Plate IQ
October 19, 2021
Powering Invoice & Bill Pay Automation for NetSuite
Plate IQ’s capabilities are set to transform invoices and bill payments for Oracle NetSuite customers in hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and more.
COVID-19 has ushered in an era of tumult, panic, and grief worldwide. The hospitality industry is widely considered to have felt the brunt of the impact. But don’t take our word for it—let the numbers tell the story.
Here, we’ve assembled a timeline of over 50 different statistics from research and surveys conducted across food, beverage, and hotel businesses to paint a picture of just how much has changed across the course of the pandemic.
A cluster of pneumonia cases is reported to the World Health Organization by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in China. The cause is eventually noted to be from a novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19.
The start of the Lunar New Year is dampened by racist assumptions about the origins of COVID-19. Yelp found that searches for Chinese restaurants in this time only increased by 38% compared to the two previous weeks—down from 56% the year prior. In Chicago and Manhattan, there was actually an overall decline in searches for the cuisine.
This trend carried into February: across the first three weeks of the month, daily restaurant “connections” for Chinese restaurants (phone calls, website traffic, delivery orders, reviews, etc.) were down by about 20%.
By early March, OpenTable found that every city with more than 50 restaurants on its platform had experienced an overall decline in reservations.
The White House declared a national emergency on March 13.
By March 18, daily restaurant connections were down 54 percent overall.
The U.S. Labor Department reports that the national unemployment rate hit 14.7%—an all-time high. The restaurant industry alone saw a loss of 5.5 million jobs in April.
A James Beard Foundation survey of 1400 restaurant owners uncovers some harrowing numbers:
Consumer sentiment about delivery and takeout was a bit more optimistic. Market research firm AMC Global reported that 33% of consumers were buying more takeout meals than before the pandemic—but only 13% shared that they would still be reliant on the convenience after COVID-19.
A data subscription service found that, by April 15, about 59% of Chinese restaurants nationwide were no longer posting credit or debit transactions—an indicator that they had closed entirely.
An analysis of Homebase data found that employment in leisure, hospitality, and retail trades declined by a staggering 60% from February to the end of April. About one-third of the decline is said to be from businesses shutting down.
A Carson College of Business at Washington State University analysis of restaurant and hotel customer sentiment finds:
Statista reports a 41% year-over-year decline in seated diners across restaurants worldwide.
As restrictions across the country have eased, the unemployment rate declines to 7.9%. However, there are still 2.3 million fewer foodservice jobs than there were before COVID.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association surveyed 1200 members and found that 71% of their businesses would not be able to last another 6 months without additional government assistance, like expanding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Main Street Lending Program.
One Fair Wage conducted a study of 1700 restaurant employees across five states and the District of Columbia. The vast majority—83%—reported a decline in tips, with two-thirds reporting at least a 50% decrease.
As wages shrank, harassment grew. Forty-one percent of respondents said they had seen a “noticeable change in the number of unwarranted sexual comments” from customers during the pandemic, potentially due to tensions surrounding mask-wearing requirements.
Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse, is the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) published its annual State of the Industry Report:
A Bluedot survey of over 1500 people found that consumer willingness to wait for a restaurant order dropped from 10 minutes to 6 minutes. Visibly long lines—a mainstay of pandemic culture due to indoor capacity limitations—would lead 77% of customers to leave or consider leaving a restaurant.
After a slow start, vaccinations start to speed up across the country. At this point, 26.5 million vaccinations had been administered—which meant that more Americans had received at least 1 dose of a vaccine than had tested positive for COVID-19.
A year after the national emergency declaration, Datassential finds that more than 10% of U.S. restaurants have permanently closed.
But there’s hope: the American Rescue Plan was signed into law, allotting $28.6 billion in relief grants specifically for small restaurants, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that restaurants and bars hired more employees than any other industry that month.
A survey conducted by Alignable finds that 39% of restaurants can’t afford their June rent. Respondents cited lack of revenue and traffic, labor shortages, and inflation as the leading factors.
About 71% of restaurant owners reported their support to remove the $300 extra unemployment benefit in hopes it would encourage more people to return to the workforce.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund—the grant included as part of American Rescue Plan—is closed early. The grant received more than 370,000 applications, but the fund only had enough to cover less than a third of applications.
Over 2,900 businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans were promised relief funds, only to have them rescinded in court from lawsuits stating the disbursement was discriminatory against white men.
As of July 9, 48.2% of Americans are fully vaccinated. The hotel industry is still struggling, with the AHLA finding 21 of the top 25 U.S. markets in a depression, but there are indicators that could improve quickly. Traffic through airports is on the rise, as reported by the Transportation Security Administration, and 71% of adults report feeling comfortable dining out again.
As of publication, the dangerous Delta variant of COVID-19 has led major American metro areas to reinstate mask mandates, even for people who are fully vaccinated. And five clusters of low vaccination rates within the Southeastern U.S. are said to pose a threat to the national population that’s not yet inoculated.
Although recent numbers look promising for the hospitality industry, it would be wise to take them with a grain of salt: the pandemic is still unpredictable. But no matter how the variant plays out, these 50 data points make it clear that food, beverage, and hotels will have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
COVID-19 has ushered in an era of tumult, panic, and grief worldwide. The hospitality industry is widely considered to have felt the brunt of the impact. But don’t take our word for it—let the numbers tell the story.
Here, we’ve assembled a timeline of over 50 different statistics from research and surveys conducted across food, beverage, and hotel businesses to paint a picture of just how much has changed across the course of the pandemic.
A cluster of pneumonia cases is reported to the World Health Organization by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in China. The cause is eventually noted to be from a novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19.
The start of the Lunar New Year is dampened by racist assumptions about the origins of COVID-19. Yelp found that searches for Chinese restaurants in this time only increased by 38% compared to the two previous weeks—down from 56% the year prior. In Chicago and Manhattan, there was actually an overall decline in searches for the cuisine.
This trend carried into February: across the first three weeks of the month, daily restaurant “connections” for Chinese restaurants (phone calls, website traffic, delivery orders, reviews, etc.) were down by about 20%.
By early March, OpenTable found that every city with more than 50 restaurants on its platform had experienced an overall decline in reservations.
The White House declared a national emergency on March 13.
By March 18, daily restaurant connections were down 54 percent overall.
The U.S. Labor Department reports that the national unemployment rate hit 14.7%—an all-time high. The restaurant industry alone saw a loss of 5.5 million jobs in April.
A James Beard Foundation survey of 1400 restaurant owners uncovers some harrowing numbers:
Consumer sentiment about delivery and takeout was a bit more optimistic. Market research firm AMC Global reported that 33% of consumers were buying more takeout meals than before the pandemic—but only 13% shared that they would still be reliant on the convenience after COVID-19.
A data subscription service found that, by April 15, about 59% of Chinese restaurants nationwide were no longer posting credit or debit transactions—an indicator that they had closed entirely.
An analysis of Homebase data found that employment in leisure, hospitality, and retail trades declined by a staggering 60% from February to the end of April. About one-third of the decline is said to be from businesses shutting down.
A Carson College of Business at Washington State University analysis of restaurant and hotel customer sentiment finds:
Statista reports a 41% year-over-year decline in seated diners across restaurants worldwide.
As restrictions across the country have eased, the unemployment rate declines to 7.9%. However, there are still 2.3 million fewer foodservice jobs than there were before COVID.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association surveyed 1200 members and found that 71% of their businesses would not be able to last another 6 months without additional government assistance, like expanding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Main Street Lending Program.
One Fair Wage conducted a study of 1700 restaurant employees across five states and the District of Columbia. The vast majority—83%—reported a decline in tips, with two-thirds reporting at least a 50% decrease.
As wages shrank, harassment grew. Forty-one percent of respondents said they had seen a “noticeable change in the number of unwarranted sexual comments” from customers during the pandemic, potentially due to tensions surrounding mask-wearing requirements.
Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse, is the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) published its annual State of the Industry Report:
A Bluedot survey of over 1500 people found that consumer willingness to wait for a restaurant order dropped from 10 minutes to 6 minutes. Visibly long lines—a mainstay of pandemic culture due to indoor capacity limitations—would lead 77% of customers to leave or consider leaving a restaurant.
After a slow start, vaccinations start to speed up across the country. At this point, 26.5 million vaccinations had been administered—which meant that more Americans had received at least 1 dose of a vaccine than had tested positive for COVID-19.
A year after the national emergency declaration, Datassential finds that more than 10% of U.S. restaurants have permanently closed.
But there’s hope: the American Rescue Plan was signed into law, allotting $28.6 billion in relief grants specifically for small restaurants, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that restaurants and bars hired more employees than any other industry that month.
A survey conducted by Alignable finds that 39% of restaurants can’t afford their June rent. Respondents cited lack of revenue and traffic, labor shortages, and inflation as the leading factors.
About 71% of restaurant owners reported their support to remove the $300 extra unemployment benefit in hopes it would encourage more people to return to the workforce.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund—the grant included as part of American Rescue Plan—is closed early. The grant received more than 370,000 applications, but the fund only had enough to cover less than a third of applications.
Over 2,900 businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans were promised relief funds, only to have them rescinded in court from lawsuits stating the disbursement was discriminatory against white men.
As of July 9, 48.2% of Americans are fully vaccinated. The hotel industry is still struggling, with the AHLA finding 21 of the top 25 U.S. markets in a depression, but there are indicators that could improve quickly. Traffic through airports is on the rise, as reported by the Transportation Security Administration, and 71% of adults report feeling comfortable dining out again.
As of publication, the dangerous Delta variant of COVID-19 has led major American metro areas to reinstate mask mandates, even for people who are fully vaccinated. And five clusters of low vaccination rates within the Southeastern U.S. are said to pose a threat to the national population that’s not yet inoculated.
Although recent numbers look promising for the hospitality industry, it would be wise to take them with a grain of salt: the pandemic is still unpredictable. But no matter how the variant plays out, these 50 data points make it clear that food, beverage, and hotels will have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
COVID-19 has ushered in an era of tumult, panic, and grief worldwide. The hospitality industry is widely considered to have felt the brunt of the impact. But don’t take our word for it—let the numbers tell the story.
Here, we’ve assembled a timeline of over 50 different statistics from research and surveys conducted across food, beverage, and hotel businesses to paint a picture of just how much has changed across the course of the pandemic.
A cluster of pneumonia cases is reported to the World Health Organization by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in China. The cause is eventually noted to be from a novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19.
The start of the Lunar New Year is dampened by racist assumptions about the origins of COVID-19. Yelp found that searches for Chinese restaurants in this time only increased by 38% compared to the two previous weeks—down from 56% the year prior. In Chicago and Manhattan, there was actually an overall decline in searches for the cuisine.
This trend carried into February: across the first three weeks of the month, daily restaurant “connections” for Chinese restaurants (phone calls, website traffic, delivery orders, reviews, etc.) were down by about 20%.
By early March, OpenTable found that every city with more than 50 restaurants on its platform had experienced an overall decline in reservations.
The White House declared a national emergency on March 13.
By March 18, daily restaurant connections were down 54 percent overall.
The U.S. Labor Department reports that the national unemployment rate hit 14.7%—an all-time high. The restaurant industry alone saw a loss of 5.5 million jobs in April.
A James Beard Foundation survey of 1400 restaurant owners uncovers some harrowing numbers:
Consumer sentiment about delivery and takeout was a bit more optimistic. Market research firm AMC Global reported that 33% of consumers were buying more takeout meals than before the pandemic—but only 13% shared that they would still be reliant on the convenience after COVID-19.
A data subscription service found that, by April 15, about 59% of Chinese restaurants nationwide were no longer posting credit or debit transactions—an indicator that they had closed entirely.
An analysis of Homebase data found that employment in leisure, hospitality, and retail trades declined by a staggering 60% from February to the end of April. About one-third of the decline is said to be from businesses shutting down.
A Carson College of Business at Washington State University analysis of restaurant and hotel customer sentiment finds:
Statista reports a 41% year-over-year decline in seated diners across restaurants worldwide.
As restrictions across the country have eased, the unemployment rate declines to 7.9%. However, there are still 2.3 million fewer foodservice jobs than there were before COVID.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association surveyed 1200 members and found that 71% of their businesses would not be able to last another 6 months without additional government assistance, like expanding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Main Street Lending Program.
One Fair Wage conducted a study of 1700 restaurant employees across five states and the District of Columbia. The vast majority—83%—reported a decline in tips, with two-thirds reporting at least a 50% decrease.
As wages shrank, harassment grew. Forty-one percent of respondents said they had seen a “noticeable change in the number of unwarranted sexual comments” from customers during the pandemic, potentially due to tensions surrounding mask-wearing requirements.
Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse, is the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) published its annual State of the Industry Report:
A Bluedot survey of over 1500 people found that consumer willingness to wait for a restaurant order dropped from 10 minutes to 6 minutes. Visibly long lines—a mainstay of pandemic culture due to indoor capacity limitations—would lead 77% of customers to leave or consider leaving a restaurant.
After a slow start, vaccinations start to speed up across the country. At this point, 26.5 million vaccinations had been administered—which meant that more Americans had received at least 1 dose of a vaccine than had tested positive for COVID-19.
A year after the national emergency declaration, Datassential finds that more than 10% of U.S. restaurants have permanently closed.
But there’s hope: the American Rescue Plan was signed into law, allotting $28.6 billion in relief grants specifically for small restaurants, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that restaurants and bars hired more employees than any other industry that month.
A survey conducted by Alignable finds that 39% of restaurants can’t afford their June rent. Respondents cited lack of revenue and traffic, labor shortages, and inflation as the leading factors.
About 71% of restaurant owners reported their support to remove the $300 extra unemployment benefit in hopes it would encourage more people to return to the workforce.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund—the grant included as part of American Rescue Plan—is closed early. The grant received more than 370,000 applications, but the fund only had enough to cover less than a third of applications.
Over 2,900 businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans were promised relief funds, only to have them rescinded in court from lawsuits stating the disbursement was discriminatory against white men.
As of July 9, 48.2% of Americans are fully vaccinated. The hotel industry is still struggling, with the AHLA finding 21 of the top 25 U.S. markets in a depression, but there are indicators that could improve quickly. Traffic through airports is on the rise, as reported by the Transportation Security Administration, and 71% of adults report feeling comfortable dining out again.
As of publication, the dangerous Delta variant of COVID-19 has led major American metro areas to reinstate mask mandates, even for people who are fully vaccinated. And five clusters of low vaccination rates within the Southeastern U.S. are said to pose a threat to the national population that’s not yet inoculated.
Although recent numbers look promising for the hospitality industry, it would be wise to take them with a grain of salt: the pandemic is still unpredictable. But no matter how the variant plays out, these 50 data points make it clear that food, beverage, and hotels will have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
