Hotel catering and event food and beverage represent one of the highest-margin revenue streams available to any property with banquet or function space. Yet many hotels treat catering as a supporting player to room revenue rather than a profit center in its own right. The result is underpriced menus, passive sales approaches, and missed opportunities to capture a growing market for corporate events, social celebrations, and community gatherings.
Hotels that approach catering sales with the same strategic rigor they apply to room revenue consistently outperform their competitors in total RevPAR and profitability. Here is how to build a catering sales strategy that drives real F&B event revenue growth.
Segment your catering market
Not all event clients are created equal, and a one-size-fits-all approach to catering sales leaves money on the table. Different segments have different needs, different price sensitivities, and different decision-making processes. Your sales approach and menu positioning should reflect those differences.
Corporate meetings and conferences are typically your highest-volume segment. These clients value efficiency, consistency, and professional presentation. They book repeatedly, often with short lead times, and are less price-sensitive than social clients when the total package meets their standards. Corporate catering sales should emphasize streamlined booking processes, reliable execution, and the ability to accommodate dietary restrictions without hassle.
Social events including weddings, anniversaries, and milestone celebrations are high-emotion, high-spend occasions. These clients are often planning a once-in-a-lifetime event and are willing to pay premium prices for exceptional food, personalized service, and memorable presentation. Social catering sales should emphasize customization, tasting experiences, and the emotional impact of your food and service.
Nonprofit galas and fundraisers have unique dynamics. The organization wants to maximize the funds raised, which means they are cost-conscious on the catering side, but they also need the event to feel premium enough that donors feel their contributions are valued. Offering a curated package at a competitive price point with strong visual presentation serves this segment well.
SMERF groups (social, military, educational, religious, fraternal) often work with modest budgets but book during off-peak periods that might otherwise go unsold. Flexible menu options and value-oriented packages make this segment profitable even at lower per-person price points because they fill otherwise empty function space.
Create distinct menu packages and sales collateral for each segment. A corporate client should not be scrolling through wedding menus to find what they need, and a bride should not feel like she is choosing from a conference lunch menu.
Engineer your menus for margin
Menu engineering is the practice of designing your catering menus to maximize profitability while maintaining guest satisfaction. It applies the same analytical approach that successful restaurants use, adapted for the banquet and event context.
Start by calculating the food cost and contribution margin for every item on your catering menus. Categorize each item into one of four groups: stars (high popularity, high margin), plowhorses (high popularity, low margin), puzzles (low popularity, high margin), and dogs (low popularity, low margin).
Your goal is to promote stars, reengineer plowhorses to improve their margins, find ways to increase the appeal of puzzles, and either fix or remove dogs. For example, if your chicken entree is a plowhorse, the item that everyone orders but that barely breaks even, consider adjusting the portion size, changing the protein source, or repositioning it on the menu with a higher price justified by an enhanced description and presentation upgrade.
Position your highest-margin items strategically. On printed menus, items placed first and last in each category receive the most attention. In tasting presentations, lead with your star items to set expectations. When your catering sales team presents options to clients, train them to recommend stars first and frame the conversation around those selections.
Bundle strategically. A per-person package that includes appetizers, entree, dessert, and beverages at an all-inclusive price typically yields better margins than a la carte pricing because you control the component mix. You can pair a high-margin appetizer with a moderate-margin entree and a high-margin dessert to create a package that feels generous to the client while protecting your profitability.
Use tasting events to close deals
Tasting events are one of the most powerful and underused tools in hotel catering sales. A well-executed tasting converts prospects into clients at rates far higher than proposals and price quotes alone, because it engages the senses and creates an emotional connection to your food and service.
Host quarterly or seasonal tasting events that showcase your current menus and any new offerings. Invite qualified prospects who are actively considering venues for upcoming events, along with event planners and corporate executive assistants who influence venue decisions.
Structure the tasting as an experience, not just a meal. Walk guests through each course, explain the sourcing and preparation, and have your chef or banquet captain available to answer questions and discuss customization options. This positions your catering team as culinary partners rather than order-takers.
For high-value prospects, particularly wedding clients and large corporate accounts, offer private tastings as part of the sales process. The cost of preparing a tasting for a couple considering a 200-person wedding reception is negligible compared to the $30,000 to $80,000 in potential revenue that event represents. Frame the private tasting as an exclusive benefit of working with your hotel.
Track tasting-to-booking conversion rates. Hotels that run structured tasting programs typically see conversion rates of 40 to 60 percent among attendees, compared to 15 to 25 percent for prospects who only receive written proposals.
Leverage social media and digital marketing
Catering and event F&B is inherently visual, which makes it perfectly suited for social media marketing. Yet many hotel catering departments have little to no social media presence, relying entirely on the hotel's general marketing channels.
Build a consistent cadence of visual content that showcases your food, your event spaces in action, and the behind-the-scenes work of your culinary team. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are particularly effective for reaching social event planners, while LinkedIn content performs well for corporate event decision-makers.
Invest in professional photography of your best events. A single photo shoot at a well-styled wedding reception or gala dinner can produce months of marketing content. Include close-ups of plated dishes, wide shots of the room setup, detail shots of table settings, and candid moments of guests enjoying the experience.
Create video content showing your chef preparing signature dishes, your banquet team setting up an event space, or a time-lapse of a room transformation from empty space to finished event. This behind-the-scenes content humanizes your team and builds confidence in your execution capabilities.
Encourage satisfied clients to share their event photos and tag your hotel. User-generated content is more trusted than branded content and extends your reach to the client's network, which often includes other potential event hosts.
Build strategic vendor partnerships
Hotel catering does not exist in isolation. Events involve florists, photographers, entertainment, AV providers, transportation companies, and event planners. Building strong relationships with these vendors creates a referral network that drives catering business to your property.
Identify the top event vendors in your market and develop formal or informal partnership arrangements. Offer them familiarization visits to your property, include them on your preferred vendor list that you share with clients, and create referral incentive programs that reward them for recommending your hotel.
Event planners deserve special attention because they directly influence venue selection for dozens or even hundreds of events per year. Host an annual planner appreciation event, provide them with a dedicated point of contact for inquiries, and ensure their clients receive exceptional service that reflects well on the planner's recommendation.
Cross-promote with complementary businesses. Partner with a popular local bakery to offer their desserts as an add-on to your catering packages. Work with a local winery to create exclusive wine pairing menus. These partnerships differentiate your offering and create marketing opportunities that benefit both parties.
Develop seasonal and themed menus
Seasonal menus serve multiple strategic purposes. They give returning clients a reason to try something new, they allow you to take advantage of ingredient availability and pricing, and they create natural marketing moments throughout the year.
Build a calendar of seasonal menu launches that align with your market's event booking patterns. A spring garden party menu launched in February catches wedding couples and corporate event planners who are making decisions for spring and summer events. A holiday celebration menu released in September targets the wave of corporate holiday party bookings.
Themed menus for specific event types also perform well. A "Working Lunch Power Menu" designed for corporate half-day meetings, a "Late Night Bites" package for wedding receptions, or a "Health & Wellness Retreat" menu for corporate wellness events all demonstrate that you understand the specific needs of different event occasions and have built menu solutions around them.
Each seasonal or themed menu launch is a marketing opportunity. Send targeted emails to your catering prospect database, post visual content on social media, and host a mini tasting for your top clients and event planner partners.
Track the right catering metrics
Growing catering revenue requires the same data-driven approach you apply to rooms. Establish a dashboard that tracks the metrics most directly linked to F&B event performance.
Revenue per available function space hour tells you how effectively you are monetizing your event spaces. This metric accounts for both the price you charge and the utilization of your space.
Average F&B spend per person by event type reveals whether your menu engineering and upselling efforts are working. Track this separately for corporate, social, and SMERF segments to identify where you have pricing power and where you may be leaving money on the table.
Catering revenue as a percentage of total hotel revenue shows whether your F&B event business is growing proportionally or being overshadowed by rooms. Hotels with strong catering programs typically generate 25 to 40 percent of total revenue from F&B and events.
Proposal-to-booking conversion rate by segment and by salesperson identifies where your catering sales process is strong and where it needs improvement.
Track these metrics in a centralized system like HotelAmplify where your catering sales pipeline, menu performance data, and revenue reporting live alongside your rooms and group sales data. Having a unified view of all revenue streams lets you make smarter decisions about resource allocation and pricing.
Key takeaways
- Segment your catering market and create distinct menu packages and sales approaches for corporate, social, nonprofit, and SMERF clients.
- Engineer your menus by categorizing items by popularity and margin, then promoting high-margin stars and reengineering low-margin plowhorses.
- Tasting events convert prospects at 40 to 60 percent compared to 15 to 25 percent for written proposals alone, making them one of your highest-ROI sales activities.
- Social media and professional event photography are essential for catering marketing because the product is inherently visual and shareable.
- Track revenue per function space hour, average F&B spend per person, and catering conversion rates to manage your F&B event business with the same rigor you apply to rooms.
Next steps
Ready to grow your hotel's catering and event F&B revenue? Explore HotelAmplify's meetings and events tools to manage your catering pipeline from inquiry to BEO. See how integrated sales management connects your catering team with the rest of your hotel's revenue operation. Get started today.