Food is a very important part of our life. You can surely win anybody’s heart by offering delicious food. People are very particular about their food especially when they are traveling. In fact their selection of hotel (to stay) greatly depends on their eating habits. So if you want to attract more visitors to your hotel then offering good food is a good idea. In fact offering good food can make a guest or casual diner come to your hotel again.

The current economy has affected every individual at the micro level. So, the hotel and travel industry is expecting to see tougher times for a while yet. In order to sustain these tougher conditions the hotel and travel industry players need to gear up and come up with new innovative business ideas. Here are some of the findings based on experts study on food trends for hotels and restaurants expected for the year 2009 that can help you in business decisions.

• Straight from the farm to the Table cuisine is now-a-days getting very popular. A customer might ask, and would be delighted to know about where the food comes from, and can be a great selling point for wait staff when taking orders. If it’s structure properly can be used to up sell.

• With market ups and downs and changing inflation rates, changing menus is an ideal thing to do.

• Customization and personalization sometimes can make your customer feel special. Considering a slight change in the menu or taste, to suit your customer needs is worth it. Strong Return Guest programs could record like and dislikes of particular guests.

• 2009 will be a year of cost cuttings, savings and restoring the economic health. Consider things like half glass wine, happy hours, offering several snacks type foods that are a better option for customers as compared to a fixed priced complete dinner.

• In today’s fast paced life people are unable to stick to the traditional timings of breakfast, lunch or dinner. You should be ready to serve them food according to their needs anytime.

• Restaurants that are open late night are very convenient for business travelers. In fact business travelers choose hotels (to stay) that have late night restaurant services.

• Dining in different areas of the hotel other than the traditional restaurant, bar can add uniqueness and a lasting memory. Creating a rainforest effect in the ballroom for a couple of sittings or out in the garden is fast getting popular. So, offering this kind of services can give guests and visitors an exciting and fun filled experience.

• Complimentary restaurant services like serving breakfast or tea/coffee round the clock is an important thing for luring visitors. According to a study 72% of vacation travelers and 71% of business travelers check this kind of services before choosing hotels to stay.

• With globalization the world has come closer. People travel to different places of the world and enjoy different type of food. So, prepare to serve any all kinds of food i.e. Chinese, African, Japanese etc.

• Herbs in particular Tarragon was not much used till recent times, is gaining popularity among chefs these days, probably through programs from Gordon Ramsey! Leading chefs around the world are now recommending including this ingredient in their menus.

• More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of being eco-friendly. So, stop supplying those water bottles and offer sparkling filtered tap water. If It tastes nice then less will need to be thrown out at the end of service.

The Kenson Team

For all the visually disabled people; now here’s a reason to smile. New technological developments have made Talking Menus, a reality.

Now you can easily listen to the menu and decide on your favorite dish. The technology was developed by a company in the US with the thought in mind of solving the problem faced by visually impaired people.

However the interesting part is that, this new technology proved to be very helpful in restaurants that have low lit areas, especially during the evening time.

Low lighting levels in restaurants seem to be the norm these days all in the name of creating “atmosphere”.

The Lion and Rose – a famous pub and restaurant based in San Antonio, Texas is one such place where this technology is successfully implemented. Lion and Rose has always taken initiatives to improve quality wise, service wise and keeping up with the emerging technologies.

In an effort of keeping up to its commitment the operators of The Lion and Rose went looking for a technology that could help in reading menus in the low lit areas of the restaurant particularly in the evening time and candle night dinners. A solution was found at a Miami based company – Menus That Talk in December, 2007.

Menus That Talk is a handy electronic device that reads out the items or contents of a menu to its customer.

It is a portable DVD case sized device which helped customers in chandelling the device efficiently. The buttons are lit to enable easy operating in low lit areas and navigating between customizable menus.

The user could easily find buttons even in the darkest place. When the user presses a button on the device, it reads out the option and informs the user about the selected option.

To help the visually disabled, buttons are identified in Braille. The device is a cost effective measure that can eliminate the cost of generating and maintaining the conventional menu cards. All menus can be easily fitted into it no matter how big or small including the restaurants logo.

It also has a detachable speaker and a volume control to adjust according to your privacy. The device can also be paired with the Telecoil based hearing aids.

The menu displays the items categorically viz. seafood, appetizers, steaks, sandwiches and lavish beers etc. The menu is interpreted in both, a male voice and a female voice. Presently the taking menu at Loin and Rose uses a British female voice. It can be changed according to the customer needs.

Since its introduction the talking menu has been amusing every guest at the restaurant. Kids enjoy listening to the menu; adults prefer to listen to the menu rather that reading it. Aged people loved it as they didn’t have to use their spectacles. Management report, this was a great business idea and was worth the spend.