Hospitality in the News - 2 May 2019

Your latest instalment of articles and opinions from across the Hospitality sector.

TW: thinkingdifferently

Could your next meal be delivered from a "dark kitchen"? Since 2017, Deliveroo has enabled a handful of its 20,000 eateries to make use of 16 purpose built warehouses across England. With site and equipment costs covered mostly by Deliveroo, these restaurants are now servicing customers further afield instead of splashing out on new premises or over-stretching their current sites. Each warehouse contains kitchens fitted with industrial equipment for them to use, from pizza ovens to burger grills.

Apps now account for 39% of dine-in deliveries and the take-away industry is worth £4.9 billion in the UK alone. This type of hospitality requires little glamour, so the "dark kitchens" are not for consumers and are on industrial parks or hidden away in car parks or beneath railway lines. The focus is instead on the final product and speedy delivery. This is a smart move for both Deliveroo and the restaurants involved.

Did you know?

…that a 168-room, 26-story hotel will be erected in just 90 days? Marriott plans to build the world's tallest modular hotel in New York (and will ship the fully-fitted guest rooms from a factory in Poland overnight).