History will show that COVID was the line of demarcation for the hospitality industry in the 21st century. In almost every conversation I have with other industry professionals, someone will say “before COVID….” or “since COVID….” As a matter of fact, in many of my articles I make the same comparison.
Since COVID, technology in the restaurant industry has moved at lightning speed. I believe that the changes we have seen would have been years in the making if we had not gone through a pandemic. Environmental and health concerns are driving more restaurants to move on from vegetarian dishes and to vegan.
In 2025, more plant-based menu items will be appearing at an incredible rate of speed as well. Currently, 50 percent of restaurants, including sit-down and fast-food establishments, offer plant-based options, and this is only expected to grow.
Controlling food waste is a hot topic in the industry as well. This has become more important since the substantial increase in employee wages post-COVID. I’ll make this connection for you later in this article.
Here are a few early observations of what 2025 could bring to the hospitality industry.
Contactless Ordering, Inside and Out
Door Dash, Uber Eats and other third-party delivery services will continue to expand. What started as a way for people to get restaurant food without going to a restaurant during COVID has now morphed into a convenient necessity for many consumers. It’s also become a boost to top-line sales.
From the consultant’s perspective, our restaurant designs have changed substantially due to these services. We now design in specific pick-up areas for these third-party delivery systems. You will soon see advances that include voice commands and facial recognition.
On the other hand, contactless ordering while you are sitting in the restaurant has been a big failure. Restaurants tried the QR codes at the table for menus and ordering. It was poorly done during COVID and has not advanced very much.
Anecdotally, I have found that restaurants that rely on this technology have lower check averages and the overall experience is not one that drives guests to return, which is the lifeblood of any restaurant. This is a trend I hope will go away.
Food Waste Management
Food waste management has always been a challenge for the restaurant industry. Because each person is different and may not have been trained well in food preparation, the level of waste can be extremely high.
A simple example is how one person might cut a head of lettuce with 10 percent waste vs. an untrained individual who will have a waste level of 25 percent. There are new technologies coming out for restaurants that will help them better track inventory, analyze their purchases and calculate waste.
To reduce what goes to a landfill, more restaurants will start using closed-loop composting that turns waste into compost in 24 hours using heat and microbes.
However, that is all very technical and dry. More interesting for the dining public on this issue is how restaurants will rely more on premade products in 2025, which have almost zero waste and will help lower labor costs (fewer employees needed to make the products from scratch). It also means fewer chef-driven creative specials and more management-driven menu items.
AI and Memberships
Nearly half of restaurants need additional employees, and this is where AI comes into play. Some of these AI fixes include automated customer service with chatbots and many more self-serve ordering options that are an improvement over QR codes.
Free loyalty programs have been very successful in the fast-food arena – think Starbucks and McDonald’s – where customers earn points or stars or whatever toward free menu items. As I mentioned earlier, the return guest is the lifeblood of any restaurant, and that’s where memberships can drive these visits more effectively than just loyalty programs.
It was not long ago that many of us would have thought it crazy to pay to join a grocery store but look at Costco or B.J.’s and the perceived value of being a member of the “club.” That’s what we’re seeing as the next loyalty step for restaurants.
Some have started wine memberships that offer free tastings, discounts when dining and even wine shipped to the house each month. P.F. Chang’s supplemented its free gold membership with a platinum membership for $6.99 per month that provides more reward points, unlimited free delivery, priority reservations and the services of a VIP concierge. For $14.99 a month, Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club gives members a free beverage every two hours, free delivery, early access to new menu items and a birthday treat.
My prediction (call me crazy) is that, in 2025, we will see a few fine-dining restaurants offering a monthly membership of over $100 per month to lure their best customers back time and again with exclusive offers. Whether the customer returns or not, it’s a guaranteed revenue stream.
It’s been a bumpy, crazy ride in hospitality since 2020. As we near the halfway point in the decade, the pace of change in the industry will only accelerate. Fasten your seatbelts.
