Hotel chains are among many hospitality businesses that encourage customers to book online through their own websites. To achieve that goal, it’s important to make sure the site provides the features guests want. In a recent set of studies from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, Professor Sheryl Kimes surveyed both restaurant managers and restaurant patrons in connection with online ordering. While it’s true the studies focus on the foodservice industry, it’s also true they open a window into consumer psychology regarding the Internet that can benefit all hospitality operators.

Let’s look at the restaurateurs experience with online ordering and then examine the reasons customers gave for ordering online (or not doing so). You can read the reports for yourself on the CHR website. They are “Customer Perceptions of Electronic Food Ordering” and “The Current State of Online Food Ordering in the U.S. Restaurant Industry.”

Kimes surveyed 372 U.S. restaurant operators and found about one-fourth of them accept online orders. Almost all said they’re pleased with the results, in terms of return on investment. Interestingly, the restaurateurs said any gain from implementing online ordering didn’t come so much from increases in average check, but instead from increased order frequency.

To elicit consumers’ views, Kimes surveyed 470 Internet users and found just under half of them have ordered food electronically, whether online, by mobile app or by text message. However, it’s important to note the telephone is still the major channel for food orders. As you may guess, the number-one type of food ordered electronically for carryout and delivery is pizza. Respondents under age 34 and urban and suburban residents are more likely to have used electronic ordering than their older, rural counterparts. Women responding to this survey are slightly more likely than men to have used online ordering, but the difference isn’t significant.

Kimes asked those who haven’t used online ordering why they don’t do so. The desire for personal contact was overwhelmingly the top reason, expressed also as a preference for a live person to take the order or with the idea a live person gives the customer a better shot at a correct order. Beyond the personal touch, nonusers expressed their discomfort with online ordering and were concerned with issues of accuracy and trust.

For customers who use electronic ordering, one of the two reasons that they gave for electronic ordering—convenience—is not especially surprising, but the other reason brings up a different set of issues—and that is control over the ordering process. Asked about issues surrounding control, the respondents said things like “online ordering lets the customer be in charge,” and “I feel decisive when using online ordering.”

The desire for convenience and control is also reflected in the features important to people who use online ordering. The top four features are accuracy, convenience, ease of use and speed. Next on the list, and still grouped with the top four, is a control-related factor: “no rush.”

Truthfully, I’m not sure what the respondents are trying to tell us in connection with this concern about control. When customers make a restaurant order, book a room, or rent a car, do they feel they’ve handed control of the process to someone else and the outcome is somehow in doubt? I know we’ve all experienced service nightmares, but those are the exception. Instead, my experience at virtually all hotels and restaurants is that the associates are well trained, focused on the guest and reliable in their performance. This is a topic for further research, as our Cornell faculty might say.

Without doubt, hospitality operations of all kinds will move increasingly toward accepting orders online. Certainly that’s a norm for airlines and increasingly so for hotels. Indeed, USA Today reported a survey last year that found that a substantial percentage of air travelers book their hotel rooms through the airlines’ websites. As I said at the outset, for hotel chains the stated goal is to encourage customers to book on their own websites, rather than that of third-party sites or channels. Although the study presented here was looking at restaurants, the lessons of online ordering carry over to the entire hospitality industry. Based on these surveys, do all you can to ensure your site is convenient and gives the customer as much control over the process as possible.

Glenn Withiam is director of publications for the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research.

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