Hospitality is no longer limited to dining rooms and table service — it’s happening every time a guest opens their phone. In 2025, a test of hospitality is how your brand shows up online.
Convenience, Speed, Personalization
Hospitality has always been more than service, it’s the craft of making people feel cared for, seen, and valued. In the dining room, it’s the small things, a table that feels like it was saved just for you or a server who remembers your name.
Those small details are what turn a meal into an experience.
In 2025, more and more of those moments are happening online.
When a guest searches for your restaurant, browses your menu, places an order, or waits for a delivery update, that interaction carries the same opportunity as a complimentary course to thank you for visiting. That’s where hospitality also lives now.
At Figure 8, we call this digital hospitality. And we believe it’s the cornerstone of a restaurant’s success today and tomorrow.
Off-Premises Dining and the Digital Restaurant Reality
In the days before digital, guests walked into a restaurant, and the dining room was where hospitality happened. Today, guests are being introduced to brands through multiple channels and might only experience a brand online and off-premises.
The digital experience has become a second front door to the restaurant, shaping first impressions long before many guests ever set foot inside. Digital is every way guests connect with a brand beyond in-person interactions. For example – the results from a search engine, the reviews on online listings, the online menu, and the online ordering flow. It’s the photos they see, the delivery updates they receive, and the loyalty programs they join.
Survey data makes this clear – guest behavior is rapidly shifting.
- Off-premises is becoming dominant. Nearly 75% of all restaurant traffic happens through takeout, delivery, drive-thru, and online ordering platforms. This now accounts for a larger share of sales than before the pandemic — 58% for limited-service and 41% for full-service operators.
- Habits have shifted. About 47% of adults get takeout weekly, 42% use the drive-thru weekly, and 37% order delivery weekly. For Millennials and Gen Z, those numbers are even higher, more than six in ten say they use these channels more now than just a year ago.
- Digital convenience drives loyalty. Guests who order online are 67% more likely to return than those who don’t. Seamless digital experiences meet modern guest expectations and grow repeat business.
By focusing on the digital guest experience, restaurants can unlock new revenue streams, strengthen brand visibility, and build deeper loyalty with every order. Digital is more than a side channel, it’s a major driver of growth. Restaurants that take their digital presence seriously will gain relevance, revenue, and guest loyalty.
The shift to off-premises and digital-first dining means restaurants have an opportunity to rethink how hospitality shows up online. In our next post, we’ll break down what digital hospitality looks like in practice.
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Our Sources, and for Further Reading:
OysterLink. (2025, July). Restaurant consumer trends 2025: Key insights & industry data. Retrieved from https://oysterlink.com/spotlight/restaurant-consumer-trends OysterLink
Restaurant News. (2025, April). “From trend to transformation: Off-premises dining now essential for restaurant consumers, operators”. Retrieved from https://www.restaurantnews.com/from-trend-to-transformation-off-premises-dining-now-essential-for-restaurant-consumers-operators-0416252 N/A
National Restaurant Association. (2025, April). Press release: From trend to transformation — off-premises dining now essential for restaurant consumers, operators. Retrieved from https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/media/press-releases/from-trend-to-transformation-off-premises-dining-now-essential-for-restaurant-consumers%2C-operators3 N/A
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