Streamlined Service, Happier Guests: Urban Leisure Group’s Experience with Toast

Urban Leisure Group is an independent and dynamic group of neighborhood bars and restaurants open across London. The company prides itself on offering a warm, living-room-like experience with sustainability-focused food and drinks. Marianne Pilloux, the Operations Manager, started her journey with Urban Leisure Group over a decade ago.

The challenge

Urban Leisure Group was facing technical and operational issues that prompted them to seek an alternative point of sale including:

• Unreliable Hardware: Their previous POS frequently crashed, causing significant service disruptions.

• Payment Failures: A lack of integrated payment solutions led to failed transactions and revenue losses. “ We estimated the losses from these tech issues to be in the thousands,” shared Marianne.

“Since switching to Toast, we’ve experienced a 75% decrease in POS support issues, freeing up our team to focus on our customers.²”

Marianne Pilloux

Operations Manager

The solution

As Urban Leisure Group reevaluated their POS options, they were considering Toast and Lightspeed. They ultimately chose Toast for several reasons:

• Hospitality Expertise: ~2/3 of Toast employees1 have restaurant experience and Urban Leisure Group trusted Toast’s deep industry expertise.

• Positive Word of Mouth: Local UK restaurants praised Toast. “My favourite local restaurant had just installed Toast and loved it.”

• Straightforward Setup: Toast’s user-friendly onboarding process stood out compared to Lightspeed’s reliance on third parties.

• Continuous Innovation: “New features are introduced quickly, showing Toast’s responsiveness to feedback,” Marianne shared.

The result

Since implementing Toast Urban Leisure Group has seen significant improvements across operations:

• Walkouts reduced by 50%: Toast’s handheld devices have revolutionised table service, reducing walkouts by 50% and enabling second-floor service where staffing was limited.2

• Time Savings: The backend system allows quick access to, make menu updates, and monitor performance - saving valuable time. Marianne shared, “Since switching to Toast, we’ve experienced a 75% decrease in POS support issues, freeing up our team to focus on our customers.”2

• Ease of Use: “I trained the team on a 45 minute video call - it’s that straightforward,” said Marianne.