<I>Parsippany, N.J.</I> - HFS hotels will serve chicken and other fast-food fare this summer through an alliance with the Kenny Rogers Roasters chain.
The food-service venture, which includes the Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, Villager Lodge and Wingate Inns limited-service brands, also features TurboChef, a newfangled oven that cooks steak in three minutes and chicken in a minute and a half.
The 5,000-property hotel group's foray into the food-court trend--sparked last year by Choice Hotels, Holiday Inn and Doubletree Club Hotels (BTN, Aug. 5, 1996)--was spurred by time-pressed travelers, said John Russell, HFS Hospitality's president and chief executive officer.
"Five years ago, travelers who stayed in limited-service hotels didn't seem to mind going across the street or getting in their car to get a bite to eat," he said. "Now, time is extremely valuable to them. More and more, they've been asking, 'why don't you have food?'"
The HFS version, slated for a July 1 launch, also will include room service--delivered within 15 minutes.
Scouting for an eatery, HFS came across the year-old TurboChef company, which already had hooked up with singer Kenny Rogers' chain. Testing the cooking system, which replaces nine pieces of kitchen equipment, the hotel group served breakfast to 72 people in 20 minutes at the Essex House's ballroom in New York, Russell said.
Russell said the concept, testing at several Days Inn and Ramada hotels through June 15, most likely will spread to more than 500 hotels by next year. "The demographics are perfect for our chain: midmarket middle America," said Howard Johnson president and chief operating officer Stephen Phillips.
The HFS eateries will feature a wider menu, including breakfast, pasta and pizza. Properties will choose from five to 20 items per meal and set their own hours.
Hotels also will choose from three set-ups: a self-contained cart, a kiosk or an express restaurant, which could be retrofitted into a property's existing restaurant.
Typically, a hotel must put up at least a quarter of a million dollars to get into the food business, Russell said, yet the price of entry for a Kenny Rogers cart costs about $15,000. Adding food also might allow the hotels to up their rates a bit, Russell said.