Spring 2025 State of Business Dining Report

Dinova’s Spring 2025 State of Business Dining Report provides key market insights to help restaurants navigate economic uncertainty with data-driven strategies.

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Dinova’s comprehensive Spring 2025 State of Business Dining Report delivers data-driven insights to help restaurants understand current market conditions and develop effective strategies during uncertain economic times:

What you’ll discover:

  • Travel & Catering Insights: The impact of business travel and corporate catering patterns
  • Dining Analysis: Restaurant industry trends, economic indicators, and consumer sentiment
  • Market Comparisons: How business dining performance compares to overall industry metrics
  • Seasonal Patterns: Predictable spending cycles to optimize operations and marketing
  • Corporate Expense Trends: How evolving expense policies influence dining decisions

Business vs Consumer Dining

Overall U.S. restaurant sales were higher in 2024 than 2023, but this growth has slowed significantly in early 2025. Business dining offers stability amid this slowdown. Dinova’s data shows business dining grew 5.6% in 2024 and continued with moderate 3.6% growth in January 2025 compared to January 2024, outpacing overall industry performance.

With industry growth projected to slow and stabilize in 2025, restaurants must act strategically, finding fresh, high-value channels to drive revenue. Restaurants that understand the needs and behaviors of business diners will be best positioned to capture steady, high-margin sales.

Opportunities for Restaurants

Shifting preferences toward local, experiential dining could give smaller operators an edge in the business dining segment. Understanding seasonal trends and corporate expense policies can help optimize operations during this uncertain period, while developing offerings that appeal to both national and regional business travelers can create multiple revenue streams.

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Methodology

In order to offer statistically significant sales insights for the State of Business Dining, we analyzed business dining spend for companies that remained active in the Dinova Business Dining Program from 2019-2024