Benchmarks are useful for one thing: telling you where to look. They are not targets, and a property that is outside a range is not automatically broken — a beach resort with three outlets and a hotel with a breakfast room should not have the same numbers.
Use these as a starting point for questions, not as a scorecard.
Where F&B should sit in the mix
| Property type | F&B as share of total revenue |
|---|---|
| Limited service / breakfast only | 5–15% |
| Full service hotel | 25–35% |
| Resort with multiple outlets | 30–45% |
| Lifestyle / F&B-led property | 40–50%+ |
If you run a resort with a restaurant, a pool bar and room service and F&B is under 25% of revenue, the usual cause is not weak demand. It is that one or more outlets is not really trading.
Cost benchmarks by positioning
Cost percentages should be read against where your property sits in the market, not against a single industry average. These are the bands we work to.
| Metric | Budget | Mid-range | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food cost % | 32–38% | 28–32% | 25–30% |
| Beverage cost % | 22–28% | 18–24% | 15–20% |
| Average check (casual) | $15–25 | $25–45 | $45–80 |
| Average check (fine dining) | — | $60–100 | $100–200+ |
| Upsell acceptance rate | 10–15% | 15–25% | 25–35% |
That last row is the one most operators have never measured, and it is the most actionable. Upsell acceptance — the share of offers that convert — is a service metric, not a menu metric, and it responds quickly to training. A premium property converting at 12% is not suffering from weak demand.
Labour is deliberately absent. It varies too much by market to benchmark usefully; compare it against your own trend instead.
The two numbers most properties have never calculated
Capture rate
Of the guests on your property today, what share ate or drank in each outlet? Breakfast is often 60–80% where it is included and far lower where it is not. Dinner capture at an independent resort is frequently under 30% — and every point of that is revenue walking to a competitor.
F&B revenue per occupied room
Total F&B revenue divided by occupied rooms, monthly. It is the fastest way to see whether your F&B operation is improving or whether you simply had a busier month. Track the trend; the absolute number varies too much by market to benchmark meaningfully.
What to do with a number that looks wrong
Before assuming a pricing or cost problem, check whether the outlet is actually able to trade — menus present, service rotating, hours matching demand, payment possible. In our audits, the majority of underperforming outlets are not badly priced. They are inaccessible.