A new report titled Get Appy: Do Consumers Use Restaurant & Hotel Branded Apps revealed that a majority of global consumers (57%) have used or are using mobile applications to engage with hospitality operators. The study of 15,000 consumers across Europe, Latin America, Asia-​Pacific and North America revealed that of the 23% that have at least one restaurant or hotel branded app on their mobile device, 70% are using them at least once a week. Increased app engagement across global consumers creates new opportunities to personalize service, incentives and menu offerings and highlights the need for modern food and beverage technology to deliver more meaningful guest experiences.

According to AudienceSCAN, 46.4% of Frequent Diners (U.S. adults who eat out at least three times per week) own iPhones and 43.1% are Android users. In the past six months, 28.6% have used a mobile device to order food for takeout or delivery and, in the last year, 69.9% took action after seeing an ad on their mobile smartphone apps or a text message.

"Consumers are willing to engage with brands through mobile applications if operators can deliver differentiated value," said Chris Adams, vice president strategy, Oracle Food and Beverage. "Operators that lean into the mobile opportunity for the food and beverage industry will have a significant competitive advantage with greater insight into service preferences and emerging menu trends."

• Of the 23% of consumers who have download a restaurant or hotel app, two-​thirds have more than three apps on their devices.
• Asia Pacific leads with 82% of consumers using a hospitality app at least once a week compared to 54% of consumers in North America.
• One in five global consumers has at least one app for a food delivery service and 23% have a booking app for hotels or restaurants on their device.
• Almost a third (28%) of consumers have paid for food and drink from an app on their mobile device at least once with increased adoption among Asia-​Pacific consumers (37%)

Who are America's Frequent Diners? According to AudienceSCAN, this group is mostly (73.2%) made up of consumers ages 17 to 44. Over 22% have annual household incomes of $150,000 or higher and 51.4% live in a metropolitan area.

"Historically development of food and beverage applications has been cost and labor prohibitive for a majority of the marketplace," said Chris Adams, vice president strategy, Oracle Food and Beverage. "With a modern, cloud-​based POS system operators can extend their investment and take control of guest relationships while encouraging long-​term loyalty with personalized incentives through an integrated mobile experience."

Restaurant apps can be advertised to Frequent Diners in a number of ways. One is TV. According to AudienceSCAN, last year alone, 76.5% of this audience took action after seeing a TV commercial. Nearly 22% of this audience looks through magazines in search of coupons, and 68% took action after seeing advertisements in magazines. Restaurants can also cut out the middle man and send ads and coupons direct to consumers in the mail. Last year, 71.4% of these consumers took action after receiving such ads.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.