Global Food & Beverage Consultants 

Guests do not travel to the Maldives for the restaurants, yet in a captive island environment F&B makes or breaks the experience. Six structural shifts are reshaping how ultra-luxury properties approach their F&B programmes.

A quiet arms race is underway in the world's luxury residential markets, and it is not about square footage or views. It is about the clubhouse, where F&B has become the primary differentiator most developers still treat as an afterthought.

The hospitality industry has spent a decade searching for a technological silver bullet. Yet the guest experience has not improved. The problem is not that technology has failed, but that the industry reached for it before understanding what was broken.

The British pub has survived plagues, wars, recessions and the invention of the sofa. But survival in 2026 is no longer sufficient. Six observable shifts are separating the pubs that lead from those that lag.

There is a quiet revolution happening in hospitality and it has nothing to do with a new menu format. It is a wholesale rejection of the curated, the polished and the performative, in favour of brands guests actually believe.

Something structural is happening in European foodservice. Operators of every size are concluding that producing food from scratch in every kitchen, every day, is no longer viable at scale. The response is central production, and the gap between success and failure is almost entirely execution.

Ask most operators what they sell and they will tell you about the food. But consumers are not asking where to eat Italian tonight. They are asking something more interesting: what kind of evening do we want to have?

The age of paid hospitality advertising is not dead but it is wounded, and the wounds are self-inflicted. The brands cutting through are not spending more on advertising. They are becoming media companies in their own right.

There is a particular kind of hubris in the long menu. It promises limitless choice and delivers paralysis. The future of compelling hospitality belongs to those who choose.

The sustainability lecture has had its moment. The smarter, more commercially resilient move is to embed sustainability into operations without making it the guest's problem. Quiet proof points, not loud claims, are the currency of credibility.

Something has shifted in what people mean when they say they want a good life. The guest who once demanded the most elaborate dish and most conspicuous experience is being quietly retired. Wellbeing, meaning and connection are the new luxury.

The family holiday and the family day out have been quietly redesigned. Brands that have not noticed are planning for a market that no longer quite exists. The deeper story is about what families seek when they come together.

There is a generation of consumers who want premium experiences and are unwilling to wait until they can theoretically afford them. The HENRY demographic has reshaped what premium hospitality means.

The restaurant that is merely a place to eat food is not in crisis, but it is in competition with experiences that engage, surprise and entertain. The experiential revolution is a structural shift in what leisure time means.

James Hacon reflects on family travel, children’s dining and hotel experience design, drawing on stays at Auchrannie Resort, Royal Caribbean, Great Wolf Lodge and others to explore why family-centred hospitality is a commercial strategy, not an afterthought.

At Nova SBE's Female Empowerment Workshop in Lisbon, Think Hospitality Consulting joined global hospitality leaders and researchers to explore the future of leadership, inclusion and organisational culture across hospitality and tourism. Founder & Managing Partner James Hacon opened the event with a keynote examining outdated leadership models, operational realities within hospitality and why the industry must move from awareness to meaningful action.

Led by Heleri Rande, Partner at Think Hospitality, sessions with EHL Hospitality Business School students explored the future of hospitality, investment, lifestyle real estate, food and beverage and experiential guest experience.

At Restaurant Marketer & Innovator, James Hacon sat down with Markus Thesleff to explore the realities of building and scaling multi-concept hospitality brands in today’s market. From the rise of Los Mochis and the reinvention of heritage concepts to international expansion, experiential dining and hospitality as entertainment, the conversation unpacked why the future of hospitality belongs to brands capable of creating culture, emotional connection and unforgettable experie

At Restaurant Marketer & Innovator, Michael Ingemann sat down with Duncan Stirling to explore why experiential hospitality continues to outperform in an attention-driven world. From immersive storytelling and nostalgia-led concepts to “world building”, absurdity and customer psychology, the conversation unpacked how brands including Cahoots, Mr Fogg's and Bunga 90 are creating emotionally memorable experiences that go far beyond food and drink.

At this year’s Restaurant Marketer & Innovator, Heleri Rande hosted a forward-looking discussion exploring one of hospitality’s fastest growing movements: the convergence of wellness, community and social experience. Joined by leaders from across hospitality, lifestyle and wellness-led concepts, the panel unpacked how changing consumer behaviour is transforming what people now expect from restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels and social spaces. The discussion featured: Chris Mille