The hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia is on the verge of mega-growth, with the number of available keys expected to double, and some 30 million pilgrims and 150 million tourists expected to visit by 2030.
However, economy and midscale hotels (the largest by number of units) face key challenges with their F&B vertical as they often struggle to maximise the utilisation of their kitchens, driven by a breakfast-focused service with limited business during lunch and dinner. This drives hotels to optimise their F&B capabilities resulting in a downward spiral with suboptimal F&B experiences for their guests and low-to-no profitability on this vertical.
Matbakhi is addressing this pain points for hotels through an innovative approach that is based on invigorating the F&B offering for hotels with much more options and the digitisation of the guest experience and unlocking more revenue streams from external catering and food delivery.
"Matbakhi steps in to democratise top quality F&B offerings and transform the hotel F&B vertical into a profitable one using our expertise in tech-integrated operations", said Joe Frem, CEO and co-founder of Matbakhi. "Our innovative asset-light approach involves digitising customer-facing and back-end processes, implementing smart inventory and kitchen management systems, and exploring new revenue streams through catering and the fast-growing segment of cloud kitchens, which is a lucrative opportunity for hotels."
By operating more than 15 virtual brands in a cloud kitchen setup within existing hotel infrastructure, Matbakhi allows hotels to tap into this booming delivery market without significant additional investment, "a market that has an exponential opportunity to grow, due to the low penetration in Saudi Arabia," as mentioned by Assad Numan, ex-CEO of Hungerstation, a leading food delivery platform in Saudi Arabia.
Recognising the wealth of talent among young Saudi chefs, Matbakhi provides a platform to showcase their creativity. They collaborate with these chefs to develop innovative F&B concepts that are operated at scale across the whole country. This is a win-win for both chefs and the hospitality industry. Chefs gain valuable experience and recognition, while hotels can offer their guests unique and exciting dining options, enhancing the overall guest experience.
Matbakhi's impact extends to the whole ecosystem from hotels to guests and chefs, resulting in a more dynamic F&B landscape. For hotels, Matbakhi unlocks new revenue streams through catering, cloud kitchens and optimized operations, while providing access to cutting-edge technology that enhances guest experiences, which has proven to increase the hotel’s net operating income by 3x.
Hassan Ahdab, president of hotel operations in Dur Hospitality, one of the leading hospitality groups in Saudi Arabia, believes that "Matbakhi will be the spearhead for the new generation of F&B offerings in hotels". "The benefits to the hotel are unlocked by increasing the variety of F&B concepts for guests, while digitising their experience and improving operations."
Looking ahead, Matbakhi is developing a tech-enabled concierge-like ecosystem around guests, providing the products and services that they need beyond F&B. This solution not only benefits the hotel in distinguishing their value proposition and increasing their sales per room but also elevates the overall quality of hospitality experiences in Saudi Arabia.