5 Ways to Measure Hotel Kitchen Performance
A hotel kitchen is a complex entity that involves many tasks and management responsibilities in order to operate effectively. Depending on the size of the hotel kitchen, you may be responsible for creating meals for hundreds of guests in a single evening. Because of the large output required of many hotel kitchens, it is important to monitor hotel kitchen performance. There are several ways to evaluate the performance of your hotel kitchen, and these five
methods will help give you a clearer understanding of your kitchen's efficiency levels.
Customer Opinion Cards
One of the easiest ways to evaluate the performance of your hotel's kitchen is to provide hotel guests with opinion cards or comment cards. Use small index cards, printed with a short survey for guests to fill out. Guests are often willing to fill out comment cards because they care about your establishment and want to voice their opinions. You can use guest opinions to make changes in operation and management.
Wait Staff Tips
Satisfied customers provide wait staff with larger tips than unsatisfied customers. Keeping a record of the tip amounts that your wait staff are receiving is a way to gauge customer satisfaction. Even though tips should ideally be awarded based on the quality of service, the quality of food and the timeliness of order delivery, ir is often the efficiency of the kitchen that guests are evaluating when deciding how much to tip at a hotel restaurant.
Published Hotel Dining Reviews
Obviously, published reviews of dining in your hotel restaurant is a great indicator of your kitchen's performance. If food critics rave about your hotel's food, you're doing something right. If the reviews leave something to be desired, you may need to go back to the drawing board.
Profit Margins
The profits generated by a hotel restaurant may be the clearest indicator of your kitchen's performance. However, profit margins won't tell you what needs to be fixed. They will only let you know if there is a problem with your hotel's kitchen.
Waste Output
The waste output of your hotel kitchen is another important indicator of the efficiency of the kitchen. Excessive amounts of waste may be an indicator of inefficiencies that could be cutting into your hotel kitchen's profits. One of the biggest sources of waste in a hotel kitchen is spoiled or rotting food. Because food is purchased in bulk quantities in order to accommodate a large number of diners, food is more likely to spoil before it can be used. If your hotel kitchen is dealing with excessive amounts of wasted food, there is a problem with the ordering and inventory process. Keeping detailed inventory lists and measuring the precise quantities of food that are used at your hotel will help you increase the efficiency and performance of your hotel kitchen.
Your hotel kitchen's performance will directly dictate the positive reactions you get from customers, hotel guests, and diners who visit your hotel. When customers are happy, the profits generated by your hotel kitchen will increase dramatically. Measuring your performance with these five methods will give you an idea of where your kitchen stands and what areas could use improvement.