Yelp Helped Seat 22 Million Diners in Dec. 2018, Building on Momentum in Product Innovation
February 26 2019 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Restaurant partners see increased foot traffic,
return customers, and more accurate wait times
Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, today announced strong growth and momentum
in its restaurant services offerings, with a record-setting
Valentine's Day week in which Yelp’s reservation and waitlist
software handled 5.6 million diners. This comes on the heels of the
company closing out 2018 by managing 22 million diners in December,
driven in part by rapid growth in diners booking directly through
the Yelp app, which tripled year over year in the fourth quarter
compared to Q4 2017.
With the availability of Yelp Reservations and Waitlist, Yelp
has become an integral partner to restaurant owners as it evolves
from a highly-influential discovery platform to a place where
consumers also communicate and transact directly with businesses.
The company is providing restaurants with the tools and technology
to meet the evolving demands of diners who expect convenience and
options when eating out -- be that reservation capabilities,
walk-in seating, or food delivery.
“Product innovation in 2018 has paved the way for us to build
even stronger relationships with current restaurant partners and to
attract thousands of new ones,” said Devon Wright, General Manager
of Yelp Restaurants Marketplaces. “This momentum is the early
result of Yelp’s long-term strategy to acquire and integrate
leading restaurant technologies into Yelp and offer a seamless
dining experience for both restaurants and consumers.”
As an industry with narrow margins, restaurants must optimize
every aspect of operations and Yelp is giving them the technology
to do so. According to restaurant client surveys and feedback, Yelp
is increasing foot traffic to restaurants, providing more accurate
wait times, and driving return customers.
"Yelp Waitlist has been a helpful tool to optimize our overall
dining experience. It improves our Front of House operation by
helping our hosts quote more accurately and understand table
optimization. The software allows guests to get in line from their
mobile phone and gives the customers the option of getting in line
while they're still en route to the restaurant," said Becky Maree,
Digital Marketing Manager of First Watch. "The analytics tool gives
us insights into our restaurants that we wouldn't otherwise have.
Using the Analytics Portal we can identify top performers and
easily address areas of opportunity in our restaurants.”
In 2018, Yelp not only added restaurant inventory to Yelp
Reservations and Yelp Waitlist but introduced new products, like
Yelp Kiosks, to streamline both digital and physical restaurant
management processes. According to Yelp data, diners seated through
the Yelp app return to the same restaurant twice as often as other
diners, Yelp’s wait time algorithm is approximately twice as
accurate as host estimates, and its new On My Way feature helps
restaurants seat 10% more diners during non-busy hours. Tony’s
Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, a wildly popular restaurant
known for its long wait times, for example, increased sales by
25-30 percent with the help of Yelp’s more accurate wait time
estimates.
“We used to be reliant on an emotional analysis of our hostess
or managers to provide wait times but, with the help of Yelp, our
wait time has reduced by almost an hour and a half. Maximizing
seating was the key to maximizing revenue,” said Diego Perez,
former General Manager of Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San
Francisco's North Beach. “After working with Yelp, I now understand
that the company is trying to be transparent and do the right thing
and we have created a true partnership.”
Yelp’s restaurant partners have also reported that other product
innovation is having an impact. Beyond dine-in experiences,
restaurants are also seeing continued growth in delivery through
Yelp. Through the company’s partnership with Grubhub, food orders
and takeout on Yelp hit a new record high and grew by 27% in Q4
2018 from the previous year.
About Yelp
Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local
businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and
review content, Yelp provides a platform for consumers to discover,
interact and transact with local businesses of all sizes. Yelp was
founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp has taken
root in major metros in more than 30 countries.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190226005271/en/
Liina Potter(925) 895-3786press@yelp.com
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