Hotel Del Coronado Installs Capton's RFID Beverage Tracker, Hits ROI in Three Months

Located in San Diego, California, the Hotel Del Coronado has long been heralded as one of America's most beautiful beach resorts. Known as "The Del," it has been called "one of the top ten resorts in the world" by USA Today. The hotel has a high-volume bar called Babcock & Story that's lauded among the best in San Diego; but it was plagued with a significant liquor shrinkage problem and management lacked the necessary technology systems to conclusively identify when and where the shortages were ocuring.

 

Acting on the recomedation of a sister property in the Strategic Hotels & Resorts portfolio, management chose to work with Capton for an RFID-based inventory control system. "We had implemented an inventory solution that was highlighting a significant liquor shrinkage problem. The challenge, however, was that even with weekly inventories conducted by the solution vendor, we could not go to bartenders with sufficiently detailed data to change behavior," states Steve Schackne, food and beverage director for Hotel Del Coronado. "In contrast, Capton's generated data is behavior-changing in character. We know exactly who is over pouring what drinks, and when. We know every time staff gives away a drink, or if they fail to apply an up charge. After 5 months our beverage cost is down 3.6 points. That's a three-month payback on the system in that one bar."

 

A key objective for the hotel and Capton was to preserve the customer service and guest experience for which the property is known. "The problem with a lot of liquor control systems is that they look 'clunky' to customers, impose operational practice change, and require a lot of management babysitting to keep them running. The Capton system had none of these issues, and it produced the savings result" adds Schackne.

 

The project involved an installation of Capton's patented RFID-based liquor monitoring spouts at the Babcock & Story Bar operation, Capton's software on a manager's desktop, and a POS integration application linked to the property's Micros POS solution.

 

"The thing we like about this solution," sas David Hogin, VP Asset Management for Strategic Hotels, "is that it does not become a management burden. It's a technology investment we can make into a property with a fast ROI, that does not require major operational changes or management priority shifts. And Capton's ongoing business services approach puts them in position to be an independent advisor to the local team on ways to reduce costs and increase revenues in their bar operation."