You could call it the symbol of what is wrong in the wintersports industry, of what resorts have come to settle for, and of what guests have come to accept with a shrug.

We’re talking about the hamburger. You know the one: cooked a while ago, stuffed into a tin foil bag, and tossed under a heating lamp. Seldom do buyers find themselves pleasantly surprised when they open that tin foil bag.

It’s symbolic of the fact that, even when all other aspects of resorts score higher and higher in customer satisfaction in those important Net Promoter Scores, most resorts’ scores on food and beverage have flatlined. At zero.

The good news here is resorts continue to seek improvement. Slowly, more and more are embracing the fact that they need to change this, and that a major investment in food and beverage may indeed be just as vital—and just as rewarding—as a major investment in snowmaking.

David Belin, director of consulting services at RRC Associates, which has helped many resorts tackle this very issue, points out that the challenges are many. “A lot of resorts are remote, and the food supply chain is very challenging. There are spikes on weekends and lulls on weekdays, which can make it difficult to provide variety and do well with availability,” he says.

But, he adds, with a smart plan and some investment, resorts can turn things around in F&B.

What it comes down to first and foremost is understanding what the customer wants and expects. “The dining experience has evolved in folks’ day-to-day lives,” he says. “They expect quick combined with good quality, and not insanely expensive. That’s what they have in mind. Then they go to a ski area and find an expensive yet unremarkable burger and a dirty carpet.

“Some resorts are just stuck there. They think: oh, the skier lunch. Burger, fries, pizza is what people want. But they all need to be more creative. Even smaller resorts can come up with a signature food, a special with some quality that makes people take notice.”

Claire Humber, director of resort planning at SE Group in Burlington, Vt., sees a challenge and some solutions.

“The biggest challenge is history,” she says. “I say that because back in the boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, if you look at how our industry has evolved, it was all about getting out on the hill and things going well out on the hill. What was at the bottom of the hill was of little consequence. Our industry is littered with 40- to 50-year-old base lodges that don’t serve the current purpose of today’s clientele.”

That translates, often, to cafeteria-style food prep zones, with an eating area that’s a basic base lodge—often littered with ski bags, coolers and shoes folks have simply left sitting there.

This, she says, is something resorts are now seeing, and working to change. “People are starting to realize that it’s more than about serving food.”


SCRAMBLES AND SKIOSKS
John Ashworth of BSA Architects has worked with many resorts on improving F & B. The best shift he sees, he says, is resorts moving from a basic cafeteria, with its long, snaking line, to a “food court scramble system.” This (also the trend in many college cafeterias, by the way), allows the customer to enter the food area and move around to various stations, each of which offers a different type of choices. Making this switch, he says, is a less-expensive step toward improving the experience. Ashworth points out that the trend toward the scramble is actually 20 years old, and yet, satisfaction scores have remained low.

Humber says that “experience” is key to all this. “You really need to present an experience,” she says. “Food and beverage is just one part of the entire experience, but it’s a big part. Think of a vacation you have taken. What do you remember? I am going to bet a great meal is a big part of your memory.” It might have been the food, or the atmosphere, or the larger setting, but it centered around the meal.

And smaller resorts are realizing this. Last winter, Ashworth says, Bristol Mountain, N.Y., made a major investment of $3 million in improving its food and beverage programs. The first part of the three-phase investment saw the creation of Carver’s Kitchen. Carver’s includes a state-of-the-art scramble area with grab-n-go food, as well as freshly prepared foods, all prepared in new commercial kitchen facilities. The stations within the serving area were intentionally grouped together to allow for higher or lower staffing levels depending upon demand.

Another important aspect of the upgrade was to design a space and create a menu that would capture the local character of upstate New York, and in particular, the Finger Lakes region. “The idea being a desire to reinforce ‘place’ in order to define Bristol as a regional destination with a unique character and brand proposition,” says Ashworth. “We focused on local foods and created a marketplace design concept that would showcase the regional character.”

And how successful has the new eatery been? “F&B revenues have greatly increased,” says Bristol GM Dan Fuller. “But, more importantly, our customer satisfaction levels have skyrocketed.” In fact, Carver’s has not only been a hit among guests. “Even people from the local community come in and grab a meal to go,” Fuller says.

Which brings us to the newest trend: smaller spaces like vendor carts, Waffle Cabins, Starbucks and other coffee stops on site—what Ashworth likes to call “skiosks,” placed strategically around a mountain. This has been a trend in food service at summer attractions, too.

“The great thing about the coffee cart or waffle spot is that you don’t have to go into the scramble if you don’t want to,” he notes. “These places have a very high profit margin in a low amount of space. If you put one, say, next to the door where the rest room is, you are going to make grabbing a bite or a drink easy for folks, and they will love that.”


MAJOR OVERHAULS
More resorts are moving toward a bigger investment too, recognizing that investing in quality dining areas helps them multifold. For example, Squaw Valley has spent tens of millions of dollars over the past three years to completely overhaul its food offerings.

Squaw’s Mike DeGroff, vice president of resort services, says revamping food and beverage is a first step toward making Squaw a true 21st century resort.

“We knew we could not completely turn Squaw into a contemporary mountain resort in a quick period of time. But food and beverage could be turned around quickly,” he says. The first thing managers realized is that the area needed to focus on three things: people, product and presentation.

“Presentation was clear,” he says. “Our venues were old, tired and had not seen a lot of love in a long time.” So Squaw moved some tenants on (most of the food and beverage outlets had been run by tenants for years; taking control was a must, he says) and then looked to the resort he considers the benchmark for what is good in F & B: Deer Valley.

“We wanted to make real restaurants,” he says. “We struck the word ‘cafeteria’ from our language.” The area created food courts and restaurants with themes, such as “Rockers,” a slopeside sports bar, he says, “with an edge.”

To do this the resort spent a lot of time considering who its customers are, and created a “customer mosaic” to help guide them. Then, it invested in the most thorough staff training in the resort’s history for F & B, teaching employees not just how to serve, but to understand whom they are serving, what the theme of each restaurant is, and how to embrace that theme.

They also worked at making their food choices something that make people feel just plain good. “For me it’s important that people have a nice ambiance,” DeGroff says. “But now it’s even more important that they have healthy choices; that the choices align with the activity they are taking part in.” This, he says, is not just a California thing. Across the industry, customers are looking for Vegan, gluten free and just plain healthy choices. Incorporating those was a must.

All this was, of course, expensive. But the results are promising. Because last winter was Squaw’s worst in 100 years, this year, he says, was a “do over,” and a real chance to hear what guests think.

“Our customer feedback is remarkable,” he says. “The NPS has moved to the highest I’ve ever seen in this industry. And in the end, it was the simplest thing: focus on people, product and presentation. When people hear that they go ‘duhh.’ I mean it’s so simple but it works.”


SIMPLE STEPS
That said, Squaw has put money behind that. What about resorts not ready to make a big investment? There are ways, say the pros, to take steps toward a better F&B experience that cost less while you’re preparing to spend more.

Humber has helped many resorts look closely at their current space and current users and find ways to rearrange the floor plan to make the food and beverage program work better. “For instance, you might have race teams or ski school groups that you can move to another spot,” she says. “This frees up space to allow you to make the space feel and look better.”

And she says, not holding back, there’s another thing you can do: neaten up the place. “The big challenge is these already-crowded base areas are just packed with junk,” she says. “People’s bags and gear are all over the place. You have got to get that crap out of there.” She has helped spots like Mount Snow work on offering better options for storage, policing the dining areas to keep them clutter-free, and evolving the resort culture into one where guests do not simply drop their stuff and head out.

“Moving brown baggers out of the dining area and into their own area helps, too,” she says.

Belin agrees that first steps can be affordable and make a difference. “It comes down to offering a clean setting, clean restrooms, clean tables; an area in which folks feel comfortable and taken care of. You don’t need to overthink it. Just get your staff to keep things clean, that’s a good start,” he says.

And here’s another thought: resorts in need of facility investments should focus on year round, not just the winter season. Ashworth says that by looking at flexibility in spaces—from being able to make them larger or to create a few smaller, more intimate settings—resorts can open up to the idea of weddings, parties and other off-season functions. For example, Pats Peak, N.H., has created a tidy side business hosting weddings and banquets and, this year, was named a top wedding venue in The Knot Best of Weddings 2013. TheKnot.com is the number-one wedding destination website.

Pats Peak hosts a total of 40 to 50 weddings per banquet season (April to December), with a high-water mark of 60. In all, the area hosts 70 to 80 events, which account for 6 percent of revenues. The resort upgraded its two lodges to include air-conditioning in order to service this niche. For staff, Pats Peak has two full-time chefs, per diem prep cooks, a full-time banquet manager and part-time servers, dishwashers and bartenders. In addition, a gardener, banquet sales person and lodge cleaners can also find year-round work at Pats Peak as a result of hosting year-round events.

As time goes on, more and more resorts will follow suit. Be it adding skiosks, creating new dining spaces, doing capital improvements on a base lodge, or just plain keeping things clean, improvements clearly must come.