Waiting For Love: NoWait Plays Cupid With Diners And Their Favorite Valentine's Day Restaurants

- New Study Reveals That Romantics "Hate to Wait" for the Meals They Love -

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Feb 04, 2014, 09:07 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Across the country, Valentine's Day evokes images of chocolates, flowers and candle-lit dinners. What's less romantic is endlessly waiting for a table on the heart-filled holiday, which casual restaurants claim is the busiest one of the year. In celebration of NoWait's Guest App rolling out nationwide today -- with a new "Suggest a Restaurant" feature – the company conducted a survey to determine if Americans are, indeed, willing to wait for the meals they love. NoWait, the leading wait-listing app and seating tool for diners and casual restaurants, polled more than 600 of its customers who are "in a relationship."

When asked how they spend their Valentine's Day evening, 63 percent stated they "go out to dinner." Surprisingly, although couples associate Valentine's Day dinner with planning a date night out, only 43% confirmed the necessity for a reservation, while 57% of respondents stated that a reservation isn't "absolutely necessary" or "doesn't matter." However, when it comes to waiting for a table on Valentine's Day, those on a date still hate to wait. In fact, 68 percent of impatient partners would walk out after just 30 minutes. Only a quarter (26%) are willing to wait "up to an hour" and an especially small fraction (6%) are willing to "wait as long as it takes."

"Despite Valentine's Day being the busiest day of the year for casual restaurants, our recent survey reveals that diners do not plan ahead, nor are they willing to wait long to be seated," says NoWait CEO Ware Sykes. "By enabling them to add their names to a virtual wait list and eliminate wait times, the new NoWait Guest App is a better alternative to reservations, providing convenient access to the casual restaurants they love without the wait they hate."

Ironically, the study further reveals that romantics are poor planners when it comes to February 14^th, with 91 percent making plans only "one week before" (44%), "within a couple of days" (26%), "the same day" (7%) or not at all (14%); only a mere nine percent plan "more than a month in advance."

Building on the success of the NoWait Host App currently used in casual restaurants nationwide, the NoWait Guest App allows customers to eliminate waiting through real-time information and entering virtual wait lists from their home, office or car. Diners who cannot yet find their favorite restaurant can use the Guest App's new "Suggest a Restaurant" feature to add and vote for casual restaurants in their area. Additionally, they can view nearby casual restaurants that other users already have nominated.

Subsequent to the first phase of NoWait's nationwide rollout, the company expects to add thousands of restaurants to its Guest App by the end of the year. On an ongoing basis, NoWait compiles data provided by its customers nationwide to educate the company about current behavioral trends in the hospitality market. All research is original and proprietary.

About NoWait:
Based in New York and Pittsburgh, NoWait launched in 2010 and is backed by Birchmere Ventures and Carnegie Mellon University's Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund. The NoWait Guest App is an complementary extension of the NoWait Host App, which currently is used in casual restaurants across the country, including major chains such as Chili's and TGI Fridays, as well as popular independent hotspots like Iron Chef Jose Garces' Village Whiskey, Marc Vetri's Pizzeria Vetri and Hubert Keller's Burger Bar. To date, NoWait has seated more than 30 million diners. For more information, visit nowaitapp.com/, follow @NoWaitApp and like it on Facebook at facebook.com/nowaitapp. The app is now available for Android, as well as iOS.