Pubs failing to meet millennials' smartphone demands

More than half of millennials (born 1982–1996) want to manage loyalty to eating-out businesses via their smartphone, but only 17% are actually doing so, according to the report by Oracle Hospitality.

Additionally, 42.6% wanted to pay in a venue via their smartphone but only 21.7% had actually done so, it claimed.

Ray Carlin, vice-president of solution and strategy management at Oracle, said:“Mobile is very much here and happening in hospitality. The results underscore how technology is altering consumer expectation and presenting hospitality operators with an unprecedented opportunity to win millennials’ business.”

Greater choice​

To win their business would require a ‘redefinition of service’ that offered the demographic greater choice, speed and personalisation, he added.

“Providing such tailored service not only means accommodating consumers’ use of smartphones, but for operators to leverage their own mobile devices to better serve them.”

'Think seriously'​

Hospitality marketing expert Karen Fewell of Digital Blonde recently told the Publicans Morning Advertiser​ that hospitality operators needed to think seriously​ about expanding their offer for the generation below millennials (consumers currently aged 13 – 21) who may not treat eating and drinking out businesses the same as older consumers.

“We may not necessarily be able to keep the industry the way it has been all these years because digital natives are very different people,” she said.

“They’re looking for brands that are looking to support them and the world and I don’t think this is necessarily a strong point of the hospitality industry.”

Research in 2015​ claimed that the generation were looking to pubs for places to study, meet friends or escape from their families rather than for traditional drinking or eating out.