Mobile restaurant bookings rise 141%
Mobile restaurant bookings increased by 141% over the past year (to June 2015), as the technology begins to gain traction in the market.
That's according to a new survey from restaurant booking platform Bookatable.co.uk, which has released its latest Quarterly Dining Trends report based on 12 months of British booking and dining data.
The company polled 2,000 British diners to find out whether there was growing demand for mobile payments and other digital developments within restaurants.
The research found that a third of respondents (33%) thought that the ability to pay via mobile, known as Pay-At-Table technology, instead of waiting for a waiter/waitress to prepare the bill, would be more convenient and offer them a much better dining experience.
A quarter of respondents (25%) also admitted that they would be more inclined to tip their waiter/waitress more if they were able to pay for their meal via their mobile device.
Bookatable's research revealed that Brits spend on average around 3 hours and 36 minutes each year waiting for the bill, and 22% of those surveyed said that Pay-At-Table technology would be beneficial because they could pay for the bill and leave the restaurant whenever they want.
Women are more likely to book a restaurant via their mobile device according to Bookatable's quarterly data, with 60% of all mobile bookings in the last year being made by women.
Further statistics revealed the average spend per head on restaurant bookings made via a mobile device is lower than desktop bookings, at £24.94 (mobile) and £26.16 (desktop).
The full list of top 10 restaurants for mobile bookings in 2015 is included below:
1. Alton Towers Resort - Flambo's Exotic Feast, Staffordshire
2. The Rainforest café, London
3. Cloud 23 - Manchester Deansgate
4. Miller & Carter - Sutton Park
5. OXO Tower Brasserie, London
6. Afternoon Tea at The Ritz, London
7. Jamie's Italian - Newcastle
8. Miller & Carter - Penn, Wolverhampton
9. The Ritz restaurant - London
10. Sticks'n'Sushi - Covent Garden, London
Joe Steele, CEO of Bookatable, said: "The function of being able to pay through a mobile device at the table using Pay-At-Table technology not only increases loyalty and customer engagement, it also boosts revenues through capitalising on an increased number of table covers and allows restaurants to spend more time on customer service that would have otherwise been spent preparing the receipt."