UK vs The US - who wins Hospitality gold?

KAM's MD, Katy Moses shares her take-outs from recent trips to the US...

"I’ve had the good fortune to make three trips to the US in the first half of this year – business trips (honestly!) to Chicago with Propel Info and Nashville with Atlantic Club / Peach 20/20 and a personal trip to New York. Being half-American, and having more family there than here, I tend to get across the Pond three to five times a year, so I make it my business to really get under the skin of hospitality in the US and, inevitably make comparisons with the UK.

So what are the main differences – and, as importantly, where are the similarities? And, in the spirit of the just finished Olympics, who gets the gold medal?

Service?

Let’s start with the actual hospitality part. It’s well-known that service in the US is, generally, incredibly good – that’s what happens when a system is created whereby servers can double their salary with tips. But I have noticed, the last few trips, that bad service is not unheard of. I have also seen the “recommended amount” to tip increase – up to 35% in many places, which causes fiscal problems for the visiting Brits, who, often don’t take these costs into consideration when working out a travel budget.?

In the UK, however, we are more sparing with our tips but, and this is a big but, we still have fantastic levels of service, and, importantly, what we get is genuine. So who gets gold? If it was just for standard of service, the US would just about get the higher score, but, when you weigh up all the points of note, the UK seems a better value for money proposition – UK gets gold.?

But with 20% of UK consumers saying that they waited too long for their order to be taken on their last hospitality visit and 22% telling us that their food took too long to arrive (insight from our Plan to Plate report (in partnership with Paytronix / NFS Hospitality), we really do need to keep working on those service standards.

Quality

On my last few trips I have noticed a definite increase in the quality of food in the US. Long known for the quantity of food served in its pubs, bars and restaurants, America, in many ways, has turned its focus on to the quality. The amount of “GM free”, “handmade” and “free range” messaging has absolutely increased in recent years as the consumer leans more towards a health agenda. Avoiding ultra processed foods has become a “thing” over the Pond – but, as ever, there is a polarisation and, as in the UK, there are still many bad options out there – and it tends to be the disadvantaged that suffer.?

The UK, meanwhile, has seen an increased focus on sustainability, provenance and the use of “local” as a byword for quality. A total of 78% of the people we spoke to for the last quarter’s Plan to Plate report said that the “quality of the food” was a deciding factor in the decision of where to go when they wanted to go out to eat – the highest in importance, even above value for money. So who wins on quality? It’s a tough one, but I think the UK just about gets the gold medal. Whether it’s Welsh lamb, Scottish whiskey or Maldon oysters, I think we have some of the best quality food in the world.

Variety?

In the past, say, ten years, the variety of food and drink and, indeed, places to visit to eat/drink has increased dramatically in both countries. In the US, the aforementioned focus on health and wellness has meant a glut of new brands promising functional foods that will help either brain or body. In the UK, we have seen far more adventurous offerings than “traditional British” become mainstream, with the likes of Rosa's Thai , Pho Restaurant and buns from home growing their estates.?

But where variety really is the spice of life – in both countries – is in the independent sector where we’ve seen fantastic entrepreneurs take risks with new cuisines and concepts. Want to eat cheese on a boat? Head over to Paddington and the Cheese Barge. Want to eat in a real-life prison, being cooked for and served by offenders? Swing by The Clink (various locations). Fancy a kind of strange eggy waffle thing? Chinatown and Bubblewrap is where you need to be heading. In the US, we see variety of food origin coming to the fore – 886 providing a glimpse into Taiwanese food culture, Spa 88 serves Russian food in a spa, or there’s Union, which has great Filipino food.?

So who wins out? On this one, I’m giving gold to the US – maximum points for variety of food and drink, maximum points for variety of cuisines, and for some absolutely bonkers concepts.

There are so many other categories that I could assess, and maybe I will after my next trip. But one thing is for sure – both countries absolutely deserve their place on the podium when it comes to hospitality.

*As featured in Propel Info Friday Opinion 16th August

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