Hospitality at home

Home delivery and ‘hospitality at home’ have been growing significantly over the last 10 months. KAM Media MD, Katy Moses, gives her thoughts on the benefits of getting your hospitality brand into people’s home.

Hospitality at home

“One of the bonuses of lockdown #27 or whatever we’re on now, is that I decided to treat myself and Mr Katy to a restaurant meal kit, once a week, every week until hospitality reopens. I’ve really enjoyed the deliveries I’ve had so far (Cote, Aktar at home, Pasta Evangelists, Pizza pilgrims and Hakkasan.) And, being as passionate about the industry as we are, it’s been great to be doing our bit to support.

Last week the Guardian covered this new phenomenon in this article which made for good reading if only to understand the mechanics and figures behind the headlines.

As always, KAM like to be the insight agency with our fingers on the poll, so yesterday we ran a snap poll to see what the Great British public thinks about bringing hospitality into their homes. You can download the infographic here.

Consumer awareness is strong

The positive news is that awareness of what’s on offer is high- where 64% of those we spoke to are aware of subscription recipe boxes like Gousto and Mindful chef. 63% know about cook at home meal kits and 54% finish at home options from hospitality operators. The former have been ‘a thing’ for much longer so the latter two stats are encouraging. Add that to 50% being aware of ‘mix at home’ cocktail kits and 45% knowing about mini keg home deliveries, and the idea of hospitality being bought into our homes can certainly be described as having hit the mainstream!

Hospitality at home set to continue

But, for me, the most encouraging stats are the consumers who have not only participated in these ‘at home’ experiences, but intend to do so in the future- 

• 40% have either bought or would consider buying a cook at home meal kit
• 44% have bought or would consider a finish at home meal kit
• 38% for cocktails at home
• 35% for min kegs from a pub

We’ve been asked frequently by our clients whether we think that the ‘hospitality at home’ trend is here to stay. I think these figures clearly show it is. Food delivery has certainly changed forever and is fast entering a new phase, moving from purely functional “feed me now” to experiential. (Check out last week’s blog on this very topic.)

We know that customers are desperate to be back in our physical outlets, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t still want a piece of our wonderful hospitality industry in their homes- there’s room for both offerings to co-exist and smart operators and suppliers are busy right now planning for just that.”

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