F&B&E: the new profitability lever?

Olivier Bon, Co-Founder of Experimental Group “[Clients] travel a lot and have access to a lot of things”

Experimental Group is a fairly young hotel group, our first hotel is just 8 years old. It was initially a restaurant group. We opened cocktail bars around the world, and restaurants. We are present in 7 countries. We started out with a love of good food and that's what has fuelled our DNA of always having great decor and great food as well as great service and a unique atmosphere. In the countries where we set up shop, we took inspiration from the style of the destinations we were in rather than trying simply to duplicate a set style.

When we started in the hotel business, we didn't have the ambition to revolutionise nights - they were already very well honed. So, we brought a lot of services. It was our pre-existing experience in F&B that allowed us to bring in many new things. For example, we worked on the mini-bar in the rooms by eliminating the mass consumption products that customers were used to seeing. We also worked on a different coffee offer. We have worked on details that make our hotel rooms better than the rest of what was on offer on our 4- and 5-star categories.

Fifteen years ago, when we chose our name Experimental Group; we had no idea how on-trend this would become as everyone now travels for an increasingly unique experience.

The central role of F&B

We were not the first to work on this subject, but our experience in F&B has meant that we have always brought a lot of F&B into our hotels. One of my mentors in the hotel business, André Balazs, used to say that to make a successful hotel you have...