Hotel Food and Beverage Consultants
Captivate helps hotel owners and operators make food and beverage pay. We review restaurants, bars, lounges, in room dining and banqueting, find where revenue and margin are being lost, and help your team put it right.
We look at F&B as part of the whole hotel. A full restaurant is not automatically a profitable one: covers, average spend, visit frequency, food and beverage cost, labour and opening hours all decide the result.
Our F&B consultancy services
The 90-Day F&B Profit Recovery Sprint
Recovering the revenue and margin lost to low covers and spend, menu inefficiency, purchasing gaps, waste and scheduling.
F&B operational reviews
A practical review of your current F&B operation to identify revenue opportunities, profit loss, waste, productivity gaps and service issues across all venues.
Concept creation and development
Commercially viable restaurant, bar and dining concepts that connect brand story, guest experience, menu direction, service style and operating model.
Feasibility studies and reports
Whether a proposed F&B concept is commercially viable before capital is committed, giving owners and developers a clear, evidence based basis for their decision.
F&B brand strategy and identity
Stronger restaurant, bar and dining identities that attract the right guests and improve revenue performance.
Coaching for F&B leaders
Mentoring and coaching for F&B directors, executive chefs and venue managers, building the capability to run and improve the operation.
How F&B profit grows
We work both sides of the F&B P&L:
- Covers: external capture, hotel guest capture and seat use by daypart.
- Average spend: menu engineering, pricing, beverage attach and upselling.
- Frequency: guest recognition, CRM, direct booking and reasons to return.
- Cost of sales: food and beverage cost, purchasing, specifications and waste.
- Labour: scheduling, productivity and opening hours matched to demand.
Questions we help hotels answer
- Which venues earn their space, and which should change?
- Is the kitchen really improving, or are non alcoholic drinks lowering the reported food cost?
- Are our discount offers adding profit, or only adding covers?
- Will this concept earn its return before we commit the capital?
- How many venues does this hotel need, and who is each one for?
- Does the staffing model match how each venue trades by daypart?
Where we work
Dubai and the UAE
Hotel restaurants and bars competing with a large independent dining scene, from city hotels to beach resorts.
Hospitality consultants in DubaiSaudi Arabia and the GCC
New venues tested before capital is committed, and drinks offers planned for venues that trade without alcohol.
Hospitality consultants in Saudi ArabiaEurope and India
Operational reviews, coaching for hotel leaders, and feasibility and concept work, including a hotel in Bucharest.
Experience
Captivate is led by Michael Butler, who started on the operations floor and worked through every F&B role from restaurant supervisor to F&B Director. He went on to run hotels as a General Manager, and was Regional F&B Director for Morgans Hotel Group in London and Corporate Director of F&B for Hyatt across Europe and India. In a recent review of a London luxury hotel with a Michelin starred chef, the owners saw positive F&B results for the first time in seven years.
Case study
4 star luxury resort F&B performance improvement, Mediterranean (completed 2024)
A 1.75% reduction in food cost of sales against actual, a 36% reduction in food waste and an annualised profit improvement of US$377K from the full F&B review.
Speaking
Michael spoke at The Hospitality Leadership and F&B Forum at The Hotel Show Dubai 2025, on embedding sustainability in the UAE's hospitality sector.
Frequently asked questions
What does a hotel F&B consultant do?
We review how each restaurant, bar and F&B area performs, find where revenue and margin are being lost, and give the hotel team a prioritised action plan to fix it. For new venues, we test the concept and its commercial return before capital is committed.
How long does an F&B review take?
It depends on the size of the hotel. A whole F&B review of a large hotel in the GCC took four and a half days on property, covering restaurants, bars, room service, banqueting, the central kitchen and colleague dining.
Do you only work on F&B?
No. F&B is a core strength, and we work across the whole hotel: rooms, procurement, engineering and feasibility.
How does an engagement start?
With a confidential 30 minute call with Michael Butler, with no commitment.
What does it cost?
Advisory fees are tailored to each engagement. Fixed price intelligence reports start from £495 per venue.
Find the profit in your F&B
Use the contact form, or message Michael on WhatsApp. For voice calls in the UAE, BOTIM is the most reliable option.
