Nearly 50% of Surveyed Restaurant Guests Prioritize Cleanliness and Safety When Ordering Delivery

Toast, the leading restaurant management platform, found that 65 percent of guests care most about the quality of food when delivered, with ease of ordering and cleanliness both coming in at nearly 50 percent of guests’ top delivery concerns, according to a survey unveiled this week by Toast. The “Guide to the Restaurant Guest During COVID-19” industry report results also suggest top priorities for guests include offering hand sanitizer at the table, contactless payment and/or pay at the table capabilities, as well as single-use menus.

“We set out at the beginning of the year to understand guest behaviors and trends to inform our restaurant community and the products we could build to support them. Just as we were about to hit publish on the results, the whole world changed, and restaurants around the U.S. saw their daily sales decline by 80 percent, compared to last year. Generally, those sales are starting to trend upwards again, but things remain, and will remain, different,” said Kelly Esten, VP of product marketing at Toast. “That’s why we ran our guest survey a second time and have a trove of ‘before’ and ‘after’ data that’s represented in the ‘Guide to the Restaurant Guest During COVID-19.’”

Additional key findings include:

• With increased safety and health precautions due to the COVID-19 health crisis, restaurants may have to increase prices. 35 percent of restaurant diners reported that they would pay $2-$5 more per bill, and 17 percent even reported that they’d be willing to pay $6 – $10 more per bill.

• When asked which technologies would be most important to their dining experiences when dining out during and after the COVID-19 health crisis, restaurant guests reported that drive-through availability is most important, with 37 percent of respondents marking it as extremely important.

• In response to social distancing guidelines, the majority of guests are regularly placing online orders with restaurants; 29 percent of guests reported that they place an online order a few times a month; 25 percent of guests reported that they place an online order a few times a week, and 22 percent of guests reported that they place an online order once a week.

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To access the full report, visit Guide to the Restaurant Guest During COVID-19.

Survey Methodology

In partnership with Qualtrics, the survey was deployed on June 2 and completed on June 3. In order to take part in the research, respondents had to have ordered delivery, ordered takeout, ordered food in-person, or visited and ate at a restaurant in the past month.