InterContinental Hotels Group has launched a training program for the food and beverage teams in its hotels across the Asia, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA) and Greater China regions. The program, initially rolled out with more than 10 courses incorporating over 500 video lessons, was developed in collaboration with global hospitality education provider Lobster Ink. The company has plans to develop more courses over time.
More than 7,000 employees across 325 hotels are currently undergoing training in various courses, with close to 2,000 already completing them. Certain courses are tailored to the company’s brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Hotel Indigo. For every course they complete, participants also receive accreditation by both the Institute of Hospitality and IHG which formally endorse their qualification and recognize the high quality standards they are delivering to the hospitality industry.
“Food and beverage is a key part of our business and over 80 percent of our guests eat breakfast with us,” says Phil Broad, vice president, food and beverage, AMEA, IHG. “We know that if a customer has a good experience at breakfast, they are more likely to come back for lunch and dinner. It is vital our hotels understand and are delivering the right breakfast standards according to what our guests want and need, and that sparked the development of the IHG F&B Training System.
“Since the development of our bespoke breakfast standards course, our training has gone on to include topics such as lunch and dinner standards and problem resolution. Since its launch, the program has been very well-received amongst our colleagues and we are confident it will provide the F&B teams in our hotels with the tools they need to deliver high quality, consistent experiences for our guests and customers dining with us,” he added.
The online platform provides F&B employees across IHG’s hotels with access to training videos, standards manuals, assessment modules, and management reporting tools. The training equips them with the knowledge and practical know-how to deliver on the company’s ongoing F&B developments.
IHG’s team of food and beverage experts are working on a number of new programs to improve and enhance guests’ culinary experiences across the company’s portfolio of more than 240 hotels in the region. This includes the recently launched InterContinental Planet Trekkers Children’s Menu, jointly developed by celebrated chef Theo Randall and Annabel Karmel, and the IHG Dining Rewards program, designed to reward members every time they dine in a restaurant at the company’s hotels.
The company also recently launched its Culinary Panel, a new initiative featuring five celebrated chefs who have been appointed IHG Culinary Ambassadors to develop a repertoire of unique signature dishes for guests dining in IHG’s hotels across the AMEA region.
IHG operates more than 5,400 restaurants and bars and more than 800 dining outlets across 246 hotels in Asia, Middle East, and Africa. More than 200 restaurants and bars will be unveiled in AMEA as IHG opens the 137 hotels in its pipeline over the next three to five years.
