TownePlace Suites New ‘Morning Break’ Breakfast Program
The TPS Morning Break breakfast program has been updated to give guests an improved experience that meets their needs and positions us to better compete in our market. The program was designed with cost and ease of execution in mind to ensure it also meets the needs of TPS owners and associates. Now that the new TPS breakfast program has officially launched, we want to share early learnings and key guest insights, an overview of new items, and the anticipated cost impact for properties.
Need for Change
In recent years, the breakfast scores for the TPS brand were the lowest for Marriott’s CFRST brands. Additionally, results from BSAs indicated that 42% of the brand provided menu items beyond the brand standard and this led to an inconsistent guest experience across the portfolio. Through analysis of GSS comments, we determined it was necessary to evolve the program in order to meet the demand from customers and drive standardization of breakfast offerings.
Program Development & Details
The new TPS hot breakfast program launched on July 1 and will be included in the BSA beginning this wave. The new program includes items our target customers want, including fried egg with black pepper* and sausage patties. Program development and implementation were funded by Marriott prior to program rollout and extensive research was conducted among guests to ensure the quality and variety of new food items met guest needs. The new offering led to higher guestVoice scores and stronger financial results when compared to other breakfast offerings tested.
Additional food offerings available through the new program will include upgraded muffins, make-your-own waffles and fresh, healthier items such as yogurt, bulk oatmeal and hard-cooked eggs.
Costs & Next Steps
The program costs include training ($115 per hotel; billed in 2014) and equipment (up to $3494 per hotel; included in 2015 CapEx budget). We want to assure you that we aimed to create a program that would be efficient in terms of food costs and cost of staff. The ongoing cost impact for properties, which was included in 2015 budget instructions, includes up to a 10% cost increase over current breakfast costs as well as 7 additional labor hours per week to effectively execute the breakfast program; however, we anticipate a lesser cost impact for properties that were exceeding the previous breakfast standard.
We look forward to providing you with updates on the program’s successes and feel strongly that investing in this new program will not only improve our competitive positioning but will also lead to increased guest satisfaction and ultimately, increased brand performance in terms of occupancy and ADR.
We appreciate your continued support of the TPS brand.
* Please note: as a result of the egg shortage resulting from the Avian Influenza, the new TPS Breakfast launched with substitutions temporarily allowed for the fried egg specification (scrambled eggs are not an acceptable solution); the standard and QA items will be changed to accommodate this until egg availability returns to normal.
