so, looking forward as opposed to looking backward on data. At some point as quantum gets better and more mature, it will replace some of the AI work. That intersection is longer term; we are maybe 15 years out from that.
Quantum is much more about deep compute—so, looking forward as opposed to looking backward on data. At some point as quantum gets better and more mature, it will replace some of the AI work.
The interesting question becomes, what are the problems you can solve using quantum? We’re already seeing this play out with our clients, where you can do better portfolio optimization using a quantum algorithm, or better bond pricing because quantum can find patterns hidden deep within the data. So, you can already start to look at new solutions with quantum, and that unlocks new markets.
Eric Kutcher: When you stepped into the role of CEO in 2020, the world was in a moment of great uncertainty, and IBM had been somewhat stagnant for a while. What was your thinking coming in, and how have you approached growth at IBM over the past five years?
Arvind Krishna: I had a very strong view that to be relevant in the market, you have to grow. And you can’t just say, “I want to grow.” Grow how, and where? When I came in, I said, “We have to be known for innovation.” And this meant growing in areas that lean into innovation. I think the gap is that most people are not willing to take the hard actions necessary to do that. If we wanted to grow and be highly innovative, first we had to look at why we had low-margin, less innovative businesses inside the company that were also declining. We had to say, “Those do not belong; they’re not aligned to the long-term strategy,” and take them out. Most people get hung up on, “Oh, my God. I don’t want to upset people. Customers will get upset. Employees will get upset.” We took out a third of our employees and a third of our revenue. Is it really hard to do? It is. But it unlocks many opportunities.
The second part of growth and innovation was being willing to invest in R&D—as well as M&A—that creates more innovation for your clients. Over the past five years, we’ve added over $3 billion a year to our R&D budget. The third part I would say is that the world of tech is so big, you can’t really operate alone, you’ve got to form great partnerships. And sometimes when you form those partnerships, you’ve got to say, “OK, I’m not going to operate in those areas because that’s where the partner is really strong.” And so that was the third element of the unlock, and it was about pulling these three things together.
You were kind when you used the word stagnant, I think our CAGR was around –2 percent over some years leading up to that moment. We’ve now been at 5 percent, so that’s a 7 percent swaying already on revenue CAGR. My ambition is to make it more than that.
Eric Kutcher: You’ve made some big portfolio moves, and some would say you’ve sold in some areas that were high growth. Talk a little bit about how you thought about the reconfiguration of the portfolio, and this idea of organic versus inorganic growth.
Arvind Krishna: You’ve got to be willing to “do”: As opposed to getting disrupted by somebody else, disrupt yourself while you still have the cash flow and clients who value your capabilities. Software is a great example. The value for clients and consequently for investors lies in software. When we began, the company was something like 22 percent software. Today, we are 45 percent software, with the software portfolio growing at about 10 percent. It’s about half the company, and the company’s growing at 5 percent. If we maintain that, that means software will soon cross over half, which is a big difference from where we were five years ago.
I don’t think there is a clean division between inorganic and organic growth; I would never buy something unless it was going to help my organic growth rate go up. And I want the organic part to help increase the growth rate of the inorganic parts; these work together as a virtuous flywheel. I’ll assert that with everything we have bought in the last six years, the growth rate has increased after we bought it, which most people think of as surprising because they think a big company will buy something and slow it down. It’s been the other way around.
Eric Kutcher: IBM has historically been an organization where leadership has grown from within. You’ve made a lot of management changes. Can you talk about how you bring in talent today and make it work?
Arvind Krishna: At this point, about a third of my direct leadership team is people who didn’t grow up inside IBM. About two-thirds are people that have grown up here, and we’ve pulled many people into the top layer from two, three layers down.
When you bring people in from the outside, you can do your hard checks IQ-wise and résumé-wise. What is hard to check is the interpersonal fit, and whether they align to how things are done, or what people call culture. I acknowledge that half of the outside hires will work, and half will not. It’s very hard to prejudge that as it rolls out, but you can get great talent from the outside.
One thing to recognize is when something inside is not working; even if you get people from inside to fix it—and we do have a lot of great people to do that—it can take them longer to make big changes because that’s how they’re used to seeing it. So you might get somebody from the outside, who brings a different perspective, to support them to succeed.
My “interview” focus is not all about what the person has done. Invariably it is, “Hey, if you were in this chair, how would you approach this?” So they’re coming in already aligned to, “I need to make all these changes.” Whether from the inside or outside, part of it is about who is aligned to taking risk? Who is aligned to changing the way we do work? Who is aligned to growing in the areas we’re going to grow, which right now is software, and then having a much more integrated company? People who are aligned toward those things and willing to take risks to get there are what we want in a team.
Eric Kutcher: We talked a bit about IBM having a period of stagnancy. You could argue that the speed of the organization has been slow. How do you get a more-than-100-year-old organization of this size to move with greater speed?
Arvind Krishna: There are two reasons why speed is a challenge. One, as a large company, we operate in 190 countries across multiple lines of business. At 250,000 people, there is an element of just sheer scale that makes it slow. But I think there’s a bigger challenge which causes slowness, and it comes back to the risk point. If people are risk averse, they’d rather get a check-in with somebody. If that somebody is risk averse, they would rather say no than yes, and you end up fighting through ten nos. To get people moving faster, you’ve got to say, “Hey, they’re going to fail a third of the time. They may not succeed.” You’ve got to begin to get to a culture where you say, “It’s OK to be mostly, but not always, right.”
If that somebody is risk averse, they would rather say no than yes, and you end up fighting through ten nos. To get people moving faster, you’ve got to say, “Hey, they’re going to fail a third of the time. They may not succeed.”
How do you get people used to the fact that not everything they do will work? Or that if you are going a lot faster, then you actually more than make up for the total success in the speed? A team came to me about two years ago and said, “Hey, we can build this great tool, leveraging gen AI to help modernize the mainframe. We need 21 months.” I said, “OK, great, but can you do it in six?” Their response was no way, so I asked them to go away and think about what they would need to do it in six. They came back about two weeks later and said, “One of the reasons we are going slower is that we know some gen AI, but if we had a couple more people who knew it well, it could help. And we need more resources. But it’s still probably nine to 12 months away.” I got them what they needed, and they did it in six. Now, that story gets around, and people start to see that’s how they can and should do it.
I really do think that this is where senior leadership often falls down. We put people in a box and simply tell them to go and do it. You’ve got to help them; it is a huge unlock to say, “What do you need?” as opposed to “Just do it.”
We put people in a box and simply tell them to go and do it. You’ve got to help them; it is a huge unlock to say, “What do you need?” as opposed to “Just do it.”
Eric Kutcher: Given everything you know today, what do you wish you had known before you took on this role?
Arvind Krishna: When I came into this role, my order of priorities was strategy, talent, and then culture. Now that I have five and a half years under my belt, I would completely flip that order. In reality, all three are deeply intertwined and equally important. But I think many people coming into the role spend 50 percent of their time on strategy, and then a good 30 percent externally. That only leaves 20 percent total for talent and culture. I think it ought to be 50 percent on talent and culture and 50 percent for everything else.
Eric Kutcher: You’re in now what we could call your third season as a CEO, and five years in is a real checkpoint. You’ve roughly tripled the share price—that’s an amazing run. How do you get the energy and the vision to be able to take it toward another tripling?
Arvind Krishna: If I look upon my original intent—how do I get us to be perceived as much more innovative, and how do we get to much more growth—I tell myself I’m only halfway there. By the way, you never get all the way, and I actually think anyone in my position should be able to step back and say, “If we are really slowing down on our rate of progress, then it’s time to get somebody else who’s got the energy, the fresh thinking.” For me, that is the moment when you should go do something else and let somebody else take it. But as long as I believe we have a lot more to do, then I’m energized to keep pushing the organization forward to unlock that potential, and that is what keeps me jumping out of bed in the morning.
Hotel food-and-beverage operators source locally, craft creative offerings to mitigate rising costs
Small plates, personalized service among the biggest trends
Hotel restaurants are leaning into the small plates concept. Chefs and hotel operators say smaller, high-quality food offerings allow guests an elevated, social experience at a lower price point. (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/1218294989/hotel-food-and-beverage-operators-source-locally-craft-creative-offerings-to-mitigate-rising-costs
Hotel restaurants are leaning into local cuisine and creating experiences with their dishes more than ever before, in part to make up for the rising costs of food.
Greater personalization and shared plates are among the leading trends at food-and-beverage outlets this year, according to experts in the field.
Steve Palmer, founder, managing partner and chief vision officer of Charleston, South Carolina-based The Indigo Road Hospitality Group, said personalized guest experiences are a continuing trend in hotel food and beverage.
"The more intentional F&B operators are about recognizing those special guests, the greater the return on investment," he said.
On the culinary side, food-and-beverage directors and chefs are leaning into smaller dishes to give guests the chance to try several different options without breaking the bank.
Adam Korbel, executive chef at the NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans, said instead of serving one entree that costs $30, the hotel is rolling out menus with small plates at about $10 each. These small plates include miniature po' boys, sliders and chicken sandwiches on a biscuit with country gravy.
Public Service Restaurant is one of three food-and-beverage outlets at the NOPSI New Orleans. Executive Chef Adam Korbel recently rolled out a small-plates menu at a lower price point so visitors could experience more of what the restaurants have to offer. (Historic Hotels of America)
This pays dividends down to the operations as well. The NOPSI has three food-and-beverage outlets, including the Public Service Restaurant and two bars. The small plates concept meshes with all three outlets so there's more synergy between the menu items.
"I have the one menu for all three of them now instead of doing three separate menus like we were doing before. That way, we're streamlining everything, and you're able to use everything on one menu completely," Korbel said.
Matt St. Amand, director of food and beverage at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk and San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk, said his outlets have also been tooling with the idea of rolling out smaller but elevated dishes.
"People are looking for value within items," he said. "You get a taste of something that's really high-end but the price point isn't there. It's more approachable because it's a smaller portion."
Erin Reisner, director of food and beverage at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, said in an email interview that creating customizable experiences is one of the main trends she's seen of late in hotel food and beverage.
"Guests want to try more items when they are dining out, so menus with more small or shareable options is a trend to stay," she said.
Not only does this increase the value for the guests, but it also appeals to more health-conscious patrons.
"People are eating smaller portions. They're being more conscious of what they're putting into their bodies," St. Amand said.
Another trend is bringing back classic recipes from eras of a foregone time. Korbel said stews and short ribs are making a comeback into the zeitgeist.
"There's a lot of using the older, classical dishes, and for lack of a better word, zhuzhing them up, making them look nicer and using the same techniques and putting our own spins on it," he said.
Local sourcing to circumvent cost spikes
Successful food-and-beverage outlets have always incorporated ingredients and menu items that reflect the location of the hotel, so it's no surprise that the experts say it's a focus for them this year. But it's also more practical and cost-effective, too.
St. Amand said rising costs have "impacted us tremendously." It's led to his San Antonio Marriott hotels raising the prices of their menu items, which he added is an opportunity to refine the experience in a meal. For example, they make their burgers with Texas beef and have their pastry team make the buns.
"When you can tell a story to a customer, they're willing to pay that price, but it has to be good at the end of the day," he said.
Buying items from local farmers and vendors is cheaper than sourcing elsewhere, he said, especially with rising prices pinching operations and consumers alike.
"In my opinion, it's better food. If you know the source, you know the farmer, you can tell a story. It creates an experience for a customer. I think that's a win all the way around," he said.
Increased costs cause restaurants to get more creative with their menus in order to maintain margins. Luckily for the NOPSI, most patrons are looking for seafood, which the Gulf Coast provides, Korbel said.
"We use all domestic seafood here, right out the Gulf. We're not using any foreign seafood at all, and I refuse to do that because I'm a Louisiana boy and I want to make sure our people are taken care of," he said.
Price hikes following the COVID-19 pandemic had more of an effect than tariffs imposed by the U.S. last year, Korbel said. The cost of eggs and chicken rose dramatically in price back then but have since gone down, while beef remains pricy.
No matter the price of goods, Korbel said the goal is to give the consumer a good deal for the finished product in hopes of gaining a repeat customer.
"Things change with times, and when you're making your menus, you have to change with the times, too, and you've got to roll with the punches and you have to either make portions smaller or you have to find new and creative ways to do things through the cooking methods ... to make a wonderful dish," he said.
Beverage and food
There's a common adage in the hotel industry that it should be referred to as "beverage and food" rather than "food and beverage" because beverages are what really drive profits in hospitality. Palmer said he agrees with the B&F nomenclature. There are signs and surveys pointing toward people consuming less alcohol these days, but he added that even if behaviors are changing, sales remain the same.
"They might not be drinking four drinks anymore, but they're drinking two quality drinks. Even though all the metrics say that people are drinking less, we haven't seen a significant decline in sales because I think people are choosing quality ingredients," he said.
This also aligns with a major trend in the industry, especially this month: mocktails. St. Amand said the Hugo spritz has been a popular drink at his properties.
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