OpenTable’s Trends Report 2019

• 84% of bookings in Australia were by first time diners at that restaurant through OpenTable
• 26% of seated online reservations were made by diners choosing to book and dine at their chosen restaurant on the same day. Australia has cemented their place as a highly desirable and sought after tourist destination, with one in every five (23%) bookings on OpenTable in Australia made by out-of-towners

• Our data suggests diners are more likely to honour a commitment when making an online reservation, as opposed to booking over the phone. With only a 2% reported dropout rate for online reservations, as opposed to a 2.5% reported dropout rate of reservations made over the phone. Lower dropout rates help restaurants manage the flow of customers, and avoid no shows allowing restaurants to function at optimum capacity
• Are Aussies planners? On average, diners book 8 days in advance via desktop and 4 days prior when booking on their mobile phones

*Based on OpenTable reservations in Australia, 2018

Top 10 cities people are travelling from to Australia**

• London
• New York / Tri-State Area
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Hawaii
• Los Angeles
• Las Vegas
• Vancouver / British Columbia
• Chicago / Illinois
• Tokyo
• Washington, D.C. Area

**Reservations on OpenTable from January 2018 – December 2018

OpenTable’s Top 9 Industry Predictions for 2019

Inclusive of industry insights/commentary from:

• Jo Moody, Gastronomy manager at Food + Wine Victoria
• Catherine Slogrove, Director of food and beverage marketing agency, Papaya
• Jeanine Bribosia, Director of marketing, PR and content agency, The Cru Media
• Eleena Tan from Brandworks
• Francis Loughran, Managing Director of Future Food

1. The increase in social and environmental responsibility: Many restaurants are choosing to replace plastic straws with biodegradable alternatives, and taking measures to introduce more sustainable practices. Consumers are also becoming increasingly interested in sustainable dining and locally sourced produce, and are taking note of food miles associated with menus and how restaurants are reducing their food waste.
2. Thinking small: Smaller, more centralised menus will continue to grow in 2019, with a focus on fewer yet key ingredients as opposed to a wider range, such as two or three meal options with seafood, grill or pasta sections, in response to growing demand for quality produce and easier-to-read menus. Collaborations between chefs with farmers and growers, winemakers and spirit producers will also be popular, alongside aperitivo hours.
3. Thoughtful dining and making conscious food choices: 2019 will see the increase in plant-based meals, fewer dairy-based dishes favouring nuts and grain milks instead, plus alternative proteins and the heroing of fermentation. Non-alcoholic drinks have also increased in popularity – think juice pairings offered alongside wine matches. Chefs are becoming more and more creative with vegetables as we see less focus on meat. Roy Morgan Research (Feb 2018) revealed 2.25 million Australians aged 18 and over live a meat-free life, with Melbourne and Sydney leading the charge.
4. Micro-regionality: Not content with the delights of Italian or Middle-Eastern food, Aussie palettes are seeking new and exotic flavours with Sardinian, Egyptian and Palestinian restaurants starting to emerge on the local scene. Fusion restaurants will also take multicultural food to the next level, whilst honouring their local heritage.
5. New technology coming to the forefront of payment methods: Technology allowing customers to spend and earn cryptocurrency when dining out will start to be used by restaurants with ‘pay via Bitcoin’ becoming more prominent as a form of payment. An example of a restaurant accepting cryptocurrency is OpenTable-available venue, The Kodiak Club in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
6. More demand for convenience: With convenience top of mind, customers are increasingly choosing to make reservations to dine out at what have usually been considered non-traditional hours, such as breakfast, brunch and later in the evening at time slots including 9pm and 10pm. We are seeing the industry responding to this need with an emergence of restaurants-meet-office-spaces, bringing all of life’s matters into one location.
7. Using social media as a base factor in designing menus and capturing diners through reservations: When it comes to food, chefs will be endeavouring to create prettier, more colourful and impressive dishes for Instagram and visually inspired diners. While 2018 saw epic burgers, fairy-floss French toast and ice cream boas, 2019 will see even bigger, more extravagant food porn with chefs using Instagram’s tools and features such as Stories and Stickers, to poll dishes and gain immediate feedback from would-be diners. For restaurant bookings, OpenTable has an integration that allows restaurants to include their reservation widget for bookings.
8. Immersive theatre and the experience economy: The likes of supper clubs and dining exhibitions will become more prominent in restaurants this year influencing retail, hospitality and design innovation by having a strong effect on the cultural landscape. With experiences feeling more authentic through the likes of open kitchens, diners also now have more choice to select their table types, and as venues start to become more creative with their seating, these are now becoming part of the decision making process. OpenTable in particular has a Seating Option feature to satisfy this need.
9. Fast casual dining: Concepts such as modern Japanese, Asian or even modern Lebanese are going beyond fast food and are offering fine dining experiences at affordable prices, doing so through value and specialisation. This will be elevated in 2019 as more restaurateurs are doing away with tradition and capturing a bigger slice of the market by offering a more casual, accessible yet gourmet style of dining.