News and Trends
•
30 Mar, 2023
The latest version of ResDiary's Beyond the Booking report on the UK hospitality industry has arrived and we've provided you with a snapshot of the key findings thanks to this handy and easily sharable infographic.
What does the report show?
Among the top key findings, our analysis shows over half (56%) of UK diners prefer to book a reservation online through a restaurant’s website. Yes, diners have moved online to research and book reservations for restaurants and other hospitality venues.
This goes to show just how vital amplifying your online presence and prioritising your website may be for bookings. Make sure you're providing the right information (like your latest menus and special offers) and the functionality to make it easy for diners to book online.
But it's not just on your own website where increasing your venue's visibility and availability is important. More than a quarter (28%) say they prefer to use an online booking system or app, so providing an equally seamless experience on platforms like Google and social media will also be key to attracting more diners. Just 13% of respondents said they still use the phone to call and reserve.
An important issue for hospitality businesses is no-shows, which continue to cause problems for UK venues; 1 in every 20 confirmed bookings between the start of the year and February 2023 have resulted in diners not turning up for their reservation, costing restaurants an average of £1,325 during this period alone.
It is therefore unsurprising to see restaurants taking action in preventing no-shows. The majority (62%) of restaurants today utilise booking systems to implement deposit schemes, with the most popular option being to take card details when they book online, over the phone, or in person.
Breakfast also appears to be off the menu for many UK diners, as almost half (46%) are no longer dining out for breakfast. Despite the strong appetite for lunch and dinner, restaurants may need to make a decision about their breakfast offering or create a brunch-style menu that can be served all day.
The good news is that over half of diners (54%) said they’d decided to go to a restaurant they had already visited when last eating out, showing the importance of attracting and maintaining regular diners.
On the findings, ResDiary CEO, Colin Winning said, “Consumers appear to be reducing their budgets for dining out. This means restaurants will be more reliant on attracting more bookings to maintain and potentially build on existing revenue.”
“But securing more bookings won’t be the only key to success in 2023, as keeping them will be just as important. Almost 5% of bookings have resulted in no-shows so far this year already, so the recognised rise in restaurants requiring deposits is therefore unsurprising, with more than six in ten venues now working with a deposit system.”
You can read and download the full Beyond the Booking 2023 - Q1 report here.
Check out this infographic for the key findings from our latest report on the hospitality industry
About the report
Online restaurant booking platform ResDiary launched the report to provide valuable insights into the state of the hospitality industry and the latest dining trends in the UK. The report, which is based on responses from 208 UK hospitality venues and 827 UK consumers, also contains up-to-date stats to help restaurants benchmark themselves to the rest of the UK.
