Hotelympia has polled over 2,000 consumers to unveil The Ultimate Dining Experience – 2018’s most comprehensive dive into the needs and trends of today’s customers.
Diners are decidedly nonplussed with white tablecloths, haute cuisine-style cutlery and formal surroundings, favouring industrial chic and unfussy placements. Woe betide any outlet that employs canteen-style seating or loud music to woo diners, while overly familiar service staff, hard and fast themes and stark lighting are definite turn-offs.
With the results now in, not only will restauranteurs be able to claim their free copy of the full report at the show 5-8 March at London ExCeL, Hotelympia is working with property-based design, project management and development company, LXA (Wagamama, BXR Gym, Grand Hyatt) to bring the results to life in a highly unique standalone feature.
Key findings include:
· Polled on the most important factors when choosing a restaurant, diners placed ‘cost’ at a surprising fifth, with ‘quality of food’, ‘service’, ‘atmosphere’ and ‘reputation’, proving more popular considerations.
· Smart dress is almost 40% more popular than casual attire, with diners where front of house staff are concerned.
· When it comes to vital information listed on menus, price unsurprisingly comes out on top (96%) but detailed ingredients (47%) and provenance (45%) finish second and third, respectively, hitting home the importance of sourcing and transparency of supply chain.
· 27% of diners would become impatient after just four minutes of waiting for the bill, while 42% would be willing to wait between 5 and 10 minutes before becoming dismayed.
· At the outset of a meal some 64% of diners like to be handed a paper menu, printed with the day’s date. Traditional leather-style menus rank a lowly second at 24%.
Ross Carter, Portfolio Director, Hotelympia, said, “As an exciting show floor installation, The Ultimate Dining Experience will combine insight and innovation to great effect, offering show visitors a true tangible taste of what diners demand when eating out of home.
'With the irresistible rise of delivery companies taking share and spend from ‘experience’ dining – now, more than ever, operators need to tap into the consumer mind-set to understand the often subtle cues that keep people coming back for more.
'I’m confident that the insights we have uncovered will help Hotelympia visitors drive their businesses forward and urge people to pick up their copy of the report at the show.”
Dave Rooney, Creative Director, LXA outlines his vision for the installation and what visitors can expect from the results, “We’re delighted to be working with the team at Hotelympia, allowing visitors to experience for themselves what constitutes The Ultimate Dining Experience.
'This is a truly unique project and our designers can’t wait to get started on giving life and real context to the findings, taking things beyond a simple survey on paper.”
The Professional Kitchen Show, The Foodservice Show incorporating Café Commerce, Hospitality Tech Show and Interiors and Tableware Show, will be specialist events in themselves, each benefitting from Hotelympia’s heritage – the market leading hospitality and foodservice event that attracts 25,000+ visitors.