We wanted to find out how well hospitality businesses handle payments, and here's what you, our wonderful diners, think. We put together a survey and more than 300 people came back to us with their responses. Thank you and we hope you enjoy reading the below.
According to the survey results, 9 out of 10 of you (88%) expect the bill within 5 minutes of asking, and about a quarter of those want it in 2 minutes!
There is a small minority of you that are more patient: 1 in 10 respondents are happy to wait up to 10 minutes for the bill, but only 1% of you are happy to wait for up to 15 minutes.
Men appear to be slightly more impatient with the bill than women: 91% expect their bill in 5 minutes, and within that group, and 18% expect it in 2 minutes.
However, on the other hand, 86% of women would like their bill in 5 minutes and a fifth within this group expect it in 2 minutes.
From an age perspective, there is no obvious pattern here, but the most impatient age groups seem to be: 46-55-year-olds: 92% of respondents expect the bill within 5 minutes, and 18-25-year-olds: 91% expect the bill in 5 minutes.
Nearly
two-thirds (65%)
of those surveyed are quite satisfied and think payments always or often get
taken in good time. A quarter (28%)
think they get it right about half the time. Whereas only 7% of you think
hospitality venues rarely or never get payments done in the right time. Good to know!
An interesting find- Gender analysis reveals that women are more polarised about their recent payment experiences. 9% of women, vs 4% men think payments rarely or never get taken in good time. However, a larger percentage of women (66%) also think that payments always or often get taken in good time, vs men (62%).
The age
group analysis speaks an interesting story: the youngest customers (18-25) are
the most dissatisfied with how long it takes to pay – 18% think
payments are rarely taken in good time, and this figure seems to decrease with
age, to 3% amongst
56-65-year-olds and 0% for
the over-66's.
Only 7% of you, say that slow payments don’t affect your enjoyment at all. 70% of you say it affects you a little; 20% say it affects your enjoyment a lot, and a small percentage (4%) say’ that slow payments ruin your experience.
There is surprisingly little difference between men and women on their opinion on this matter. Women are a little more forgiving, 8% say it doesn’t affect them at all vs 4% of men; and 68% say if affects their enjoyment a little, vs. 72% of men.
Looking at ages in more detail, it seems as though the most polarised are the 36-45 age group. The highest percentage amongst other age groups, those of you who say it doesn’t affect them at all (15%), but also a whopping 10% of you say it ruins the whole experience. The most laid back seems to be the over 66’s with 85% saying it affects the experience a little and 5% say not at all.
Majority (79%) of you have said that you don’t like it when a service charge is included in the bill. The survey shows that there isn’t much difference between genders at all, men are slightly less bothered (76%) than women (79%).
But, from an age perspective, interestingly, the two youngest age groups are slightly less bothered than the rest: 73% of 18-25 and 70% of 26-35-year-olds don’t want service charge included in the bill.
That percentage is a lot higher for all the older age groups, and in particular, for 36-45-year-olds: 86% don’t want service charge included.
It looks as though most people prefer a choice in the matter!
Splitting the bill with more than 3 people can be quite an awkward experience, when each of you are having to work out the price of your meal etc. But, do you think technology has helped improve this or is do you still find it irritating when you go out with friends?
59% of people who took this survey, thinks it has gotten better in the last few years, but 41% say it’s still awkward and could be improved upon.
Interestingly, youngest customers find it much less of a hassle than older ones. Only 27% of 18-25-year-olds find bill splitting painful, however customers in the 26-35 age group find it the most awkward, with 46% thinking this; closely followed by 36-45-year-olds with 44%.
Surprisingly, whilst almost half (45%) of customers feel neutrally about technology in a hospitality setting, people are more than twice as likely to feel that technology takes away from the experience (38%), rather than enhancing it (17%).
Our analysis also shows that there is opposing opinions between genders: women (42%) are far more likely to consider technology to hinder the experience over men (27%). 43% of women vs 52% men are neutral on the subject. 22% of men vs 15% of women think technology in hospitality enhances the experience.
From an age perspective, there is a clear trend between age and opinion. More youngsters tend to think technology enhances experience: starting with 25% of 26-35-year-olds, this number decreases steadily until it reaches the lowest peak of 5% amongst the 66+ age group.
