Toast Data: Reservation Trends Shift to Slower Days and Early Dinners

The Q3 2024 Restaurant Trends report examines shifts in reservation trends, food and alcohol price increases, and tipping and wage data for full-service restaurants.

BOSTON, MA — Toast (NYSE: TOST), the all-in-one digital platform built for restaurants, today announced its Q3 2024 Restaurant Trends Report, providing insight into the overall state of the U.S. restaurant industry through an analysis of aggregated data from selected cohorts of restaurants and in select U.S. cities on the Toast platform, which serves approximately 127,000 restaurant locations as of September 30, 2024. Read more details about our methodology below.

Key takeaways:  

• Reservations on the Toast platform increased 11% on Mondays and Tuesdays and dipped 1% on Saturdays compared to last year.
• Compared to last year, guests are booking more reservations for early bird dinners and fewer reservations after 7 p.m.
• 17% of reservations were canceled in Q3 2024, down from 19% compared to last year.
• 45% of reservations in Q3 2024 were made for the same day. 
• In Q3 2024, guests at full-service restaurants paid $6.34 for a beer (+2.4% YOY), $6.72 for a cider (+2.5% YOY), $8.06 for rum drinks (+2.7% YOY), $9.91 for vodka drinks (+2.7% YOY), $10.29 for whiskey drinks (+2.8% YOY), $11.40 for gin drinks (+4.0% YOY), and $13.48 for tequila drinks (+0.2% YOY).
• In Q3 2024, guests at full-service restaurants paid $10.66 for chicken tenders (+4.8% YOY), $11.98 for breakfast platters (+4.5%), $12.03 for sushi (+2.3% YOY), $12.99 for wings (+2.8% YOY), $13.33 for noodles/ramen (+3.7% YOY), $13.52 for burritos (+3.9% YOY), $13.52 for bowls (+5.1% YOY), $15.69 for pasta (+4.7% YOY), $20.07 for fajitas (+5.3% YOY), and $26.62 for steak (+2.9% YOY).
• Servers at full-service restaurants made a median hourly wage of $6.24 and a median hourly tip rate of $21.48 in September 2024.
• Total tips averaged 18.8% in Q3 2024, the same as Q2 2024. Average full-service restaurant tips also remained flat at 19.3% in Q3 compared to Q2, while tips at quick-service restaurants dipped to 15.8% in Q3 compared to 15.9% in Q2.

How reservations trends have shifted compared to last year

Good news for restaurants trying to bring more guests through their front doors during the front half of the week. Same-store reservations for Monday (+11%), Tuesday (+11%), and Wednesday (+8%), typically slower days for full-service restaurants, were all up in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023. 

Sunday (+6%), Thursday (+2%), and Friday (+2%) also saw modest increases in reservations compared to last year, while reservations on Saturdays actually dipped 1%. This may suggest a trend that guests are trying to avoid the weekend crowds or are grabbing dinner out after a long workday instead of cooking at home. 

Despite the slight dip year-over-year, Saturdays are still the busiest for reservations, accounting for 27% of the total in Q3 2024. Fridays (21%), followed by Sundays (15%), are the next busiest days for reservations. Thursday accounted for 11% of reservations, and Wednesday accounted for 10% in Q3 2024. 

Monday (6%) and Tuesday (8%) are still the slowest days for reservations. 

While 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. are the busiest times for reservations, earlier reservations got a bump in Q3 2024 compared to last year. There were approximately 3% more reservations at 4 p.m. and 8% more reservations at 5 p.m. Meanwhile, reservations that occurred at 8 p.m. and after dipped slightly. 

Reservations at 6 p.m. in Q3 2024 accounted for approximately 27% of dinner reservations during dinner service, a 6% increase when compared to Q3 2023. Reservations at 7 p.m. only increased by 1% compared to last year but still account for 25% of the reservations during dinner.  

Same-store reservation cancellation rates in Q3 2024 were 17%, down from 19% in Q3 2023. This could be because more restaurants are instituting cancellation fees or guests are being more thoughtful and intentional when making reservations. 

When trying to get a table, guests put on a waitlist stick around outside (or inside) for 20 minutes on average before hitting that cancel button, up three minutes from Q3 2023. Waitlist guests who successfully get a table spent an average of nine minutes waiting in Q3 2024, up three minutes from Q3 2023.

Alcohol and food price increases at full-service restaurants

Toast Benchmarking powers the Restaurant Trends Report's menu insights. This tool leverages AI-based classification and allows users to compare restaurant and menu category performance against aggregated data from peer Toast restaurants.

With inflation still on many people's minds in the United States, Toast looked at YOY same-store price growth for popular alcohol items ordered at full-service restaurants in Q3 2024. 

A beer will throw you back $6.34 on average, a 2.4% increase in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023. Cider (+2.5%), rum (+2.7%), vodka (+2.7%), and whiskey (2.8%) drink prices all grew at a similar rate, while gin drink prices increased by 4%. 

Tequila drink prices rose just 0.2% year-over-year, but on average, those drinks cost the most among the alcohols Toast explored at $13.48 a pop. Tequila's higher average cost per order isn’t super surprising, though, possibly related to the recent rise of luxury brands in that space.

Beer was by far the most ordered alcohol at full-service restaurants in Q3 2024, accounting for 53.9% of total alcohol sales, followed by wine at approximately 13.8%.

At same-store full-service restaurants, food price increases were slightly higher than alcohol increases. Fajitas (+5.3%) and bowls (+5.1%) had the most significant price increases in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023, followed by chicken tenders (+4.8%), pasta dishes (+4.7%), breakfast platters (+4.5%), and burritos (3.9%).

Steaks (+2.9%), chicken wings (+2.8%), and sushi (+2.3%) had modest price increases in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023, all below 3%. 

Server hourly base wages and tips per hour at full-service restaurants

Methodology: Data from applicable same-store full-service restaurants on the Toast platform from Sept. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024. Salaried, overtime, and bonus wages are not included. Paid time off is not included. Servers included in the analysis worked a minimum of five hours in the payroll period and received tips greater than zero. Servers’ job titles included a version of the words "server" or "wait." Hourly wages do not include tips. Base wages are the total wages divided by the number of hours. Tips per hour are the total reported tips divided by the number of hours.

To determine how local laws are affecting restaurant workers' wages in the U.S., Toast analyzed both hourly wages and tips per hour for workers with the job title “server” or included the word “wait” at full-service Toast restaurants utilizing Toast Payroll & Team Management.

On a national level, median hourly wages for servers at full-service restaurants dipped slightly from $6.37 in Sept. 2023 to $6.24 in September 2024. Servers at FSRs tend to make most of their income through tipped wages.

The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour as long as the “amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage,” according to the Department of Labor. This is known as a “tip credit.” The maximum tip credit against the federal minimum wage is currently $5.12 to meet the federal Basic Combined Cash & Tip Minimum Wage Rate of $7.25 per hour. 

However, states and local municipalities have passed legislation in some areas to reduce or eliminate the tip credit, such as in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, where servers now earn a median hourly wage of $10.01 and $11.03, respectively. In California, there is no distinction between tipped and non-tipped employees, and the minimum wage is currently $16 per hour. Still, wages have increased above that to $16.16 in September 2024.

Methodology: Data from applicable same-store full-service restaurants on theMethodology: Data from applicable same-store full-service restaurants on the Toast platform from Sept. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024. Salaried, overtime, and bonus wages are not included. Paid time off is not included. Servers included in the analysis worked a minimum of five hours in the payroll period and received tips greater than zero. Servers’ job titles included a version of the words "server" or "wait." Tips per hour are the total reported tips divided by the number of hours.

In both the four areas Toast explored and nationally, tips per hour for servers at FSRs increased in September 2024 compared to September 2023. Despite being paid the highest hourly wage, tips per hour in California increased the most. Servers made a median of $24.10 in tips per hour in September 2024, a 5.8% increase from a year prior.

Washington, D.C. saw the biggest swings in tips per hour for servers, ranging from $27.16 to $31.72. 

Nationally, tips per hour rose for servers at full-service restaurants by a modest 2.8% from Sept. 2023 to Sept. 2024. Many factors may affect how people tip, including the level of service, seasonality, inflation, and the price of items.

How individual states tip at restaurants

Tipping rates are from applicable restaurants on the Toast platform, where a tip was added to the order via a card or digital payment. Cash tips and transactions without tips are not included in the analysis. Tipping rates are gratuity that was added to the total processing volume before tips, including taxes and fees.

Tips remained generally flat compared to last quarter. Total tips averaged 18.8% in Q3 2024, the same as Q2 2024. Average full-service restaurant tips also remained flat at 19.3% in Q3 compared to Q2, while tips at quick-service restaurants dipped to 15.8% in Q3 compared to 15.9% in Q2. 

Tips for takeout averaged approximately 13.7% in Q3 2024, while tips for delivery service averaged 13.8%.

For another quarter, Delaware was again the best state overall for tipping, with a total average tipping percentage of 21.2% in Q3 2024. However, this number dipped from 21.5% in Q2.

California is again at the bottom of the list for overall tips, averaging 17.3%, the same as in Q2.