How Hotel Owners Can See a 10x Increase in Food and Beverage Sales by Investing in a Pizzeria Uno Hotel Conversion Franchise

Pizzeria Uno, the neighborhood pizzeria franchise, has a big goal of becoming the preferred pizza and restaurant brand within the lodging industry. With a new restaurant conversion franchise opportunity, the brand is giving hotel owners a unique opportunity to leverage an iconic menu, in-depth support infrastructure and strong ROI potential by opening a full-service Pizzeria Uno restaurant connected to their hotel.

Earlier this year, the Pizzeria Uno team tested this strategy after converting three in-hotel restaurants in the Midwest into Pizzeria Uno locations. Each hotel saw major sales growth after the conversion, including one with a whopping 10x increase in their average daily volume. 

So, who is the ideal Pizzeria Uno hotel conversion franchisee? Erik Frederick, CEO of Pizzeria Uno, says it's any hotel owners who desire more sales from their F&B program. Opportunities can apply to those interested in converting their current hotel restaurant to a Pizzeria Uno branded restaurant, hotel operators building out new hotels and restaurants, or owners of existing hotels that are adding a restaurant for the first time. There are even opportunities for hotels that don’t have a kitchen because Pizzeria Uno provides a superior frozen product from their Uno Foods division.  

“We are really focused on finding the right franchisees for the brand,” said Frederick. “We have a great culture here and are looking to partner with people who truly understand hospitality and are interested in becoming a long-lasting part of their community. The ideal franchisee will be someone with a passion for the Pizzeria Uno brand. Any franchise can give you all the training guides in the world, but it is the passion that is going to make the guests feel like they are taken care of.” 

Since opening its first location nearly 80 years ago, Pizzeria Uno has become known around the world as the true birthplace of Chicago-style deep dish. That means hotel operators have a rare opportunity to become part of that legacy and sell an iconic product everyone loves. The menu focuses on premium pizzas, including deep-dish and thin-crust, made with the best ingredients and dough made from scratch every day. It also includes everything from healthful salads to appetizers to entrees.

“Hotel guests are coming in and seeing a known and loved brand that they feel comfortable dining with, and that automatically increases volume and capture rate compared to the typical non-branded restaurant,” said Chris Dellamarggio, Head of Marketing for Pizzeria Uno. “The restaurants also bring in locals who would normally have no reason to visit the hotel. The takeout and delivery piece has benefits from both the hotel guests ordering take out from the hotel restaurant instead of from outside the hotel, as well as orders coming in from people in the surrounding community”.

And since hotel operators likely already have most of the equipment and kitchen in place, Frederick says they can tap into these new revenue streams for extremely low conversion costs. They can also be confident they will have all the support they need to succeed as Pizzeria Uno franchisees.

“We have an existing infrastructure that helps franchisees with the supply chain, marketing, training, technology, build-out, ongoing operations — every aspect of the business,” said Frederick. “We don’t mark up costs from our vendors, and in these times, having a supply chain team and national buying power that can help in an inflationary environment is key. We are sourcing for quality and price, and pizza already has one of the lowest food costs. 

If hotel owners are interested in the opportunity, they would be wise to reach out sooner rather than later, Frederick says, as interest is already snowballing, and the pipeline is filling up quickly. And with a tremendous amount of white space available, Frederick says Pizzeria Uno is one of the few nationally-renowned pizza concepts with room to grow all over the country. 

“We are very excited about the success we have already seen with our hotel conversion strategy,” said Frederick. “The time has never been better for hotel owners to invest in a Pizzeria Uno restaurant conversion, join a brand they can be passionate about, and make more money.”

For more information on investing in a Pizzeria Uno franchise, visit https://unofranchise.com/.