Let’s be honest, hotel coffee doesn’t always have the best reputation.
And that’s a problem, because today’s guests are expecting more. They’re used to barista-style coffee from the high street, and they’ll happily walk out of your building to get it if what you’re serving doesn’t match up.
The worst part? We see hotels charging premium prices for, frankly, sub-par coffee. Not only does that damage your reputation, it can quietly eat into your revenue too. One bad coffee can mean a guest skips your café altogether next time, or heads across the road instead of spending with you.
Upgrading your coffee offer can fix that. But what does it take to compete with speciality coffee shops?
As a wholesale coffee roaster, we know what kind of investment needs to be made for a hotel to see a real impact on their guest experience when it comes to coffee. So, let's dive in.
Great Hotel Coffee Requires Great Beans
Many hotels are currently buying very cheap, low quality, dark roasted beans.
Even with the most expensive machines and competition-winning baristas, you can't get delicious coffee from non-delicious beans.
In order to compete with nearby quality coffee shops, you need to be investing in good quality beans.
Here are the costs:
Cost Per Kilo
Hotels will typically need to spend between £14 and £20 per kilo for their coffee beans. This range in price depends on blend vs single origin, roast level, certifications (Organic, Fairtrade etc.), level of traceability, processing method, order volumes and packaging.
Cost Per Cup
Typically, you can expect anywhere between 50 to 70 cups of coffee per kilo, depending on your machine type, recipe and wasteage.
18 grams might be used for a double espresso on a traditional barista-operated machine, whilst a bean-to-cup machine might use a slightly smaller dose such as 14 grams. Because of this varience, and accounting for wasteage, a kilo could produce between 50 and 70 cups.
The cost of the beans in your coffee could therefore cost between 20 and 40 pence per cup, depending on coffee quality and the recipe used.
Expected Monthly Cost
In order to compete with your local specialty coffee shops, you can expect to spend between £350 and £650 per month on your coffee beans, typically.
This equates to between 6,000-10,000 coffees served, with potential revenue of £18-30k based on a £3 cup of coffee.
Milk Alternatives, Syrups, and Ingredients
Dairy milk is fairly stable in price, usually between £1.25 and £1.75 per litre. That gives you four or five drinks per litre, depending on cup size. It's also key to stock a range of plant-based alternatives.
Oat, almond, soy, you’re looking at £1.50 to £2.00 per litre. We recommend stocking a few types, as they have a long shelf life, but definitely Oat at a minimum.
Then there’s everything else:
- Syrups
- Chocolate or matcha powder
- Smoothie and frappe bases
- Whipped cream, sauces, and seasonal toppings
These aren’t just “nice to haves”, they’re upsell opportunities that will help make your hotel more money. A single bottle of syrup is usually around £9 Per bottle (33 servings) whilst a large tin of quality hot chocolate powder is around £20 (70 servings).
For all of their additional ingredient needs, hotels investing in a high quality coffee offering are spending around £50 to £100 per month, per site.
Your Coffee Equipment
Hotels are very different to restaurants and cafés in that they'll usually have more than one coffee setup.
For example, they might have a café-style barista setup in the restaurant/lobby, a self service machine in their breakfast dining area, filter coffee machines for their conference rooms, and even pod machines in the rooms.
Hotels can expect to spend, usually, between £400 to £2,000 per month on their equipment.
For the sake of simplicity, let's show an example from one of our customers. Broken down into upfront cost, and a monthly cost based on a fixed 5 year lease.
- High quality espresso machine (Sanremo F18) - £10k or £/200month
- Espresso grinder (E65S Mahlkonig) - £1.9k or £38/month
- Automatic tamper (PUQPress Q2) £900 or £18/month
- Bean-to-cup machine (Schaerer Coffee Soul 12) £12k or £210/month
- Bulk Filter Coffee Machine (Marco Qwikbrew) £2,600 or £62/month
Total cost, £528 per month. This setup covers all of the coffee in your cafe, restaurant/bar, self service and conference rooms, allowing you to serve specialty coffee at every touch point within your hotel.
A Luxury Hotel Who Invested in their Coffee
With our guidance, Bryn Meadows Hotel, Golf and Spa invested in a new espresso machine, delicious coffee beans, and a service contract with our engineers.
Learn about their results in this case study.
Barista Training - Free vs Paid
Maintaining a team of high quality, well trained staff, is the glue that sticks your coffee program together.
While some machine setups require more manual labour than others, a minimum level of service and proficiency is required to deliver a high quality coffee and customer experience.
High staff turnover throughout hospitality makes this a challenge for hotels, but many wholesale coffee providers will offer some level of complimentary staff training.
On the day of installation, our team provides a free barista training session for your team to go over the ins and outs of your machine, coffee extraction, drink preparation and coffee service. From then, your account manager visits regularly in person and via remote checkups to see how you're getting on, free of charge.
Paid training options are also available for baristas looking to develop, and earn an industry-recognised certification. With extra costs involved and rigorous standards that must be adhered to, set by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), these courses typically cost between £300 to £400 depending on the course module.
Maintenance - Cleaning and Service Cover
Keeping your machines clean and in top operational shape is key to a high quality, but more importantly a reliable, coffee service.
Investing in high quality coffee can only pay off if your machines are working, after all. Here's a quick run down of the costs of looking after your machines, in terms of cleaning chemicals and the costs of servicing and repairs.
Repairing your Equipment
Paying for repairs and servicing only when you need them, 'Pay As you Go', means you only pay for what you need. However, this route can be expensive:
- Breakdown visits - from £185, plus time on site
- Annual pressure vessel inspection - £250- £445
- Water filter replacement £290 - £400
Taking out a service contract is not only more cost effective, but is also the easiest way of ensuring your machines are looked after by our coffee engineers proactively, and brought back to life as soon as possible when issues arise.
Platinum Cover - Between £80 and £210/month
Our hotel customers are spending, on average, £180 per month on their repairs service cover. Learn more about the costs and benefits of service cover here -> Service & Maintenance
Cleaning Chemicals for your Machines
Our hotel customers spend, on average, £35 per month on the cleaning products for their coffee equipment. This covers general cleaning powders, descale cartridges, backflush chemicals, and milk cleaning systems.
So, What's the Cost for Great Hotel Coffee?
Let’s bring it all together. Based on the numbers, here's a quick run down of how much you could realistically spend on your hotel's specialty coffee program.
Monthly Cost Breakdown - Hotel Specialty Coffee
- Coffee beans: £350-650 /month
- Additional ingredients: £80 /month
- Equipment costs: £400 - £2,000
- Maintenance plan + cleaning chemicals: £210 /month
- Regular barista training: Free
Total Spend: £1,040 - 2,940 per month.
Invest Wisely with Bridge Coffee Roasters
If you're looking to invest in your coffee setup and take your hotel's offering to the next level, we're here to help.
Whatever your perfect coffee and machine looks like, feel free to get in touch with our team to find out exactly what level of investment you'll need.
