BevX 2024: Hilton For The Win

A massive global hotel chain founded more than 100 years ago doesn’t exactly sound like a hot spot for drinks. Yet Hilton Hotels & Resorts takes beverage seriously. Its more recent program spotlights current trends and seasonality, among other factors, and has earned Hilton the Best Overall recognition in the 2024 BevX Awards.

Hilton designed the beverage program to help the properties bring each of their food and beverage venues to life by featuring products that help tell the story of the concept. With more than 8,300 properties, how does the company manage this? 

It uses a three-tier beverage program unique to the hotel brands and guests the company serves: Luxury, Full-Service, DoubleTree/Embassy Suites. Luxury encompasses the Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Curio and Signia properties, while the Full-Service tier encompasses Hilton, Tapestry, Tempo and Canopy properties. Within the same hotel brand, each property has a unique restaurant and/or bar concept, often multiple within the same property.

In developing the beverage program every two years, Hilton takes into consideration guest demographics and overlapping trends; brand messaging; diversity and inclusion; all relevant beverage categories and business metrics/goals. Each program focuses on four key venues: Bars, Restaurants, Grab & Go and Catering & Events. 

Drinks with a sense of place

Cocktail programs for Luxury and Full-Service allow for property selection and flexibility, with drink menus adapted to the needs of the guests within each property venue and location/market while also maintaining the property’s brand. Hilton took steps in 2023 to re-engineer its Luxury cocktail program to make these properties a draw for drinks by using locally inspired storytelling to develop beverages unique to each location, providing a sense of place not otherwise accessible. 

For example, the cocktail menu at Conrad New York Midtown is based on drinks that reflect local neighborhoods, such as the Highline Sour, which takes inspiration from the High Line park built on a former freight rail line, with colors and garnishes inspired by florals; The City that Never Sleeps” is an elevated Espresso Martini. 

The Conrad New York Downtown, Atrio focuses on three U.S.-based wine regions — New York, the Pacific Northwest and California — and offers a wine list that represents the best varietals and producers from these regions. 

The Peacock Alley lobby bar at Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria hotel in Orlando, FL.

Cocktails complement the wine list and incorporate ingredients and flavors that align with these three regions as well as the dishes on the menu. At the Waldorf Astoria Washington, D.C., the cocktails are centered around the history of the city, the Old Post Office and American history.

For its Full-Service, DoubleTree and Embassy Suites properties, Hilton this year collaborated with New York bar Dante on a cocktail program with innovative recipes. Properties could select eight to 10 cocktails from a list of 50 to feature on a single menu, providing them with flexibility and seasonality while staying within the parameters of the corporate program.

When adding “on-trend” items to a menu, “we aim to find a delicate balance between those that are still up and coming and those already proven to be popular,” says Allison Kafalas, Hilton’s director of beverage, Americas. “We don’t want to be the last adopter of a trend because that would just be following suit.”

The company’s goal is to be somewhere in the middle so that guests have some level of familiarity with a flavor, ingredient, varietal or beverage alcohol category, she adds. “For instance, if we were to come out with an Espresso Martini program now [in late 2024], that would feel totally out of place and as if we were late to the game.”

Spoiled for choice

Across all three tiers, the Hilton Managed Beverage Program includes domestic and import beers, as well as craft breweries from 11 U.S. regions, representing dozens of different styles and over 100 possible craft beers in total. Hard seltzers, with malt- and spirit-based options, round out the offerings. The 135 spirit brands carried across all major categories include specialty categories such as amaro and mezcal and subcategories like rosa tequila, cristalino, Japanese whiskeys, craft spirits and multiple age designations and styles within same brand families to educate the guest. 

The 120 unique wines offered represent a worldly style from 36 appellations/AVAs, curated by Hilton’s beverage team, which includes two CMS Certified Sommeliers, top-performing property level managers and corporate directors.

Hilton also offers 21 alcohol-free replacement brands covering imported beer, craft beer, sparkling and still wine, tequila, bourbon/whiskey, rum, gin and even cordial, aperitif and vermouth categories. “We make it a point to include alcohol-free options on menus so that we appeal to everyone,” Kafalas says.

The beverage program now includes robust diversity and inclusion brand options. This ensures that all properties can select products made by individuals who inspire them, help them connect with their guests, team members and community and provide a path for greater awareness of these brands across Hilton’s properties.

How have guests responded to the new program? Guest traffic increased by 2.9% year-over-year — and that figure comes just from checks where beverage alcohol was purchased. This suggests a higher capture rate than the previous year and indicates an increase in guest engagement, according to the company.

What’s more, alcohol check average increased by 13% in the same period, as guests not only took advantage of the more upscale offerings in the new beverage program but also enjoyed more drinks per visit or occasion than in the previous year. Sales of promotional drinks increased by 2% year-over-year, with nearly 85,000 core beverage program items sold as a result of the promotions. 

A high level of team member engagement contributed to the success of program, as did the continuity throughout restaurants, bars, Grab & Go markets, Catering & Events and seasonal beverage promotions. 

As hotel operators, “we are not creating menus for ourselves,” says Kafalas. 

“We have to create menus for the guest and understand what they want to enjoy. We remind our F&B leaders of exactly that, so when it comes time to build menus, we are already focused on how to ensure the final product is successful.”

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