Food & beverage upselling in hotels: data, techniques, and (easy) ideas to get started

Food & Beverage upselling (also abbreviated as F&B) is a sales strategy that involves suggesting gastronomic products or restaurant services of higher value than those initially chosen by the guests of your accommodation.

This can happen in all areas involved in Food & Beverage in hotels, from the in-house restaurant to the pool bar, from room service to banqueting, including the in-room minibar and special events.

However, F&B upselling is not exclusively the domain of hotels: this practice is increasingly common even in non-hotel accommodations like B&Bs, residences, and vacation homes, where it is mainly implemented through partnerships with external suppliers.

The reason why so many hoteliers focus on F&B upselling is obvious: the market demands it resoundingly! The proof? If in 2016, 21% of Italians traveled in search of culinary experiences, in 2023 the percentage skyrocketed to 58%.

Therefore, Food & Beverage is less and less a commodity and increasingly a crucial component for the identity of your accommodation. By continuing to read, you will discover the benefits of F&B upselling and the best techniques to make it work to its fullest.

If you can turn F&B upselling into an art in your accommodation, you will find that it is not just a mere sales tactic but a “domino effect” strategy that brings immediate and tangible benefits on three fundamental levels for the success of your accommodation.

F&B upselling allows you to enhance your guests' dining experience by creating a tailored offer aimed not only at meeting their needs but also at surprising them with original services that allow them to immerse themselves in local traditions.

Moreover, good upselling will increase the perception of added value compared to the expenditure incurred and will predispose your customers to trust your advice, accepting to discover any new offers in the other areas of your accommodation facility.

A customer satisfied with their experience is more loyal and more likely to leave positive reviews about your F&B services, a crucial factor considering that 64% of Italians use breakfast as the number one criterion when choosing a hotel!

Additionally, the more unique and high-quality the Food & Beverage products and services you decide to introduce, the more you will increase the competitiveness of your establishment compared to the competition.

As we were saying, upselling is not just a simple sales tactic to increase the average check of the restaurant or bar within the hotel and, therefore, generate extra revenue for the establishment.

A good F&B upselling strategy will also allow you to optimize resources by reducing management costs and to constantly improve your offer through data analysis.

In fact, by monitoring upselling activities, you will be able to acquire valuable information on your guests' behavior and preferences, which you can use for future marketing strategies.

Interviewed during the latest Ithic (Italian Hospitality Investment Conference) fair in Rimini, Sébastien Bazin, CEO of AccorHotels, stated that 40-50% of a hotel's revenue can depend on the local community and Food & Beverage, while only 15% from travelers.

According to Bazin, hotels—especially high-end ones—should not only focus more on Food & Beverage but also fully seize the increased interest of people in culinary experiences, for example by opening the possibility of accessing high-quality dinners or aperitifs to local residents as well.

But before making any decisions regarding the recipients and products to include in your F&B upselling strategy, it's essential to measure your current results to establish a starting point.

The best metric to assess the impact of your F&B upselling strategy is one of the most important in Revenue Management: GopPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room).

This indicator allows you to understand how your business choices are affecting economic results, as it not only considers revenue from room sales but also ancillary services and all fixed and variable costs.

If you want to know the formula of GopPAR and explore all the terms of Revenue management, we suggest you always keep our Glossary of the most used words in Revenue management at hand!

The first commandment of Food & Beverage upselling is the same that every hotelier should follow before undertaking any activity within their hospitality structure: know your customer.

Without proper customer segmentation, it will be impossible to create a relevant F&B offer that meets the guests' needs and is even capable of anticipating them.

Once you have established your offer, you can move on to the actual sale. Even in this case, the sales techniques that can be used are many and vary based on the hospitality structure, the target you are addressing, and the type of food or beverage service proposed for upselling.

Below you will find 5 basic F&B upselling techniques that you can put into practice immediately:

Upselling should not only occur when the customer is seated at the restaurant table or approaches the bar. Make sure to describe every upselling proposal attractively right from the moment of booking: this is a privileged moment to help your guests savor your gastronomic offer in advance. From here on, it will be crucial to engage them throughout their journey: from check-in to Wi-Fi login, up to check-out.

Rather than asking "would you like a drink?", propose a specific cocktail or bottle of wine to your guests that goes really well with their orders. In any case, remember to avoid generic questions and always provide two desirable alternatives for the customer to choose from.

It's useless to sell the most expensive dish on the menu if preparing it means slowing down all kitchen operations. It's much better to suggest quality products for upselling that are simple and have a high-profit margin. The best example is pre-dinner aperitifs, with irresistible finger foods and excellent cocktails, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Having arrived with the pandemic, digital menus on QR codes have now definitively replaced or accompanied paper ones. The suggestion is to decide if the two tools will coexist and dedicate yourself to their complete redesign. In doing so, use both classic menu engineering techniques, which include scientific rules on how to choose the dishes to highlight, and the potential of digital, which allows, for example, to automatically propose the most relevant upselling for the viewed dish.

In addition to digital menus, technology has also entered the Food & Beverage world: systems for ordering and paying at the table autonomously, digital kiosks for ordering, and virtual sommeliers are just some of the technological innovations that can facilitate and enhance upselling strategies, especially if you do not have a staff dedicated to this activity.

Training the staff responsible for F&B upselling is crucial for the success of your strategy. Before instructing them on the most effective persuasive selling techniques, however, you must take a fundamental step: offer them a complete tasting of your menu (complete with the chef's explanation) and the opportunity to personally try all the extra services you intend to offer your guests.

Only by knowing the menu inside out, being able to explain the details of each dish and how it is prepared, and knowing how to suggest the best pairings, will your staff be able to be truly convincing in proposing Food & Beverage upselling.

A particularly effective technique in this regard (and at zero cost) is role-playing, which allows your team to simulate the sales situations that might arise during service. Thanks to this 'role-playing', each of them will be able to acquire the spontaneity and naturalness necessary to make the guest feel truly pampered and well-advised... not bombarded with clumsy sales attempts.

Now that you have discovered the infinite potential and some of the selling techniques to keep in mind if you decide to start F&B upselling in your accommodation... it is time to decide which food or beverage products or services to offer your guests!

Defining an upselling offer in the Food & Beverage sector can be less straightforward than expected, as it is necessary to take into account both management costs and the impact in terms of time and commitment from your staff.

This is why we have prepared for you a collection of the most original Food & Beverage upselling ideas, suitable for both hotel needs and non-hotel accommodation facilities.

By reading it, you will surely find the most suitable idea for you and your guests and discover that there are also easy and quick solutions that do not require large investments to start immediately.