Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Reimagine a Floor?

Many restaurants that have managed to remain open for the past year are hanging on by a thread, praying for the weather for outdoor dining to return, government restrictions to relax and consumer fear to subside. 

I'm not sure how I missed this piece by Laurie Jo Miller Farr that ran last month in The Travel Vertical, but the concept of restaurants and hotels partnering at a high level is brilliant. As she opined: "Urban hotels are removing beds, dressers, nightstands from hotel suites and re-furnishing them as private dining rooms. Limiting interaction with others, there’s a waiter to serve plated meals from a nearby restaurant and some of the guests are opting for an overnight stay. Aimed at a local targeted audience, why not?"

If you missed the story too, catch it here. This could be the bridge to Summer.

Image Credit: Le Crocodile in Brooklyn

Ghost Hotel Kitchens

We talked about Ghost Kitchens last Fall...those restaurant and food truck operations that pivoted during the pandemic in an effort to keep people employed. These entrepreneurs flipped their then underperforming kitchens to provide other culinary genres for take-out and delivery (thus "ghosts"). Imagine a Mexican place also doing pizza under a different name. Or Italian. Or...anything.

So why not apply the same concept to hotels? Those that have maintained food service operations typically do so as a loss leader (it doesn't directly make money but is central to the hotel's overall appeal...and, thus, profitability). 

These kitchens typically sit empty at lunch. Why not target those local businesses that still have employees working on site to provide lunch delivery?

Check out this recent article from Skift for more inspiration.

And, it took a pandemic to realize what an opportunity this has always been, sitting right in front of our eyes?

Oy.

Please, Don't be Another Train

If this weekend's Super Bowl parties don't result in another debilitating COVID spike over the next two weeks, that light at the end of the tunnel might be called "travel."

Our friends at Destination Analysts and Longwoods International have both been supplying DMOs and the travel industry with insights into how consumers are feeling about getting back out on the road and in the air. And, as we bounced from holiday spike to holiday spike, consumers hung on the safety bar of their personal roller coaster as travel sentiment rose and fell.

But today, as Americans feel more hopeful that the strategy for immunization is becoming more coherent, they also indicate that they are itching to get back out there. According to Destination Analysts' latest weekly study, consumers' openness to travel inspiration (marketing) is at its highest point since the pandemic reared its ugly head. And, today's release of Longwoods' latest research reveals that 81% of us say that we plan to travel in the next six months...up from 65% in mid-January and the highest since last March.

That's the kind of news we all need.

Make it Worth It

As a "Loyalty Member" at a regional movie house chain, I annually get a Birthday e-mail offering me a random free "gift" to entice me back to the theatre. And, I got one this weekend, offering me a free fountain drink as my Birthday gift.

This may have been the offer I got last year. I really don't remember, because offering me a 16 oz. Diet Pepsi won't entice me to drive 30 minutes to see a show I wasn't already considering. And, with the 'VID, the offer would have to be substantially higher to encourage me to place myself in an enclosed space with unknown protocols and no control over potentially sick patrons in the row behind me. Indeed, part of me thinks the Marketing Department forgot to update their traditional Birthday e-mail offer to better reflect pandemic reality.

You want me to put aside my health concerns and come to your theatre again? How about a free family 4-pack of tickets for my birthday? That way, you not only get us through the doors but another couple or family members as well to re-engage with your product. You lose nothing, because your seats aren't full and you gain all the overpriced concessions we'll consume. And, if we don't get sick in the next 10 days, you'll have encouraged us to return because your protocols work.

Offering me a Diet Pepsi? You simply look tone deaf. And cheap.

For those in the hospitality space that believe that special offers can kick start your recovery...go large or go home.

Abandonment

It's a pretty powerful word: Abandoned.

But that's what millions in the hospitality industry are feeling. We've shared op ed pieces and communiques from restauranteurs on this blog that encapsulate the pain. But the message fails to motivate those that we have elected to take meaningful action.

So, we try again. This time, the missive is from Edward Lee, who has been forced to close 4 restaurants during the government's response to the pandemic.

From his piece in Bon Appetit: "Unfortunately for restaurant people, our skill set doesn’t translate well to other industries. We’re hyper-focused on one thing: hospitality. And when the industry crumbles, you have an entire population of people not equipped to do other jobs. I’ve devoted 29 years of my life to this; I can’t just go sell neckties or insurance. Yet the people in power don’t see that. They don’t see restaurant workers as a valuable sector of our society. Their attitudes are, ‘Well, they can go find other jobs.’ That’s just not the case."

So True. And, so sad that we have de-evolved into a culture where partisan politics ignores human suffering.

The Next Step for DMOs

As the 'VID began to surge across America in March, Destination Marketing Organizations executed the ultimate pivot; one that was unthinkable just weeks before. Before the pandemic, DMOs helped restaurants, hotels, attractions and retail by promoting their destinations to add more potential customers to the community than just residents.

Within days, after governments shut down their hospitality economies, DMOs were racing to assist these businesses (primarily restaurants) by marketing their revised hours of operation, delivery and take-out options and more...to residents, as travel ground to a halt.

In my mind, the next step for DMOs was to find a way to assist local retailers...not an easy initiative. But, Visit Fort Collins may have cracked the code. They've just launched a new service to let residents and consumers across the country buy goods and services from local vendors from one centralized website and payment system.

Bravo...and we can't wait to see more of this type of innovation as we move into the new year!

The Re-Imagined Annual Meeting

One of the few positives that have emerged from the pandemic is how creative some of us have become. What started with Zoom Happy Hours in an attempt to maintain a sense of normalcy in the early days of the 'VID has blossomed into some pretty ingenious ways.

Take, for example, the ubiquitous DMO Annual Meeting. For the most part, these have been relatively staid events over the years...and we've been honored to keynote a bunch. But, in an era of physical distancing, DMOs have had to get creative, like the Greater Springfield MA CVB did last month.

Theirs was typically an event with food and drink...so Mary Kay Wydra and her team sent boxes to each registrant to the Zoom meeting, with instructions to not open said box until the event began. Once the Annual Meeting was gaveled to order, participants opened their boxes to find wine, beer and snacks for the meeting, as they listened to Mary Kay's recap of the year and her vision for the future. It was a great twist on an old theme in which I was honored to play a part.

Visit Jefferson Parish holds their Annual Meeting next week as a hybrid event. Those who feel comfortable gathering will mask up at a local theatre to mark the occasion while those who don't will be able to tune in from home.

And then, there's Visit Tulsa...which recently hosted their Annual Meeting at a local Drive-In movie theatre. Over 150 people munched on popcorn and watched the annual show from their cars at the Admiral Twin. And then were treated to a movie recently shot in Tulsa.

I love this industry and the creatives we get to work with every day.

Capitalizing on ThanksVIDing

As with just about everything in 2020, this year's Thanksgiving will look like no other in memory. Travel advisories, consumer fear of air travel and a hospitality industry still suffering the loss of millions of jobs are all conspiring against many of us planning to get together this year. 

And, with fewer people around our tables, how many of us will feel compelled to really put in the time we typically did? And, that's where what's left of the hospitality community has an opportunity. Restaurants around the nation are pivoting again, this time offering Thanksgiving feasts to go. Destination Madison recently shared a growing list of restaurants doing up everything from full holiday menus to pies for take-out.

But our favorite to date has to be what Tulsa's BOK Center and Cox Business Convention Center are doing. With neither facility seeing much business these days, one could expect them to stay dark over the holiday. Instead, the in-house catering team from these facilities is whipping up fully cooked and chilled Thanksgiving dinners (with reheating instructions included with each order) to "make your guests think you spent all day in the kitchen." Honestly, what a sensational way to keep staff from these two facilities engaged and employed while providing a huge number of meals thanks to vast kitchens at their disposal.

Really smart.

What it's Really Like

As I've told audiences on several virtual Annual Meeting presentations we have done for Destination Marketing Organizations, what we thought would be a universal understanding of the pain caused by government-ordered shutdowns simply hasn't happened. And, that's because a lot of people don't work in hospitality and can't fathom the depth of pain we feel. They're still working; getting a regular paycheck and benefits. They may be inconvenienced by the 'VID...but they aren't looking at eviction.

Terri and I have a special affinity for Hell's Kitchen, a Minneapolis bar-restaurant that hosted our DMO client-and-friend reception when Destinations International met in the Twin Cities in 2016. If you were there, you know how nasty cool this employee-owned spot is.

Terri continues to be tickled by their irreverent e-mail marketing (We're happy to be offering delivery & curbside pickup so you can take a little Hell home with you)...but shared this recent missive with me last evening. While the majority of the e-mail was about opportunities to make Hell's Kitchen part of their fans' Halloween, there was this at the close of their message:

As promised, we want to keep you up to date with how HK is surviving COVID because so many of you have written that you like our "behind the scenes" news. Even though we expanded our hours and delivery range dramatically last month, the truth about trying to survive COVID as a large, downtown restaurant with high fixed costs and real estate taxes remains harsh:

We're thrilled with all the orders we've received for Pickup and Delivery, but the numbers don't lie: our total September 2020 income was just four percent of what we brought in September 2019. That's not a typo: our business is down 96% compared to last year's same period.

Our staff roster pre-covid was 155--it's now at 7, and that's after bringing back more employee-owners to help with delivery and expanded hours.

When we first closed down on March 16, we were completely debt-free and had money in the bank. That's why we were so positive in April..."don't worry, folks. We have our savings account to get us through this temporary setback" (keep reading to see why we're still optimistic). On March 16, our "current" payables to food and service vendors amounted to approximately $193,000 (we've always paid invoices on time, so nothing was past due). Of that amount, we've paid off all but $15,000 and are almost caught up. We're thrilled that we've been able to honor our commitments to our critical food suppliers, but it drained our savings completely.

As the virus continued to drag on into fall and we still had mounting bills (remember, our "burn rate" while closed is still well over $50k/month), we were finally forced to dip into our PPP funds in early September. Many people think "but that government stimulus PPP money was forgiven, wasn't it?" Nope; in fact, NONE of it was forgiven because we did not have anyone on payroll during the government's "time limit," a restriction which made NO sense whatsoever for restaurants throughout the country that were (or are) still shut down to help control the spread of the virus. So ALL of our PPP money is now DEBT which now must be paid back.

Re the PPP loan: No matter how frustrating it was to once more take on debt, we're still grateful, because we honestly feel this loan will give us a long enough runway to survive COVID through next spring if we spend our pennies wisely. Our mantra is "Every. Penny. Counts." For example, we now drag the soiled linens home each week rather than pay the linen service. We moved all of our banquet supplies from our rented storage lockers ($412/mo) to our empty dining rooms. We cancelled every contract we could (grrr to those mega companies who don't give a damn). Even our many phone lines are now down to only a few, and our unused bar coolers/refrigerators are turned off to save on our electrical bill. Baby steps, righhhht?

That's our story and yes, we still have a lotta moxie and hope. We didn't share these details to despair, guilt-trip or inspire fear; our skeleton crew is doing an amazing job guiding the business back to safe harbor and we're confident that Hell's Kitchen will weather the storm. We only share these admittedly-scary numbers because we want everyone to understand the reality of running a downtown restaurant that was dependent on 1) office occupancy, 2) hotel occupancy, 3) convention center activity and 4) visitors to downtown music, sports, and theatre events.

So whether you're in NYC, Nashville, L.A., Seattle, Charlotte, Houston, Chicago or any other major metropolitan area, don't forget to also support the indies that have helped make your downtown experiences unique and marvelous all these years. Those "takeout and delivery" orders mean the world to us all as we wait for this nightmare to be over. Your help now allows us to get back to normal and take care of you when our dining rooms finally reopen.

Be well, stay swell and VOTE!

We know Hell's Kitchen will survive; it's who they are. But, did you catch all the contracts they've canceled? What about those companies...and the ones that depend on them? The ripple is frightening. And, most Americans don't recognize that this all will impact them in the next year.

Did you also pick up on the real estate taxes that contribute to their "sunk costs?" That government has ordered these businesses closed, shouldn't there be some relief there, as well?

And, of course, Congress continues to sit on its hands.

Be well, stay swell and VOTE, indeed.

Culinary Ghosts

As we shared last Thursday, the impact of the government's ham-handed response to the 'VID has hit restaurants and hospitality businesses especially hard. Here in Madison, a number of iconic restaurants have closed for the winter...and some have sadly closed forever.

An hour or so south of the Mad City, a number of Rockford restaurants have taken a different tack, creating what they call "Ghost Restaurants." These are eateries that exist virtually and often offer fare that isn't on the menu at the host kitchen but is still prepared there. Like a Mexican restaurant selling pizza and an Italian restaurant selling wings.

In an article in the Rockford Register-Star, restauranteur Paul Sletten said, “I had staff who needed hours. I had our hog farmer Joe at McKenna Farms who needed to sell pigs. It was less about making money and more about helping our staff...we have about 19 employees, and we have made work for all of them.”

And isn't that what people in the hospitality industry do? Look out for each other? So sad that some of the most noble business people around are being left adrift by our elected officials.