Historically, hotels have been one of the fastest growing segments in terms of beverage alcohol sales. Led by strong growth in banquets and catering, restaurants, and bars/lounges, alcohol sales have increased an average of more than 8 percent per year over the past five years. With the economic slowdown, we’re seeing less travel, and as a result, less alcohol sales growth. Despite this, hoteliers must continue focusing on beverage alcohol to maintain sales and profitability.

At Technomic, we’ve spent considerable time and energy studying beverage trends within hotels. Consider the following:
According to our quarterly tracking, hotels make up about 4 percent of all drinking occasions away from home. Top reasons for hotel drinking occasions are vacations (no surprise there) and special occasions (either romantic moments or birthday celebrations, for example).

While vacation travelers still dominate, it’s clear from our occasion tracking that people use hotels for a lot more than just travel-related occasions, and hotel operators must be cognizant of the occasions for which their property is being used. Increasingly, local guests are also stopping by for a drink.

Hotels under-index for food consumption with alcohol, especially when compared with fine- and casual-dining independent restaurants. We counsel our hotel clients to develop food pairings, whether it be for wine, beer, or cocktails, and take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.

What are hotels doing to drive alcohol sales? In a major study recently completed on hotel food and beverage service, we probed some of the key issues and trends impacting alcohol sales within hotels. Some interesting nuggets include:

• Like many segments, hotels have benefitted from consumer demand for premium alcohol products, particularly in the wine and spirits categories.
  
• With overall demand growing somewhat sluggishly, the value of the category has continued to grow. This has been especially true for hotels.
  
• Hot trends in the hotel segment are similar to those found in nightclubs, lounges, and bars: specialty drinks, energy drink combos, and fresh ingredients. There is increased demand for training at the property level as bartenders and bar managers struggle to stay current with “ontrend” drinks.
  
• Regional wines are becoming much more popular within hotels, and wine is expected to continue its strong growth in this segment.
  
• Flexible drinking zones are gaining traction. Increasing numbers of properties provide more access points to alcohol, whether it be a lobby bar, pool bar, lounge, etc., and allow consumers to carry these drinks throughout the property.
  

Our outlook for alcohol sales within the hotel segment continues to be bullish, and we see hotels as one of the stronger on-premise segments through 2008. There is no doubt that current economic conditions are causing slowdown and sluggishness, but it is often at times like these that beverage programs become more critical. Incremental beverage sales can help boost profitability and keep customers interested. Unfortu-nately, the opposite often seems to occur. Properties take their eyes off the beverage program to the detriment of total sales and profits. Don’t let that happen at your property.