Why Food Trucks are a Great Addition to Hotel Offerings
Food trucks and trailers are everywhere and have gained a lot of popularity among business owners and managers during the last 2 years in the midst of the current Covid-19 pandemic struggles. One of the key and currently crucial benefits is that you can use a trailer as an outdoor solution and trade all year around. There are also many further reasons why a food truck makes a great addition to hotel offerings and they’re not all pandemic related!
In this article we will bring you through reasons why a food truck or an airstream trailer is a great long-term investment for the hospitality sector.
11 Reasons to own a food truck in the hospitality sector
- As a luxury hotel you need to make sure that your menu is always the same and that your guests can always expect the best, highest standard of food. You need to keep the menu the same at all times to ensure your loyal customers always come back at your doors. Also you may have some specialty dishes you are known for that attract visitors to your restaurant. With a catering unit, you will be able to expand on your current menu, as well as be more experimental. In a food truck you can include more casual meals that will also appeal to children visiting with their parents. Some of our clients also use their trailers to expand their kitchen capacities to be able to always meet high volume of production for their busy hotels.
- Many hotels offer wedding catering services to their guests. With an airstream trailer you can offer a beautiful looking prosecco bar to your customers as well as serve warm gourmet dishes. Airstream trailers look elegant and make a perfect backdrop for wedding photography. Catering services can also be extended to corporate parties.
- A mobile unit serves as another stream of income as it allows for tapping into the local community coffee market. Many clients of ours park their trailer at their front gate and serve meals and beverages to their local community. People love to walk around gorgeous hotel locations and will come back for sure if they like what’s on the menu. You can include a wide variety of products such as coffees, teas, muffins and croissants as well as more filling options like sandwiches, wraps or burgers that people can enjoy on the go.
4. With a catering trailer you can promote your hotel in different parts of the country! Bring your truck to a food market or rent a spot in a pubs/ restaurants parking lot and serve meals from your hotel menu. Run a competition on social media to get your hotel trending, eg. ‘The best photo competition’ in which the winner gets a discount to stay at your hotel. You can also take part in charitable events with your mobile unit and raise awareness for your brand. You can also take part in big, local events such as Christmas markets, Halloween events and many more.
5. People love street food! Your hotel guests will be delighted with an option to get something different during their little get away! There is something about the experience getting a little cup of coffee from a bespoke catering unit. Also people love walking around gorgeous hotel grounds so it will be handy for them to have a food trailer within close proximity.
6. An eye-catching food truck design can help your brand trend on social media. People love taking photos of and in front of aesthetically pleasing trailers. You can be sure that a cool design will not go unnoticed and will be shared by your visitors on social platforms. Also nice and vibrant snaps make lovely memories and increase a chance of feelings of nostalgia to attract your visitors back to your hotel.
7. With a catering unit you can further utilise your outdoor dining capabilities. Simply put out chairs and tables near your catering unit and create a fabulous looking eatyard in your front or back area! This will give you another chance to increase your streams of income by attracting the local community to the outdoor seating area. Also with the current restrictions for indoor dining you will rest assured that you will not miss out on your unvaccinated target audience.
8. A food truck is a multifunctional unit and you can change its use depending on season. For example you can focus on ice cream and cold beverages in summer months and change your menu to hot coffees and treats during winter.
9. Food trucks are very cost effective and economical to run. You only need limited staff to run it for you. You don’t need to put much hotel resources into the unit.
10. A food trailer will help you stand out from the competition as your hotel will have an extra service and provide a pleasant experience for your guests.
11. Food trucks are relatively cheap and guarantee a high return on investment. Read on to see a testimonial from our client IncheyDoney Lodge and Spa and how successful they were with their catering trailer!
CLIENT PROJECTS
Incheydoney Lodge and Spa
This 4 star hotel serves pizzas, coffees, ice cream and much more! See the testimonial below!🙂
‘We have been operating as a 4 star hotel on the coast in West Cork for many years and have been looking at an option to give us another Food and Beverage outlet to complement our existing offerings. We tried a few temporary solutions with limited success. In January 2020 we ordered an Airstream catering trailer from Reward Catering, which despite pandemic disruption was delivered on time in early Summer. With it we are able to consistently deliver a high quality product at high capacity. It looks great and has repaid its capital cost very quickly. It’s been a great addition and we’re delighted with it.
The Airstream trailer is a proper professional unit which will last the test of time (it’s still looking great) and the delivery and aftersales from Reward Catering have been great.’
Des O’Dowd – hotel owner
Montenotte Hotel
Our client requested this custom made vintage van and now serves delicious gourmet sandwiches, sweet treats and specialty coffees to take away. The Vintage Van cafe is open 7 days a week and is another great stream of cash flow. The local Cork community absolutely loves this vintage look!
Abbeyleix Hotel
Polly’s Food truck is a great addition to current hotel offerings. This airstream trailer includes a custom built-in oven unit that allows Abbeylix hotel to serve authentic, wood-fired pizzas and burgers! The unit was built to fit a coffee machine and fridge to store all their lovely cakes! Polly’s proudly support Irish charities such as Irish Cancer Society and raised funds during Daffodil Day.
Radisson Blu
This well known hotel has found many different uses for our unit! This beautiful airstream is now used as a cocktail and gin bar, coffee and food trailer and is also used during wedding events! It covers many streams of income and is a very flexible and practical addition to the hotel offerings.
The Adare Manor
This 5 star hotel and golf course use the retro-styled food truck as a takeaway street-food unit. The trailer was built to accommodate a wide menu ranging from gourmet burgers, pizzas, tacos, rolls, salads, fries, ice-cream, desserts and much more!
How can Reward Catering help your hospitality business?
We have extensive experience in manufacturing custom built trucks and trailers. We will discuss in detail the requirements for your individual project and advise you on the best suited unit and internal equipment. We are a one stop solution so we take care of sourcing and supplying the trailer with all appliances necessary.
Sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with a catering unit! We have made food trucks for many different clients and have covered projects such as: coffee trailers, pizza trailers, fish and chips trailers, Thai food, muffins and pastries, ice cream trailers, seafood trailers, healthy smoothies, prosecco bars, gin bars, cocktail bars and many more! So whatever your vision is, we can make it happen!
Learn more with our free resources!
Interested in getting a trailer for your hospitality business?
You may find this resource useful ‘How to get started with a food truck business’
Also check out our blog ‘Profitability of Food Trucks’ and learn more about mobile catering!
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