SPIRITED SUMMER 2015

SUMMER 2015

The Official Magazine of the World Class Beverage Program

IHG & Coca-Cola introduce

The Share Forever Cocktail Collection is a key in-hotel component of this year’s biggest campaign, inviting guests to sip, earn and share rewards like never before.

Talking F&B with Elie Maalouf Food and beverage is integral to IHG delivering on our promise of exceptional hospitality and being #1, according to the new Chief Executive Officer for The Americas.

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IHG wins VIBE award

IN THIS ISSUE

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Talking F&B with Elie Maalouf

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Breakfast Battle Plan

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Burger Theory

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Holiday Inn® F&B Task Force

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ART U F&B Winners

Fintech Alcohol Electronic Payment System

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IHG Frontline: On-demand Training

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Partner Profile: IHG/Coca-Cola Share Forever Campaign

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Year 2 for IHG/Coke Strategic Alliance

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Southern Art Named #1 in USA TODAY Poll

A High-Impact, High-Profile Summer Welcome to the beginning of a busy summer season! We’re keeping the F&B momentum going strong with a number of important new initiatives. One of these is the launch of our Breakfast Battle Plan. Through our research, guests across all our brands have told us that a fresh, delicious and appealing breakfast is paramount to a satisfying stay. In this issue you can read about how our hotels are taking on delivering this and raising our Breakfast HeartBeat.

And summer wouldn’t be summer without a spectacular partner promotion with The Coca-Cola Company. Our cover story features this year’s campaign, Share Forever. This joint effort is our biggest to date and includes an exciting new beverage element—the Share Forever Cocktail Collection.

Finally, we’re delighted to hear from our new Americas CEO, Elie Maalouf, in our “Talking F&B With...” feature.

Elie has a rich food and beverage background and is passionate about the power of F&B to strengthen our brands. Enjoy this issue!

Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray Vice President, Food & Beverage, Americas InterContinental Hotels Group

‘ Moments of Happiness’ Campaign Captures VIBE Award IHG, Coca-Cola and Riedel Glassware team up for a win

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ake three iconic brands that are leaders in their respective industries, bring them together in Atlanta to announce a unique new product, and what do you get? A successful, high-profile promotion that won the 2015 VIBE Vista Award for Best Special Event or Single Brand Promotion in the Multi-Unit Chain Hotels, Casinos and Cruise Lines category.

The “Moments of Happiness” promotion brought together the InterContinental® Hotels brand, Coca-Cola® and Riedel® Glassware for a beverage-themed, media special event that created targeted visibility for all three partners.

The project began when the Coca-Cola Company approached world-renowned Riedel Glassware to craft a special, lead-free crystal cocktail glass reflecting the traditional Coke bottle contour and specifically designed to bring out the distinctive spices, aroma and taste of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola and Riedel then approached long-time Coke beverage partner IHG to develop a limited-time (July through September 2014) promotional campaign featuring the unique new glass and designed to stimulate renewed interest in Coca-Cola as a cocktail mixer. IHG tapped the InterContinental brand to craft a collection of 11 global-themed cocktails, each featuring Coca-Cola and representing a different country or continent, and all served in the unique new glass.

The three partner brands united behind a central message of hope, happiness and optimism for the promotion, inspired by Pictured above: InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta Food & Beverage Director Jason Deville (second from left) and Donna Frederick, Senior Accounts Manager, Beam Global Spirits and Wine, accept the VIBE award for Best Special Event or Single Brand Promotion.

themes from Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” television campaign. The promotion tagline: “Enjoy this limited time experience and add a Moment of Happiness to your day.”

The name of each drink was selected to support the Moments of Happiness theme, such as “Brilliant,” “Joy” and “Fantastic.” Two examples: “Nuwe,” or “New” (Africa), featuring mint leaves, cucumber slices, gin, cumin tincture and Coca-Cola, and “Beautiful” (America), made with Applejack, fresh lime juice, pomegranate grenadine and Coca-Cola.

The InterContinental Buckhead in Atlanta was designated the hospitality launch point for the debut of the new glass and cocktails. Promotional activities centered around a media-focused tasting event in August that included representatives of national, regional and local Atlanta print, electronic and online media outlets, along with other guests, and generated more than 75 million impressions.

By the end of the promotional period, the InterContinental Buckhead had sold 229 of the specialty cocktails and realized a 10 percent increase in liquor sales versus the previous year.

“We are delighted to win the VIBE award for this unusual promotion,” says Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage, Americas. “Its success was a testament to the strength of our three brands and the power of partnership.”

If you are interested in learning more about the “Moments of Happiness” promotion or incorporating the concept into your bar or special events programs, contact Mark Greenhalgh, IMI Agency, at mark@imiagency. com or 770-928-1980.

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Creating Memorable Food & Beverage Moments

TALKING F&B WITH

ELIE MAALOUF

Elie Maalouf’s upbringing was in the heart of the Mediterranean and his career has taken him all over the world to work with a host of food and beverage brands. In a recent interview, the new Chief Executive Officer for the Americas talked about what it takes to get F&B right, as well as the fresh, flavorful delights of Lebanese cooking.

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ANY FOODSERVICE EXPERIENCE IN YOUR BACKGROUND? “My family is Lebanese, and my mother is a fantastic cook. I was born in the U.S., but my father was a U.N. diplomat, and we lived in Rome from the time I was very young through high school. In both the Lebanese and Italian cultures, life centers around dining and hospitality, and it was a powerful combination for me.

restaurant in the Hotel Indigo® Shanghai on the Bund, I had some of the best cod I’ve ever tasted. My family and I have enjoyed some great meals at the Kimpton® Tideline in West Palm Beach. I could go on for days about our great culinary expertise. Examples like these are a testament to what our F&B teams are capable of creating.”

ANY F&B “PET PEEVES?”

“After getting my MBA from the University of Virginia, I spent eight years in the Food is meant to be shared and enlivened by conversation. If I had to name home-building and community development industry before reconnecting a pet peeve, it would be loud music or noise in the restaurant, such that you with F&B at HMSHost Corporation. During my 14 years there, I worked with can’t engage in conversation and really enjoy the meal. hundreds of brands, opening upscale restaurants and retail shops in airports and other travel destinations worldwide. About 80 percent of the outlets DO YOU COOK, AND IF SO, WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR were food-and-beverage-related and included well-known brands such as SPECIALTIES? Starbucks and celebrity dining locations with Todd English and other high“Yes—I love to cook and prepare meals with my family. It creates a wonderful profile chefs, as well as custom restaurant concepts.” opportunity for us to put our busy lives aside for a while and spend time together. On Saturday mornings, my wife, Kathy, and my three sons—who WHAT DOES A GREAT DINING EXPERIENCE LOOK LIKE? are 19, 17 and 12—and I go to the local farmer’s market to see what’s there. We “To be outstanding, a dining experience must accomplish two things. First, it collect produce, fruit, vegetables and meat to make soups, salads and grilled has to be right for the moment, whether it’s a special occasion, a business dishes from the items we find fresh and appealing.” function, a family meal or friends dining out. Second, the experience should be authentic and meaningful, delivering the right service, an interesting WHAT ROLE WILL FOOD AND BEVERAGE PLAY IN IHG’S menu, the proper style and the right atmosphere. We have the opportunity to FUTURE SUCCESS? elevate and enrich our guests’ dining experience, whether they are enjoying “IHG’s promise is to deliver great hospitality to our guests, and food and time together or dining alone, whether they’re eating in one of our Michelin star restaurants or stopping for coffee and pastries at a grab-and-go. We want beverage is fundamental to and inseparable from hospitality. Each of our brands provides a different, appropriate F&B experience. Whether that them to feel better as a result of their experience with us.” experience is fine dining or a fresh, fast breakfast, when well done, the result is great hospitality.

FAVORITE FOOD?

“Lebanese food. I love Italian, American and French cuisine, but the variety and “We’ll continue working to get F&B right—to identify the best design, creativity involved in preparing vegetables and grains in Lebanese dishes is offer, occasion and service for each brand and ensure we are executing very appealing to me. It’s a cuisine that brings together fresh ingredients like in a memorable and consistent way. In accomplishing this, we will fulfill chickpeas, lentils, parsley, tomatoes and other vegetables to create a meal on our promise.” that’s delicious and satisfying, never heavy.”

FAVORITE BEVERAGE? “I like great natural sparkling mineral water, bottled at the source, with the right levels of minerals and gas, served at room temperature. I’m also a fan of the really great teas from India and China. Of course, I love good wines, but I don’t know a great deal about them. I’m usually lucky enough to be at a table with someone else who does know wines, so I can learn from them. But don’t bring me the wine list!”

FAVORITE NON-IHG RESTAURANT? “That’s a tough one! But there’s a pizzeria in Rome called Il Boscaiolo that was a favorite of my family when I was growing up and holds a special place in my memory. I ate there again a couple of years ago, and it’s still as good as it was when I was a boy. To reach it you have to walk down a stairway from the street and through a very small entrance. The pizzas are Roman-style, with extrathin, crisp crust, baked in wood-fired ovens.”

ANY RECENT STANDOUT MEALS AT AN IHG PROPERTY? “Absolutely! I’ve had some terrific meals at IHG hotels. Recently I attended a tasting lunch at the InterContinental® Mark Hopkins Hotel , prepared by Executive Chef Nenad Stefanovic, that was extraordinary. At CHAR, the

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A Summer to The Share Forever Cocktail Collection invites guests to sip, earn and share rewards during IHG’s and Coca-Cola’s summer blockbuster campaign.

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ravel conjures up a wide range of experiences and expectations for most people: excitement, adventure, discovery, accomplishment and—for business travelers in particular—a lot of time away from friends and family.

IHG and The Coca-Cola Company took a close look at the social aspects of travel in putting together Share Forever, a major joint campaign for Summer 2015.

The promotion creates the opportunity for IHG guests to share their travel experiences with others through an offer of IHG® Rewards Club points. Both new and loyal existing members who register for the Share Forever promotion and meet certain stay hurdles during the promotion period not only earn extra IHG® Rewards Club points for themselves, but also a matching number of points they can designate for their loved ones.

A beverage component—a signature Share Forever cocktail and nonalcoholic “mocktail”— was incorporated into the overall Share Forever promotional package to create in-hotel awareness and engagement. The Share Forever campaign launched May 1 in all hotels across the Americas and runs through Sept. 7, 2015.

“The Share Forever theme builds on the popularity of Coca-Cola’s current ‘Share Coke’ advertising campaign, as well as the success of last year’s ‘Reel Summer’ IHG and Coca-Cola promotion,” says Cleveland McKinney, Director, Americas Strategic Partnerships, for IHG. “This year’s campaign is the biggest joint effort we’ve ever undertaken with Coke. It’s designed to engage our customers and highlight their memorable experiences with these two iconic brands.”

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Share Forever Producing Results The Share Forever campaign has objectives in three key areas, McKinney notes: • Shift market share from the competition by attracting high-value travelers to register in the Share Forever promotion and to enroll in IHG® Rewards Club.

• Lift summer occupancy by generating at least one incremental stay per hotel during the promotion period that can be attributed to the Share Forever campaign, along with enhancing engagement of IHG® Rewards Club members with our loyalty program.

The Americas Food & Beverage team collaborated with World Class Beverage Program partners Jack Daniel’s®, MONIN® and DeKuyper® to create the drinks. The Share Forever Cocktail is made with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, DeKuyper Peachtree® Schnapps, fresh lemon juice and Coca-Cola. The Mocktail recipe comprises MONIN Almond Syrup, fresh lime and pineapple juice, Sprite® and Coca-Cola.

•D rink—increase the volume of Coca-Cola products consumed in IHG hotels during the promotion period.

“We’re supporting the Share Forever campaign with a robust and thoughtful marketing plan that focuses heavily on digital and social media, which is where our customers live and breathe in today’s marketplace,” McKinney says.

Sip, Earn and Share The two Share Forever specialty beverages are designed to help raise the overall profile of the campaign within the hotels and in particular draw attention to the fact that IHG® Rewards Club members earn 10 points for every $1 spent on food and beverage charged, seamlessly, to their hotel folio.

SHARE FOREVER MOCKTAIL

SHARE FOREVER COCKTAIL

Hotels have received promotional collateral that includes coasters, table tents, front- and back-of-house posters and a program execution guide for bartenders in fullservice hotels.

“The Share Forever Cocktail Collection will generate fun and bring an experiential aspect to in-hotel support for the campaign,” McKinney says. “The POS materials encourage guests to ‘sip, earn and share’—to get out of their rooms and enjoy the hotel’s F&B outlets. Adding this critical social element enhances engagement with the promotion and helps drive increased traffic and beverage revenue.”

Initial response to the Share Forever campaign has been strong, he adds. “To date, more than 175,000 registrations for Share Forever have been completed, and it’s shaping up to be a smash hit! We encourage the hotels to join in the excitement and reap the benefits.”

For questions and additional information about the Share Forever beverage promotion and materials, contact Mark Greenhalgh, IMI Agency, at mark@imiagency.com or 770-928-1980.

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Winning the

Battle for Breakfast I

t anchors the traveler’s day and serves as the foundational F&B element for every IHG brand. Yet Breakfast HeartBeat scores across the Americas represent one of the areas of greatest opportunity for improvement among HeartBeat guest satisfaction metrics.

To address this, Americas COO Jolyon Bulley and the Operations team have designated Breakfast HeartBeat as one the top three strategic priorities and one of the five primary KPOs (Key Performance Objectives) comprising the 2015 Food & Beverage Winning Metrics. Breakfast HeartBeat is tabulated from guests’ responses when asked how they would rate their overall breakfast experience.

• Launching the Crowne Plaza® “Better Breakfast Millionaires” promotion (June 1-October 31), awarding one million IHG® Rewards Club points each to two hotels achieving the greatest Breakfast HeartBeat improvement—one prize among those starting the promotion with a score of 80.0 or above and the second to the winner among properties beginning at 79.0 or below.

• Conducted “Recipe for Success” performance improvement workshops at the 2015 Crowne Plaza General Manager conference in March for all hotels with Breakfast HeartBeat scores below 80.

The Corporate F&B team is following up with each hotel to develop and monitor an action plan for improvement and will continue to assist these hotels in reaching the 80 threshold.

The 2015 targets: a 0.5 point increase in Breakfast HeartBeat versus • Working with the Crowne Plaza brand team to create/implement prior year for franchised hotels and a 1.0 point increase for company- new F&B brand service standards to improve the consistent delivery of the hotels’ food and beverage experience. These new managed properties. Accomplishing this will require bringing a fairly standards would encompass breakfast. large group of hotels to a score of 80.0 by year-end.

• Implementing a focused communications effort with hotels across “More guests experience our restaurants at breakfast than in any all brands whose Breakfast HeartBeat scores fall below 80. The other day part, but it tends to be a major point of dissatisfaction in F&B team is working with these properties to develop action plans the overall stay experience,” says Gretchen Hazel, Corporate Director, to improve their scores.

F&B Programs Center of Excellence. “Americas F&B has worked closely with our counterparts in CMH Operations, HPS Operations ® and Hotel Operations Support to raise awareness about the Breakfast • Creating a series of 15 videos on Holiday Inn Express Breakfast Service that will be launched August 29 via the IHG Frontline HeartBeat scores and to develop performance management support online training program. that collectively drives improvement at our hotels.”

“We’re also reminding hotel F&B teams about the many Enabler tools That support is a focused “Breakfast Battle Plan”—activities, tools that can be found in the Hotel Solutions section of Merlin and on the and processes to help enhance the breakfast experience: ihgfbamericas website,” Hazel adds. “These range from the Holiday Inn Best-4-Breakfast guidebook to the Express Start™ Breakfast Bar • Teaming with Hotel Operations Support (Karen Ongley and Edwin vanRooijen) to add a 12-month, rolling “Overall Breakfast HeartBeat” workshop and SOP training for InterContinental® Hotel restaurants, among a host of others. We want to make certain our F&B teams to the Owner Scorecard. understand the tremendous opportunity breakfast represents.”

• In concert with the Holiday Inn® brand team, testing a new breakfast solution at 29 U.S. hotels. The pilot program began in May.

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Providing Insights & Advocacy IHG Owners Association creates F&B working group for the Holiday Inn® brand.

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hen the IHG Owners Association restructured its committee system last year to comprise working groups designed to address key strategic brand and operational issues/opportunities, food and beverage for the Holiday Inn brand was near the top of the list.

and beverage is fun and drives revenue,” he says. “It’s a primary component of the full-service guest experience. F&B is also one of the areas where we can really be creative, adapting to take advantage of trends and meet changing guest desires and expectations.”

The result was the first quarter launch of the IHG Owners Association Holiday Inn Food & Beverage Task Force.

Membership includes 10 owners and operators of Holiday Inn hotels plus representatives from the Americas Holiday Inn brand and F&B teams.

The F&B task force held its initial meeting in April at the Holiday Inn Atlanta Airport South, the inaugural location for the Holiday Inn Burger Theory™ concept currently being piloted across the U.S. (see the related article on Page 11). The group reviewed the Holiday Inn F&B strategy and roadmap that IHG developed for 2014 through 2017 and participated in a “deep dive” discussion of both Burger Theory and the Evening Acceleration Toolkit Bar + Dinner (E.A.T.) program, asking questions and providing operational feedback.

The task force has three priorities for 2015, according to Justin Alexander, Director, Brand Experience, Holiday Inn Americas, and IHG liaison to the group. “The task force will engage with the brand and F&B teams through face-to-face meetings and conference calls during the year to provide advice and counsel on the major F&B concept initiatives that are in development,” he says. “Second, the group will support creation of standards to ensure these concepts are implemented consistently across the brand throughout the Americas region.

“Finally, the task force will be advocates for the various F&B initiatives within the owner and operator community. IHG research indicates that F&B represents the greatest opportunity to improve HeartBeat. We want to help our owners understand why food and beverage, and these new concepts in particular, are so important.”

Task Force Chairman Donovan Stephens, who is Chief Operating Officer for Houston-based Unique Hotel Management Group, echoes the sentiment, based on experience with his company’s Holiday Inn Westway Park in Houston, which features the proprietary IHG Sporting News Grill F&B concept. “Good food

A second meeting at the Holiday Inn Salt Lake City Airport included an in-depth discussion of the new breakfast solution currently in test for the brand (see the related story on Page 8) and dinner at a Kimpton hotel restaurant.

The task force members are putting “skin in the game” with the new F&B concepts. Three members have hotels participating in the E.A.T. program. Six of the hotels in the breakfast test are owned or operated by task force members, and one member is strongly evaluating building a Burger Theory restaurant.

Alexander and Stephens concur that discussions at the initial meetings have been open, frank and highly productive. “We’re looking forward to learning about additional concepts and themes IHG has in development,” Stephens says. “We’re also eager to help the IHG teams and our owners by providing real-world, operator insight on how to make F&B work better.”

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he relationship between IHG® brands and Coca-Cola® stretches back decades, but in April 2014 the two industry leaders inked a multi-year agreement to offer Coca-Cola soft drink and juice brands at IHG brand hotels in the United States, representing more than 3,200 properties.

The arrangement calls for Coca-Cola to provide hotels with free equipment, unlimited free service on equipment and national negotiated pricing and distribution on Coca-Cola products.

In return, the hotels agree to pour only Coca-Cola products and neither to offer nor advertise Coca-Cola competitor products. To date, the franchisees and owners of more than 77 percent of IHG hotels in the U.S. have completed the Equipment Lease and Participation Agreement (ELPA) or Participation Agreement (PA) required under the strategic alliance.

“Our agreement with Coca-Cola is helping ensure a best-in-class, consistent beverage brand experience for our guests across all IHG hotel brands,” says Ben Rosenbaum, Manager, Americas Strategic Partnerships. “Through this alliance, IHG is able to drive even greater value and returns for our owners through operational efficiencies and access to additional brand and marketing innovation resources.”

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“As we move into the second year of this landmark alliance, it’s important for hotels to be aware of and continue to adhere to the terms of the agreement, along with the requirements of the overall IHG World Class Beverage Program,” says Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage, Americas.

New partners and products, as well as a trimmed-down wine category, headline the changes for the 2015-2016 World Class Beverage Program, Etcheberrigaray adds.

Program slicks detailing the complete World Class Beverage Program inventory lists for all brands have been provided to the hotels and are also available for download from the Americas Food & Beverage website at ihgfbamericas.com.

For additional information about the Equipment Lease and Participation Agreement or any questions about compliance with the requirements of the agreement with Coca-Cola, contact cokecontracts@ihg.com.

For questions about the World Class Beverage Program, contact Mark Greenhalgh, IMI Agency, at mark@ imiagency.com or 770-928-1980.

Constructing the

Perfect Burger W

hat does it take to produce the ideal hamburger? Start with a tested and proven grind of beef and add careful attention to preparation and presentation. Couple it with a hearty selection of local and national craft beers and serve in a relaxed but stylish atmosphere.

That recipe and approach are proving successful at a growing number of hotels in the U.S. that have been testing a new, branded Holiday Inn® food and beverage concept called Burger Theory. Developed to tap into the rapidly growing popularity of high-quality hamburgers on the menus of casual dining establishments, Burger Theory is an evolving concept being made available to hotels that meet specific requirements.

“We’ve had a great deal of interest since we introduced Burger Theory at the conference last fall, but we aren’t providing it to everyone,” says Mike Lewis, Manager, Food & Beverage Concepts, for IHG. “In order to implement the concept, the hotel must commit to meet tightly defined specifications for outlet design, menu offerings, product ingredients, staffing and staff training.”

The Burger Theory outlet requires a separate, outside entrance and features a design centered around a stunning, accessible bar with an impressive array of beers on draft. The menu is also heavily beercentric, including quotes on the joys of the brew and instructional information about beer styles. Guests are invited to “Build Your Own Burger,” choosing meats, size and toppings, and there is an accompanying selection of sides, as well as non-burger entrees.

The show-stopping burgers are made exclusively with Certified Angus Beef in a proprietary grind developed specifically for

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Holiday Inn and Burger Theory, Lewis notes.

“We’ve experimented extensively to find the optimal combination, which is 75 percent chuck for body, 15 percent brisket for fat content and juiciness, and 10 percent short rib for a ‘steak’ feel and flavor,” he says. “We’ve had many customer comments that this is absolutely the best burger they’ve ever had.”

The first Burger Theory opened in January 2014 at the Holiday Inn Airport South in Atlanta. In its first full year of operation, the property doubled its bar business and saw a 60 percent increase in restaurant revenue, Lewis says. Year-to-date in 2015, the hotel continues to be significantly ahead of budget for both revenue and profit.

Five additional hotels—a mix of both company-managed and franchised—have introduced Burger Theory since October, in Stockbridge, Georgia, Omaha, El Paso, Indianapolis and Salina, Kansas. Another nine will open by year-end and 15-20 more in 2016.

The Burger Theory design prototype will be finalized in July and incorporated into the overall Holiday Inn hotel new-build prototype, Lewis says, adding that on-site staff training in both menu item preparation and beverage offerings will continue to be provided as part of the concept introduction.

“We’re still learning and refining to get as close as possible to the perfect combination of design, F&B and service elements,” he says.

“We are the first hotel chain to offer a branded burger concept and believe it has tremendous potential for the Holiday Inn brand.”

For more information on the Burger Theory concept, contact Mike Lewis at mike.lewis@ihg.com or 770-604-2083.

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Outstanding Performance CELEBR ATING

F&B Winners Recognized at ART U

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he 2015 ART U Senior Year and Graduation event in February provided an opportunity for the IHG Americas team to deepen the region’s Winning Culture.

During the weeklong gathering at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, various corporate groups and departments met to assess 2014 results, plan for 2015 and—importantly—to celebrate success.

scheduled for 2015 and growth plans for 2016 that will likely be through the roof!” (See the related article on Page 11.)

F&B Director of the Year F&B Director of the Year honors went to David Neves, Corporate Director, Food & Beverage, for the Holiday Inn Brand Family, Extended-Stay Brands and Army Lodging.

Two top performers within the Corporate Food & Beverage team were honored as part of an awards ceremony held in conjunction with the “David has taken the core brands and extended-stay F&B team to the Americas Operations team meeting. The awards were presented next level, working with enthusiasm and determination through many

by Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage, tests, pilots, programs, developments and concepts in the past year,” Americas, and Jolyon Bulley, Chief Operating Officer for the Americas. Etcheberrigaray notes. “He has excelled in many situations and shown tremendous resilience in helping us raise the bar in food and beverage, with a focus on the Holiday Inn® brand family.”

F&B Manager of the Year

Mike Lewis, Corporate Manager, Food & Beverage Concepts, was named Food & Beverage Manager of the Year. He was recognized for his leadership in helping the Americas Food & Beverage team develop and execute concepts and special missions, including addressing issues and providing support to numerous hotels.

Neves was acknowledged for consistently working “across the T,” bridging internally with brand teams, procurement, HOST and other functional groups. Externally he has forged excellent relationships with consultants, suppliers and owners throughout the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Mexico, Etcheberrigaray adds.

“Mike is serious, focused, professional and passionate,” says Etcheberrigaray. “Over the past year, he has been a key team player in developing and implementing our premium Burger Theory™ concept, which has been successfully replicated in six hotels with nine more

“We’re extremely proud of David and Mike,” he says. “Both exemplify the kind of spirit, innovation, commitment and teamwork that help move IHG forward toward our goal of Being #1.”

Mike Lewis (center) accepts the F&B Manager of the Year award from JP Etcheberrigaray (left) and Jolyon Bulley.

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David Neves (center) was named F&B Director of the Year.

USA TODAY readers choose InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta restaurant as tops in the nation.

Southern Art W

Named Best Hotel Restaurant

hen InterContinental® Buckhead Atlanta Food & Beverage Director Jason Deville learned the hotel’s Southern Art had been nominated by USA TODAY as one of the 10 Best Hotel Restaurants in America, he was clear what he and his team had to do.

“We knew we had to win,” he states simply. “We are all committed to IHG’s mission to Be #1 with our guests, so we couldn’t be satisfied with just being nominated. We wanted to be ranked first place.”

In April, USA TODAY tapped two leading hotel travel experts to select their favorite hotel eateries in the United States as nominees for Best Hotel Restaurant. Voting was then opened for four weeks, allowing readers to submit their top picks online.

Deville and the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta team rallied Americas IHG colleagues as well as guests, corporate clients and other associates to turn out the vote. When the polls closed, Southern Art had edged out the Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt Washington for the #1 slot. Other notables on the Top 10 list included the Restaurant at the Inn at Little Washington and Wolfgang Puck’s CUT at the Beverly Wilshire.

“Gone are the days when the hotel restaurant was a dreaded last resort for a weary traveler hungry for a warm meal,” USA TODAY noted in

announcing the winners. “Nowadays some of the top restaurants in the USA are found in hotels and resorts.” Profiles of the Top 10 were posted on the news organization’s USA TODAY and 10Best websites.

Accolades are not new for Southern Art and the Bourbon Bar. Created by celebrity chef Art Smith, both have been winning praise from restaurant critics and diners alike since opening in October 2011, including being named among Jezebel magazine’s “100 Best Restaurants” in 2013 and 2014 and The Atlantan magazine’s “50 Finest Restaurants” in 2013. The Bourbon Bar was included by The Bourbon Review in its “America’s 55 Best Bourbon Bars” in 2013 and 2014.

Southern Art features a menu of creative takes on Southern classics and boasts one of the few restaurant “ham bars” in the world, devoted to showcasing country-style regional hams. The Bourbon Bar features six dozen premium bourbon selections.

“We work to keep Southern Art authentic, to consistently deliver a genuine, Southern dining experience,” Deville says. “We have a high level of repeat guests. Often people who are visiting Atlanta and not even staying with us make it a point to dine here.”

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On-demand

Training

IHG Frontline offers an accessible, effective online solution for hotel F&B teams.

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aving well-trained, confident team members eager to deliver memorable F&B experiences at each IHG brand hotel is critical to achieving our mission to Be #1. But providing first-rate, ongoing training is a challenge the entire service industry, not just hotels, wrestle with, in the face of high turnover levels and an increasingly mobile, technology-driven workforce.

IHG recently introduced a promising solution designed to make training easy and affordable for hotel operators and effective and fun for staff.

IHG Frontline was developed by the IHG Global Learning team in conjunction with Lobster Ink, a leading education company specializing in the hospitality industry.

IHG Frontline consists of a series on online, video training modules aimed at front desk, housekeeping and food and beverage employees.

Team members can access the training from a computer, tablet or smartphone, any time, as often as they like. Hotels pay a yearly subscription fee that covers unlimited use of the training by all designated employees.

“Feedback from our training teams told us that hotel F&B departments were hungry for a wider array of current content that would be readily accessible. The on-demand training provided by IHG Frontline addresses those needs,” says Elisa Slaton-Eckel, Food & Beverage Training Content Manager and team lead responsible for the food and beverage components of the new program.

The current Americas F&B curriculum comprises a Bar Professional Course, a Bar Short Course and a course on the Holiday Inn® E.A.T. program. Each course includes a number of three-to-four-minute videos on various aspects of the topic. Learners can download workbooks to use as they view the videos and take a quiz at the end of each.

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“The Bar Professional course, for example, takes about 35-40 hours to complete and offers in-depth, detailed training on mixology, products, service and day-to-day bar operations,” Slaton-Eckel notes. “The modules for the courses include some standard training provided by Lobster Ink as well as custom videos we have worked closely with Lobster Ink to create. For the E.A.T. program alone there are 57 culinary videos and another 14 designed for front-of-house team members.”

After debuting at the 2014 conference in October, IHG Frontline was rolled out in the Americas in March of this year, and content continues to be added.

“IHG Frontline provides an advanced, high-technology platform for us to deliver more comprehensive culinary and beverage training than we’ve ever been able to offer,” Slaton-Eckel adds. “We’re excited about the prospects for elevating the F&B experience across all the brands.”

To learn more about IHG Frontline, contact Elisa Slaton-Eckel at elisa.slaton@ihg.com or 512-968-1667.

Automating Alcohol Invoices & Payments Fintech provides hotels an easy-to-use system for managing and analyzing purchases.

It’s

11:30 a.m., the lunch crowd in the restaurant is larger than usual for a Tuesday and there are several luncheon functions taking place in the hotel’s event space as well. A member of the kitchen staff sends word the liquor distributor’s truck has arrived, but the controller is not in her office so there’s no one to write a check for the delivery. As Food & Beverage Director, you have to stop what you’re doing and deal with it.

Sound familiar? Managing the specific regulatory and operational requirements for taking delivery of and making payments for alcoholic beverages can be complex and time-consuming. However, IHG World Class Beverage Program vendor partner Fintech offers a way to automate and streamline the process.

Fintech provides an electronic alcohol payment system that sets up and coordinates payments among retailers, distributors and their respective financial institutions. When alcohol deliveries are made to hotels enrolled in Fintech, only a signature is required. Once the delivery is made, the distributor submits its invoice electronically to Fintech for payment. Funds are transferred from the hotel’s bank account to the distributor’s bank account according to the invoice due date. Fintech then provides data and reporting for both parties. Hotels no longer have to use checks, cash or money orders to pay for alcohol deliveries or set up escrow accounts for these payments.

“Eliminating the need for properties to tie up quantities of funds in multiple escrow accounts is a tremendous plus that Fintech offers, let alone the convenience factor,” says Mark Greenhalgh, IHG account manager for IMI Agency, which manages the World Class Beverage Program. “Also, F&B directors have immediate, 24/7 access to invoice detail and purchase analytics they can use to identify trends and patterns in order to enhance best practices in purchasing alcohol.

“The historical data makes budgeting simpler. It’s also easier to spot when your hotel might have missed a discount or overpaid for an item, or how to save money buying by the case versus purchasing a few bottles at a time.”

The Fintech system ensures compliance with state regulations and also helps prevent fraud and loss by increasing security and control, according to Jennifer Erickson, Fintech’s Marketing Manager.

“Fintech has been in business for 24 years and is unique in the United States,” she says. “We have more than 2,300 distributors in our system sending invoices daily, and we provide services to retail leaders such as Walmart, CVS, Applebee’s and Kroger, as well as all the major hotel chains. Fintech is the only EFT provider for alcoholic beverages that is compliant and available for use in all 50 states.”

She adds that, as a third party, Fintech provides no hotel financial or banking information or data either to distributors or to IHG. Overall statistics on purchasing type, volume and pricing are provided to IHG to support effective management of vendor agreements.

Enrolling with Fintech requires a one-time setup charge of $249 plus a monthly fee per location, and the company offers a 30-day free trial.

The World Class Beverage Program pays the setup charge for any hotel that joins the program, and all hotels in the World Class Beverage Program participate in Fintech.

“The reports and information provided can be customized to meet the individual hotel’s or owner’s needs,” Greenhalgh adds. “The flexibility, time-saving and potential cost-saving capability of Fintech make a pretty compelling case for hotels to give it a try.”

For additional information about Fintech, contact Mark Greenhalgh, IMI Agency, at mark@imiagency.com or 770-928-1980.

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The Official Magazine of the World Class Beverage Program

Thank you to all our World Class Beverage Program Partners!

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