In today’s hospitality world, there is a trend and concentration on food & beverage among travelers. Brands and management groups are beginning to include F&B and focus on its importance.

In a conversation with Paul Coury of Coury Hospitality on the Suite Spot, he talked about how hotels used to be places where people would go into the community and gather, whether it was a business meeting or social event. People didn’t trust that hotels had the best food offerings for what they were looking for and would go down the street.

Now, hotels are re-emerging as community spots to gather and eat. This trend is evident in several statistics.

The Rise of Culinary Tourism

71% of Gen Z and millennial travelers agree that F&B is critical to their trip-planning process. The global culinary tourism industry’s value reached $11.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.9% until 2030. 94% of U.S. restaurant industry diners base their dining decisions on reviews. 

This is why a hotel’s F&B reputation is increasingly important; 33% of diners won’t eat in restaurants with an online rating of less than 4 stars on review sites like Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Google. The margins of error are extremely thin in a restaurant versus your hotel. 

Optimizing Your Hotel’s F&B Reputation

It’s important to have a good idea of who your restaurant is competing with. Tripadvisor is a trusted review site, and if you are not familiar with and aware of where your restaurant stacks up against the competition, you won’t be able to optimize your reputation. Our TMG OneView platform lets you see your competitor’s reviews, lifetime score, and review flow. 

We already send surveys to guests after their stay, so why aren’t we doing the same with our dining experiences? In addition to guests at the property, local residents could also enjoy dining at your restaurant, and their opinions and experiences are just as important. 

At TMG, we use our Guest Experience Snapshot, powered by TMG AI, to provide detailed context for the numbers we see between positive and negative sentiment and recommendations on how we can improve. 

Responding to Your Hotel’s F&B Reviews

Responding to your F&B reviews is as important as responding to your hotel’s reviews. However, we use different languages to help with search engine placement and SEO. Rather than guests, you may say patron or customer. 

Other ways to utilize your responses include featuring your chef, mentioning where you source your food, and being influencer-friendly. 

Lastly, you can showcase seasonal items and dietary needs. The more detailed you can be to create an experience through words, the better. 

Your Hotel’s F&B Social Media Presence

Social media is just as crucial as online reviews when discussing online reputation. Social media is a part of your online reputation. There is an excellent opportunity to create a restaurant page separate from your hotel’s. You can use this page to promote events, holiday specials, or other strategies separate from your property. It is key to remember that your hotel restaurant can cater to different audiences, including guests as well as locals. 

With all this being said, it is crucial to practice active social listening. The age of phone calls is increasingly dying among 18-34-year-olds. 61% of that age group prefer receiving a message rather than an audio call, and 48% prefer communicating using social media. It will be the hotels and hotel restaurants practicing active social listening that will have the upper hand in communicating with the younger generations, who are more comfortable reaching out on social media than having to call on the phone. 

How frustrating is it when you are searching for information about a place to eat and have no information online? Social media is one of the best places to share your menu. Travelers look to social media for food items, specials, and things to know about the restaurant. 

Gaining a Competitive Edge

When travelers are doing their research on where to stay, the two biggest determinants are price and location. Engaging social media posts, great responses to reviews, and overall better reviews can potentially give you a competitive edge over other hotels.

Now, in 2025, most hotels are seeing these three things happening. So, F&B becomes that competitive edge. As this younger generation is planning their trip, they are starting to look at F&B as a major, critical component of their trip. It is the hotel restaurants and resorts that are managing their online reputation and putting themselves in the best position to see auxiliary revenue from the F&B outlet. They are also more competitive for travelers when they are doing their research.

Your Trusted Hotel F&B Reputation Partner

Travel Media Group is a trusted hotel with an F&B reputation and a partner with over 100 restaurants. We have incredible stories of a pop-up restaurant moving up 44 spots on Tripadvisor, a restaurant moving from #1,119 to #17, and a restaurant jumping 12 places from #15 to #3. 

If you are interested in learning more about TMG’s F&B solutions, we would love to hear from you!