Tabs, Tips and Table Times: What You Need to Know

A new report from Upserve debunks common assumptions about the link between tabs, tips and table times. While many assume that lingering guests’ higher checks are worth it, data from the Upserve State of the Restaurant Industry report finds that that’s not always the case.

There are a few “magic moments” at which the guest check peaks and plateaus. Upserve’s data finds that the average guest check swells from $88.39 at a 40-minute table time up to $123.45 at 80 minutes (in addition to another spike at the 100-minute mark). However, the restaurant’s revenue per minute plummets from $2.21/minute to $1.54/minute between the 40- and 80-minute marks.

What’s more, tips as a percentage of the guest check taper off at a certain point. Tips average $15 overall but note that according to Upserve’s data, the average tip on a $110 bill is just $3 higher than a $50 tab, and the average tip comes in at less than 10% of the check. The takeaway: that wait staff often would do better by serving several smaller tables instead of fewer large ones.

Find out about menu trends, staff wages and region-specific data in the full report.