The economic slowdown fails to dent India’s appetite/love in the time of a recession? Valentines day witnesses record growth in Indians eating out and consumer spending: EazyDiner Study

It seems the slow down in the economy and the elections have had little impact on consumer spending for eating out / made sure that Love is celebrated even more fervently in 2020. EazyDiner, India’s leading restaurant reservation platform witnessed an 800%/8X surge in diners going to restaurants on Valentines Day in 2020 much to the delight of restaurants and hotels alike. Despite the slowdown and declining consumer spending, diners left no stone unturned when it comes to eating out. This year Valentine’s Day bookings even trumped the total number of bookings made on New Year’s Eve. The number of average diners on the 14th across India made was 3, which basically means that eat out was done in groups of 2’s or 4’s.

EazyDiner studied data (tables being booked, dishes ordered, average diner spends, coupons bought) from over 500,000 diners on the platform on the eve of Valentine’s day. 

While India’s economic growth will slow to 5 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent last year, consumer spending when it comes to celebrating key events continues to be on upswing much to the joy of hospitality industry. Occupancies for most hotels and restaurants were at 100% for both lunch and dinner as per data on EazyDiner’s LiveTable restaurant management app. Eating out during the day peaked during lunch and dinner at 1.30 pm and 9.30 pm respectively. In order to cater to this demand, restaurants that ran special offers at 12 noon and 7 pm were able to capitalize on two seatings for both lunch and dinner. Restaurants who hadn’t anticipated such demand could only sell one seating on a day as the demand surpassed a record number compared to valentines day in the last 5 years. 

Most popular trends witnessed across diners in India: 

1. For lunch most of the people opted for Italian restaurants and for dinner – Chinese and Pan Asian cuisines were a big hit.

2. Type of restaurant: 55% of the people booked upscale restaurants which are restaurants with an average cost per diner of over Rs. 1,000 whereas the average spend per diner in 2019 was Rs 829. 

3. 62% of EazyDiner Prime customers, who are American Express Centurion and Platinum, Citi Ultima and Prestige, IndusInd Pioneer and Axis Burgundy Reserve cardholders, went to luxury hotel restaurants or very high-end standalone restaurants.

4. Most eating-out destinations on Valentine’s Day frequented by couples: 

   1. CP, Cyberhub and Aerocity in Delhi; 

   2. Kormangala, Indiranagar and Sarjapur in Bengaluru; 

   3. BKC, Andheri(west) and Powai in Mumbai and Adyar, 

   4. Phoenix Market City Mall and Nungambakkam in Chennai were the most popular 

5. Indians decided to be adventurous with their palate and opted for Italian during lunch while Chinese / Pan Asian remained the preferred option in the evening.

6. Out of the beverages consumed on Valentine’s Day, these are the ones which stood out

   1. Grover’s La Reserve in the wine category

   2. Diageo’s Singleton was consumed the most at luxury and upscale restaurants

   3.  Gin cocktails were the preferred choice of white spirits while vodka and white rum was lagging behind significantly

7. Delhi/NCR saw the highest number of bookings during the lunch period, whereas Bangalore topped the number of bookings made for Dinner on Valentine’s Day.