The £43,000 Coffee Mistake: Why Bad Coffee Costs More Than Good Coffee
I recently stayed at a five-star resort in India. It was a genuinely beautiful property with five-star service. But breakfast coffee came from a button-press machine: functional, forgettable. Their on-site café charged upwards of £3 (equivalent in local currency), but it still wasn’t proper barista-made espresso.
My next stay was a four-star property in Nepal at roughly half the price. Breakfast included genuine barista coffee. It was made to order and worth the wait.
This is exactly the kind of small operational detail we look for at Incrementalist: tiny friction points that quietly shape guest satisfaction and leak revenue over time.
That contrast is the point: coffee culture has arrived across Asia, guest expectations have shifted, and hotels that ignore this are quietly leaking revenue every day.
Asia’s coffee expectations have moved on
Asia has traditionally been tea territory. But over the last decade, specialty coffee has become mainstream in major cities, and it’s spreading fast into secondary markets. Young professionals, international travellers, and a growing domestic middle class now expect cafe-standard coffee in “good” hotels.
In practice, that means your breakfast coffee is no longer a small detail. It’s a trust signal.
Why coffee matters even more in emerging destinations
In emerging tourism markets, the street experience can be intense: traffic, heat, friction, unpredictability. Your hotel isn’t just a place to sleep. It’s a refuge where things work the way guests expect.
Good coffee is symbolic of that refuge. It’s the familiar in the unfamiliar. It’s the small daily ritual that tells guests: you’re in competent hands.
When coffee is weak, or when guests have to leave the property to solve it, you’ve created friction at the exact moment they’re looking for convenience.
What “good coffee” actually means in a 4 to 5-star context
Baseline expectation:
Espresso-based drinks from a proper machine (not button-press)
A trained barista (or trained breakfast staff) who can extract espresso and texture milk reliably
Fresh beans, stored and rotated properly
Milk alternatives available by default (oat plus at least one other)
Proper decaf (not instant)
A simple core menu: espresso, americano, cappuccino, latte, flat white, cortado
Then you can add “margin and memory” drinks that fit your region and photograph well. Some regional / local examples might include:
Vietnam: egg coffee, coconut coffee, salt coffee
India: saffron latte, cardamom coffee
Thailand: oliang, yuzu espresso tonic, orange americano
Japan: yuzu espresso tonic, hojicha latte
Sri Lanka: jaggery coffee, ginger coffee, cinnamon latte
These are not gimmicks when done with restraint. They are culturally rooted options that create “only here” moments and justify premium pricing.
The real cost of mediocre coffee
1) Guests leave the property
If on-site coffee is weak, caffeine-dependent guests walk out. That means time spent off-property, money spent at competitor cafés, and a subtle association with inconvenience.
At that five-star property, I left daily and spent £4 to £5 elsewhere (typically with an accompanying pastry or snack). Multiply that by occupancy and the share of guests who drink coffee (even conservatively), and you’re looking at five-figure leakage that is both predictable and preventable.
2) Missed ancillary revenue
Good coffee creates multiple daily purchase moments: morning, mid-morning, post-lunch, afternoon iced drinks, pastry pairings. It’s often among the highest-margin F&B categories once set up properly.
Even modest volume adds up quickly. Stronger programs also keep guests “in your ecosystem” longer, increasing the chance they buy something else from you.
3) Review and reputation drag
Guests mention coffee in reviews more than hotels like to admit. Not usually as a deal-breaker, but as friction: “Breakfast was great, but the coffee was instant.” In markets where competitors are separated by tiny review-score differences, friction matters.
The business case is simpler than hotels pretend
Typical initial investment range:
Commercial espresso machine: £3,000 to £8,000
Commercial grinder: £500 to £1,500
Training (2 to 3 staff): £300 to £800
Accessories: £200 to £400
Rough total: £4,000 to £10,700 (further savings possible when buying equipment used, but not likely to deliver that 5-star experience)
The equipment is the cost. Training is not. When a hotel says it “can’t afford” proper coffee, it’s often a prioritisation problem, not a budget problem.
Payback is usually fast because coffee margins are strong and demand is reliable. The bigger upside is not just coffee profit, it’s reduced walk-outs and improved guest satisfaction at a high-leverage moment of the day.
Common mistakes that signal “we didn’t think about this”
Button-press machines at breakfast in a 4 to 5-star property
Charging premium prices for mediocre coffee
Buying expensive equipment, then skipping training
Offering only dairy milk
Treating decaf as an afterthought
Using stale beans (or storing them badly)
Making coffee available only in a narrow time window
Implementation: a phased approach that avoids drama
Phase 1: Baseline
Proper machine, proper grinder, two trained staff, fresh beans, milk alternatives, proper decaf. Served consistently at breakfast.Phase 2: Capture revenue
Make café-quality coffee available beyond breakfast. Add one iced option if climate supports it. Pair it with a simple pastry offer.Phase 3: Differentiate
Add one regionally rooted signature drink that photographs well, tastes great, and justifies a premium.
That’s the whole playbook. The rest is consistency.
Don’t miss the window
Coffee expectations in Asia are not “coming.” They’re already here. For 4 to 5-star independent hotels, good coffee is now baseline. Hotels that treat it as optional will increasingly be compared unfavourably to those that took it seriously.
This is not trend-chasing. It’s meeting evolved expectations and capturing revenue that currently walks out your front door.
First we drink the coffee. Then we do the things. Make sure yours is worth drinking.
Daniel Engelsman is the founder of Incrementalist, a consultancy helping small group and independent hotels improve guest experience and unlock incremental revenue through practical operational refinements, especially in emerging and maturing tourism markets.
