In Their Comfort Zone: Maximizing Guest Physical & Psychological Comfort

Consider what happens in guests’ minds when they walk into your restaurant for the first time. Even if you are the hottest seat in town with a three-month waitlist, new customers likely feel at least some apprehension when they first arrive because they are not entirely sure what to expect from their experience. Your operation should immediately set their minds at ease by providing the right service and environmental cues.

Train everyone working in the front of the house to greet guests as they walk in. This does not mean your whole team needs to shout "Irasshaimase!" - a Japanese phrase that means "welcome" or "please come in.” You would likely hear this when entering a restaurant in Japan.

Nevertheless, employees should say a friendly hello if they are working near the front entrance when guests walk in. It sets the tone for the entire experience, whether the guest is ordering a chicken sandwich from a quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept or being seated at an upscale restaurant.

Guests will feel more comfortable if they know what they are supposed to do when they walk in the door. In full-service restaurants, this requires having a clear visual cue for where arrivals should present themselves to be seated. Even if your restaurant uses handheld technology for table management, an old-fashioned host stand serves this role and provides valuable space for storing menus and other supplies. In a fast casual or QSR operation, a well-designed front of the house should indicate where guests should go to place their orders without signage. Chipotle is one of many fast-casual concepts that use a waist-high barrier between the seating and the circulation areas to direct guests to the start of the service line.

Learning Objectives:

By the time you've finished reading this article, you should be able to:

• Differentiate between guest physical and psychological comfort.

• Explain how light and noise levels might affect the comfort of guests of different age demographics.

• Describe seating arrangements that maximize guest comfort.

Another source of guest discomfort can be walking into a large space with servers dashing around a sea of tables, pounding music, and a heavy dose of wall décor. To get all scientific for a moment: the relationship between stimulation and comfort is shaped like an upside-down U. The more stimulation we get, the more we like it - but only up to a point. Beyond that point, the more activity, noise, and visual clutter a space has, the less comfortable we become. That upside-down U is a different height for different kinds of people. Younger guests typically have a higher arc because they feel more comfortable in a high-stimulation environment than older guests.

If your target customer is a 21-year-old going out for drinks with some buddies, then a lively and busy environment might be just right. But if you are a place that caters to more mature customers with their bigger spending power, you may need to tone down the degree of stimulation in your design to help those guests feel comfortable and want to return.

One approach to managing environmental stimulation is to break large spaces into smaller ones. This has the added benefit of allowing you to open just those parts of the restaurant needed to meet demand. Work with your architect to right-size your dining spaces with the appropriate ceiling height. For the occupants to feel comfortable, the larger the space, the higher the ceiling.

Think about how a typical parking garage feels. It is not so comfortable. Each deck is a big open space with a low ceiling. Conversely, no one likes to sit in an elevator shaft, which is what a small space with a too-high ceiling can feel like.

Ambient Comfort

Many environmental factors that influence guest comfort are light, sound, and temperature. Of the three, lighting is the most powerful. Our brains are wired to respond differently to bright light than to dim areas and culturally we have learned that certain lighting communicates certain experiences. The harsh overhead lighting given off by cheap fluorescent fixtures suggests a low-budget experience so your food and value proposition had better both be amazing if you employ this kind of lighting.

Warm, soft lighting reads as much more upscale whereas dim lighting punctuated with intense focal points like neon sends the message that your operation is not about food. Light levels that are comfortable for dining should be about 125-150 lux, or about half the light level you would see in an office. Put front-of-house lighting on dimmers so that it can be adjusted as outdoor lighting conditions change.

Sound levels are also important for guest comfort. You have likely read articles about noisy restaurants and how they can be a turn-off. However, one guest’s noise is another one’s exciting buzz. The key is understanding your target customers and why they are coming to you. Twenty-somethings might like a louder vibe than older guests, but even a young crowd wants to be able to have a conversation. Keep the volume to not more than 75 decibels through the sensible deployment of music and careful material choices for floors, walls, and ceilings. It is a good idea to start at about 58-60 decibels of ambient sound at the start of service when your dining room is empty and then adjust the music volume down as the number of diners increases.

Most restaurants struggle with room temperature: it is too hot near the open kitchen or cold near the front door. You want to hit about 72 degrees F (about 22 degrees C) in dining areas. If your dining room has cold spots, work with your HVAC company to balance the system more effectively or, if that is not an option, consider window treatments. If your restaurant does not have space for a vestibule entrance with two sets of doors, you might need to erect a heavy curtain around the entry area during the coldest months to keep arctic air from blasting your diners every time the door opens.

If your operation attracts tourists from Europe or South America, recognize that American-style air conditioning can feel uncomfortably chilly for these visitors. One operation I know in New York Times Square keeps a few branded throws on hand for foreign guests who complain about being too cold when the AC is running full tilt.

Your cell phone is important for monitoring your restaurant’s ambient environment. Download some of the many free apps that measure light, sound, or room temperature, and educate your team about what levels you would like each of these ambient factors to be for different service periods.

Seating Comfort

As for seating, comfort takes two forms: how your body feels in the seat and how much control you think you have over the space around you. We tend to notice physical discomfort more readily than something that disturbs us psychologically, but most people take notice when a badly positioned table makes them feel crowded or exposed.

Keep guests physically comfortable by choosing seating that conforms to the length of time you want them to stay. Fine dining chairs often have arms and always should have upholstery on the seat and back, even at the bar. More casual places can go with plain seats, but no matter what, they should be crafted with a comfortable back angle and seat contouring to accommodate human backsides. (Those galvanized metal chairs that have been so popular with restaurant designers in recent years are a terrible choice if you care about guest comfort.)

When in doubt, sit in your selected dining chairs for at least fifteen minutes before you purchase them. Better still, invite two or three colleagues of different shapes and sizes to do the same before deciding what to buy.

Regarding seating, providing guests with psychological comfort is less about the furniture and more about where you put it. We know guests are most comfortable when they feel they can control their personal space from encroachment from neighboring tables or high traffic. However, how much space a person needs is situational and varies depending on whether the furniture helps define the guest's territory. Restaurants that cater to business diners or that attract romantic couples need to provide those guests with more space around their seats than casual places like sports bars. A good rule of thumb is to allow 14 square feet per seat in the dining room for everyday places and up to 22 square feet per seat for fine dining. This space includes room for the seat, a piece of the table, and floor space for moving around.

A booth is a classic example of a restaurant seat that defines personal space: guests' backs and at least one of their sides are protected, making them feel cozy and safe and ready to enjoy a drink or a meal. There’s even evidence that guest spending goes up in a booth. The opposite of a comfortable table is a deuce in the middle of the dining room, placed inches away from a similar table and surrounded by busy traffic aisles. Guests at tables like these cannot help but feel uncomfortable no matter how much padding their seats have. This is because they have minimal control over their "territory", a feeling that is intensified if they think they are too close to adjacent parties. This lack of privacy and perceived control is even more uncomfortable for guests on high-stakes dining occasions such as dates or business discussions.

To help guests feel more control over their personal space, place any tables that are not booths up against something: a wall, a window, a low divider, or even a potted plant if that is all you can do. This is especially true for movable two-tops, which should never be "floating" in the dining room. If you have a long banquette lined with multiple tables, keep table spacing to not less than twelve inches and provide an anchoring wall at either end of the banquette to make those end tables more comfortable. Even better is making a 90-degree turn in the banquette at each end to create a cozy date table that could also be a three-top.

Guests like to be able to position their chairs as needed for comfortable dining and conversation. Seats that are heavy to move, or worse, affixed to the floor, prevent your guests from making these adjustments. True, guests cannot adjust seat location in a booth, but by leaving 18 inches between the booth seat back and the table edge, most guests can slide in and dine comfortably.

However, always be sure to have a few freestanding tables in your layout to accommodate guests who do not feel comfortable with booth or banquette seating. If your regular dining seats have arms, have a few armless chairs on hand so that larger guests are comfortable and make it easier for guests with disabilities to slip in and out of their seats. Smart operators might also want a few sturdy throw cushions for smaller guests so they can sit comfortably anywhere.

Guest comfort when eating and drinking requires your tables and chairs to be at the right heights. Dining tables should be about 29 inches high whereas high tops often are at the standard bar height of 42 inches. More critical than table height is the distance between the dining surface and the surface of the seat. This dimension needs to be about 12 inches so that most guests can easily use their cutlery without bending their elbows more than ninety degrees. Also ensure that table and bar tops are not more than 2.5 inches thick because many guests like to cross their legs while seated, particularly in bars.