Organization of Public Catering as a Factor in the Competitiveness of Hotel Complexes

The relevance of the study lies in the fact that in the context of the development of the regions of the country, the tourism and hotel business contributes to the activation of the national economy. The provision of hospitality services stimulates the creation of additional direct and indirect jobs, increasing the tourist attractiveness of the destination, intensifying incoming tourist and, accordingly, financial traffic. With the evolution of society, technical and technological progress, informatization and other ongoing processes, the requests and needs of the guests of collective accommodation facilities have changed significantly. In this regard, the service in the restaurant at the hotel comes to the fore and in terms of its quality, based on consumer assessments and judgments, guests and visitors actively form a subjective opinion in relation to the entire hotel complex, which, to a large extent, has a multidirectional impact on the results of commercial and financial activities, service market entity. This circumstance predetermines the need to revise the conceptual approaches of hotels to the organization of restaurant service and customer service in the system of relations “hotel – restaurant – guest”. The purpose of the study is to review, generalize and supplement the existing theoretical approaches to the organization of catering for tourists in hotel complexes and to conduct a comparative assessment of restaurants at hotels (on the example of Novosibirsk) to identify some advantages and disadvantages in their work for compiling a rating. In the process of research, general scientific methods of theoretical and empirical knowledge were used: analysis and synthesis, the method of comparative assessments, ranking (rating). In the study, the authors summarize theoretical approaches to the organization of public catering at hotels in order to form a holistic view and clarify its role in the modern tourism and hotel business, taking into account the transformation of consumer preferences and the existing competition in the service market. A review of approaches to the definition of the concept of “public catering” is carried out, the features of consumer behavior are determined when tourists choose food at the hotel, the logistics component of the hotel business is concretized and substantiated, in the context of the latest consumer requests, the principles of effective restaurant design are presented and supplemented as a response of hoteliers to modern challenges, are noted aspects of customer perception of the quality of service in a hotel restaurant. To test and confirm the research hypothesis, a comparative assessment of public catering establishments at hotel complexes (on the example of Novosibirsk) is carried out, which allows highlighting the range of problems and positive aspects of restaurants. Based on the results of the comparative assessment, a rating of restaurants is compiled, which clearly demonstrates the current position of catering facilities in the tourism and hospitality market of the metropolis.