More Than a Frozen Pineapple

Pool & beach outlets; a must-have for the “The Gourmet Bleisure Traveler”

In today’s world, when making a hotel reservation, market research indicates that guests are looking at more than just the room type and hotel locations. Guests today are looking for authentic, memorable, locally relevant experiences and this couldn’t truer when it comes to Food & Beverage.

To make this even more important than ever, as travel recovers from the pandemic many Marriott International hotels are seeing a shift from a business guest strategy to a more leisure-focused one. In this new reality, guests are limiting recurrent travels and therefore blending their travel with business & leisure creating a new market segment called “The Gourmet Bleisure Traveler”.

With this in mind, along with an increase of local communities using our facilities for day use, capitalizing on our outdoor facilities, unique swimming pools, cabanas, beaches, and water sports. It’s safe to say these new bleisure guests are looking for more than a frozen pineapple.

Take a look at a few of the tips that can make or break your pool & beach facility.

Cool & efficient menus:

As the expression goes, “the first bite is with the eye”. Running a restaurant is about making great food but a huge factor that contributes to its success is how the menu is presented. You can use these elements as a marketing strategy for example. For a pool area, the goal is to get people to want to buy and a cool fun menu is the first step to doing that. Creative ways to display menus are by using things around the pool area such as beach balls, paddles, or even little buckets for kids' menus. Another great use of the menu is Mobile Dining. Responding to the increased customer interaction in the digital world guests can be independent, order anytime without waiting for servers. With guests being able to order directly from their mobile phones new opportunities to create custom packages and bundles. No more menus flying around because of wind, use creative solutions for QR codes, and embrace technology.

Crafted beverages:

A thoughtful beverage menu in a Pool and Beach setting is of paramount importance as our target audience is very diverse, with age, culture and time of day, all playing a part. Long frozen cocktails and buckets of beer continue to be synonymous with this outdoor experience. However, the program needs to be appealing to all guest types, as well as incorporate trends that have become the new norm in beverage programming. Mixology should be elevated and offer a variety of formats such as creative ice-pop drinks, non-alcoholic specialties, classics with a twist, spritz drinks, and a cabana bottle service amongst others.

Focused concepts:

Developing a concept with a clear identity is the first step in becoming a specialized outlet that can be known and marketed as such. Long gone are the days of generic outlets trying to please everyone and end up satisfying no one. This philosophy even applies to pool & beach outlets. As a great example take a look at Mare by Bussola at the Westin Mina Seyahi Beach & Resort Dubai. The hotel features a well-known Italian restaurant, Bussola, and one of the longest pools in the Middle East. Creatively executed, Mare leverages on the established Bussola name to create a pool club on one of the edge areas of the pool. Marketed as a lifestyle destination this venue attracts local residents and travelers alike.

Want more?

For creative and effective guidelines on how to re-position or re-energize your pool & beach operation please visit our dedicated MGS site.