The Next Frontier for Restaurants: The Hotel Lobby

During the pandemic, restaurants were forced to shut down or limit their indoor dining areas to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Most restaurants took advantage of al fresco dining or turned to alternative pick-up and delivery service methods to regenerate revenue. Other restaurants turned to hotels to attract new customers and strengthen their existing customer base. Long before the pandemic, hoteliers were looking for ways to refresh their properties' food and beverage offerings, and the pandemic presented the ideal opportunity for restaurants to enter the hotel sphere. 

Struggling to attract travelers during the height of the pandemic, hotels rented out their empty kitchens and banquet spaces to restaurateurs hunting for cut-rate space. In 2020 and most of 2021, ghost kitchens became a popular substitute for the traditional hotel kitchen. Analysts now estimate that fewer than five percent of hotels in the United States operate ghost kitchens from within their properties, but…