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Speaker 1: Debisu joining us right now.

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Speaker 2: She's a CEO over at Open Table, which of course

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Speaker 2: tracks a lot of these dining trends. And one of

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Speaker 2: the more interesting trends, Debbie, that I saw when it

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Speaker 2: comes to Valentine's Day, that a lot of the folks

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Speaker 2: dining out aren't doing it sort of one on one,

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Speaker 2: if you will, sort of two a couple out there

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Speaker 2: just staring at each other in the eye.

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Speaker 1: It's singles and groups of people. Is that right?

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Speaker 3: That is right? And thanks for having me back, Romaine.

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Speaker 4: I'm patting myself on the back because I guess Ge

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Speaker 4: and your last prompt, but.

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Speaker 3: You are right. Valentine's Day is not just about partners anymore.

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Speaker 4: We're seeing people going out and celebrating by themselves with

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Speaker 4: large groups of friends. For example, today, I didn't know

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Speaker 4: if you know, this is Gallantine's Day, and we're seeing

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Speaker 4: dining activity up eight percent year over year, and that's

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Speaker 4: driven by parties of four or more.

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Speaker 3: So it's really.

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Speaker 4: Become a holiday, a dining holiday, not just for couples,

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Speaker 4: but for friends, for families, for loved ones.

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Speaker 2: I've heard of Gallentine's Day, and I just learned about

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Speaker 2: Palatine's Day. As well, which I don't know if that's

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Speaker 2: today or when it is, but it seems this to

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Speaker 2: be seems to be a trend where a lot of

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Speaker 2: folks are maybe trying to I guess, reclaim Valentine's Day

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Speaker 2: from just the lovers out there.

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Speaker 3: That's exactly right.

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Speaker 4: And you know the other trend that we're seeing this

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Speaker 4: Valentine's Day, and we saw it last year as well,

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Speaker 4: it's actually Valentine's Week because activity, dining activity is not

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Speaker 4: just happening on the fourteenth, It's actually happening all week,

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Speaker 4: Like today is an up day in dining, and we're

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Speaker 4: continuing to see dining activity.

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Speaker 3: Pick up for the rest of the week after Wednesday.

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Speaker 2: So is it good enough for me I'm asking for

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Speaker 2: a friend to just take someone out to dinner, or

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Speaker 2: do I still have to get them you know, flowers,

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Speaker 2: chocolates and all the.

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Speaker 1: Other stuff, you know.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a good.

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Speaker 4: Reservation at a restaurant is hard to secure, So I

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Speaker 4: feel like if you've made that reservation, you're already ahead

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Speaker 4: of the game. We saw last year actually that procrastinators

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Speaker 4: are big players.

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Speaker 3: In this market.

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Speaker 4: Last year, thirty percent of diners booked the day before

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Speaker 4: Valentine's Day, eighteen percent booked the day of down Time's Day.

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Speaker 4: So remain if you have, you know, for your friend,

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Speaker 4: if your friend has a reservation, I feel like you

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Speaker 4: know that's going to.

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Speaker 3: Get it done.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, we'll talk to the procrastinators out there. Not me,

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Speaker 2: but I have some friends who wait to the last

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Speaker 2: minute for everything here. So if they want to go

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Speaker 2: to a nice restaurant, and given that we're less than

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours away from Valentine's Day, are they going

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Speaker 2: to have any chance of getting a reservation on an

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Speaker 2: open table for anything.

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Speaker 4: Yes, they definitely have a chance. Still, So for procrastinators

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Speaker 4: out there, go on the open table. We have a

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Speaker 4: feature called notify Me, so if your favorite restaurant is

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Speaker 4: booked up, you can set an alert and if something

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Speaker 4: opens up at that restaurant, they will reach out. We

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Speaker 4: still have a myriad of experiences, special experiences of romantic

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Speaker 4: lobster dinner, for example at Koloman in New York, that are.

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Speaker 3: Available and be flexible with your timing. You don't have

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Speaker 3: to eat on the fourteenth.

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Speaker 4: As I said before, the dining activity is happening all

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Speaker 4: week long, especially in cities we're seeing like New York

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Speaker 4: Summers go La where the day of Valentine's Day is

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Speaker 4: looking pretty steady, but you're seeing it, you know, the Thursday,

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Speaker 4: the Friday, the Saturday after where it's.

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Speaker 3: Really picking up.

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Speaker 1: I am curious once we get past Valentine's Day.

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Speaker 2: Here, Debbie, just about the general health right now of

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Speaker 2: all of us dining.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 2: We know that there was that big boon when you know,

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Speaker 2: the kind of the pandemic clouds started to clear and

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Speaker 2: we all were just really just itching to get out

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Speaker 2: there and socialize. Is that still holding up or are

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Speaker 2: we starting to see that moderate.

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Speaker 4: We're seeing dining demand hold pretty steady. January is typically

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Speaker 4: a slower month. It's you know, you're recovering after the

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Speaker 4: holidays in December. Lots of people are practicing in dry January.

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Speaker 4: We're hopeful that this February and this Valentine's Day is

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Speaker 4: going to be a great period of time. But I

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Speaker 4: think that from our data, and we have a lot

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Speaker 4: of it. Every second, six tables are booked on open table.

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Speaker 4: So what our data tells us is that even during

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Speaker 4: times of macroeconomic uncertainty, people continue to prioritize dining out

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Speaker 4: they're continuing to prioritize the experiential, and we hope that holds.

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Speaker 3: For this year.

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Speaker 2: Is the sort of I guess the economics of it

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Speaker 2: all is that favorable to restaurants right now.

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Speaker 3: It's a rough climate for restaurants right now.

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Speaker 4: They are facing rising labor costs, they're facing rising food costs,

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Speaker 4: they're facing labor shortages.

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Speaker 3: And you know, it's a tough time in general.

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Speaker 4: Even during normal conditions, restaurants operate with a two to

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Speaker 4: three percent profit margin, and so when they have other

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Speaker 4: factors like this come in, it can be really devastating.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, hopefully everyone gets out. If not tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: maybe Thursday and maybe the days after that, take out

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Speaker 2: your significant other and if you don't have one, just

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Speaker 2: you know, find a friend.

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Speaker 1: And enjoy yourself, all right.

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Speaker 2: Debbie always helps, fun exactly right, Always fun talking to

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Speaker 2: you and you guys always have some great data, some

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Speaker 2: great trends here going on in the restaurant space.

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Speaker 1: Wiso, CEO of Open Table,