Can Hospitality Feed the Next Breakfast Boom?

So, how can foodservice operators take advantage?

One place to start is by looking at hotels, where occupancy rates are also rebounding, and breakfast is a major part of the customer experience. For these reasons, hotel restaurants have already begun researching and preparing for the latest in breakfast trends.

Here are 3 ways their movements are telegraphing what to expect across the foodservice industry as a whole.

1. Hotels Are Being Intentional About Breakfast Menu Innovation

According to The Source Hotel’s Chef Alon Shaya, in a piece recently published on Foodservice Director, “Hotels have to always outdo one another to get guests to stay there versus the competition.”

He and others cited in the article are finding breakfast and brunch are critical to winning this game, namely for how well they afford chefs “the creativity to flex their muscles.”

But, in the same breath, Shaya says, “It’s a delicate balance to offer something special and still hit all the notes people are seeking.”

For foodservice operators trying to compete in any segment, following hotels’ lead in menu innovation is about exploring new breakfast concepts and ethnic flavors, including customization, but also staying true to traditional breakfast expectations and, more importantly, what sells.

2. Hotels Are Shifting Toward Breakfast To Go

Handheld menu items, food-holding expansion and other off-premises-inspired operational ideas have been pervasive in our blog across all kinds of topics, from shrinking kitchens to school crunch-time cafeterias to younger generations’ immense demand for convenience.

If there were any question about how imperative this shift really is, it’s quite telling when hotels are making the investment, even for their more traditional start-your-day meal offering.

In a recent edition of Lodging, Spot On F&B Services Group principal, Don Falgoust, explains, “People don’t really sit down and eat breakfast like they used to in hotels with the scrambled eggs, sausage, bread and potatoes. I think people are looking more for a great cup of coffee and something a little bit more easily [transportable].”

This might explain why Hospitality Trends leading breakfast items for 2024, including muffins, pastries, overnight oats and grab-and-go waffles, are finding their way on other foodservice menus as well.

3. Hotels Are Redefining Their Breakfast Daypart Window

Reflective of their guest activities, hotel kitchens have typically held to more conventional daypart menu schedules. But even these operators are resetting their clocks.

In its Away-From-Home Breakfast Multi Client Study, Technomic reports 83% of consumers, at least occasionally, order breakfast foods outside of traditional breakfast hours. And that number is crossing into hotel foodservice as well.

Specifically, Hospitality Trends identifies “significant growth between 9 a.m. and noon. By comparison, early morning visits from 6 to 9 a.m. (reminiscent of the ol’ continental breakfast) have either decreased or stayed flat.”

When considering trends outside of hotel stays, such as working from home and the way it’s blurring daypart distinctions entirely, it’s easy to see how promising an all-day breakfast menu can be in virtually any foodservice segment.