Why hotel F&B and hip-hop music still challenge me

INTERNATIONAL REPORT — I started working in hotel F&B in the late 90s, the era of Britpop, grunge, and hip-hop. I know it’s an unlikely comparison, but both hip hop and hotel F&B still baffle me, and both remain something of a challenge!

I was a fan of soul, Motown, and reggae, and never really understood hip hop, but clearly it works. Hotel F&B is different. It’s just as common, but far less successful. And yet we keep repeating the same model, rarely asking whether it actually works.

Wind back the clock to the late 90s. I had one of the first corporate hotel F&B roles in the U.K. with a very well-known hotel group. As I started to get involved in development projects, something struck me almost immediately: I was being handed hotel projects and told how many F&B venues there would be, where they would sit within the hotel, and even what the concepts were.

It felt like someone had already made up their mind…

Naturally curious, I asked a simple question: Who made these decisions? There were too many venues, in the wrong places, with the wrong concepts. The answer came back quickly; it was the architect, the owner, or sometimes even the facility or kitchen planner. Importantly, it wasn’t us, the hotel operator.

Failure baked in

When the hotels opened, the F&B venues generally struggled. Perhaps the operating team was content with 20 distressed covers a night, but in my book, they had failed.

At the time, I hoped this was an anomaly. It wasn’t.

Fast forward 30 years, and it is still happening. People still scratch their heads, wondering why hotel restaurants are empty, while the trade press celebrates the entrepreneurial energy of standalone operators. Hotel restaurants are dismissed as dull, predictable, and lacking flair. It’s hardly surprising.

Learn from shopping malls? Never!

In parallel, I’ve spent much of the same period working on F&B master planning for some of the world’s largest mixed-use developments and malls. The contrast is stark.

There has been a change. In that world, F&B is no longer an afterthought. It is planned as a system. Each tenancy is intentionally positioned to support a wider narrative, whether centered on innovation, sustainability, heritage, or lifestyle. The overall mix is deliberately structured to outperform its individual components, balancing capacity with realistic, sustainable demand.

Right-sizing is not based on instinct; it is a disciplined approach to managing commercial risk.

From amenity to asset: the strategic role of F&B

When approached in this way, F&B becomes something far more powerful. It is deployed as a strategic lever to activate the asset, driving footfall, increasing dwell time, and enhancing commercial performance. It has become a structural component of placemaking and long-term asset value. You hear language in the world of mixed-use that rarely appears in hotels: quantum, sustainable volumes and programming. In hotels, operators are often told to make do with what they are given.

At least hip hop was different…

I find it surprising that this anomaly with hotel F&B decision-making continues. So, how do we start doing things differently? There is no simple answer, but there are signs of change. In mixed-use developments, a new generation of asset managers is emerging, more informed, more analytical, and more willing to challenge assumptions. They are asking better questions and these could be mirrored in hotels.

Owners may begin to ask:

• Have we really thought this through?
• Maybe a big chef or franchise isn’t the right answer.
• Should we seek independent, specialist advice?
• Is leasing actually the right solution?

Leasing fixes everything?

I first encountered leasing in hotel F&B around 20 years ago, when an owner said enthusiastically, “It’s fine, we’ll lease the outlets.” I never quite understood the reassurance.

We were effectively handing over part of the asset to a third party whose priorities were not necessarily aligned with the hotel, its guests, or the asset's long-term value.

And then there are celebrity chefs. I’ve played my part in bringing them into hotels across the world, but the reality is this: you are often investing millions in an individual, not a company.

At some point, that individual may decide he/she no longer want the grind of advising/running a hotel restaurant, and you won’t spot it until it’s too late!

So, as the dance floor empties tonight, across the world, hotel restaurants sit half-empty while just beyond their doors, other venues are full and thriving.

And whilst I know hip hop isn’t going to change, there is hope for hotel F&B. Because, in the words of the Jamaican dancehall classic, Ring the Alarm: another sound is dying.

Contributed by Stefan Breg is managing partner at F&B consulting firm Keane.

Note: The following contributed perspective was submitted through ISHC.

The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel Investment Today or Northstar Travel Group and its affiliated companies.