How do guests react to AI in restaurants?
Guest reactions to AI in restaurants tend to be extreme: people are either curious or fiercely against it, with hardly any middle ground. At BUNKR, billed as the first AI restaurant in the Netherlands, some guests openly said they hoped it would close within a month. Fellow restaurateurs, on the other hand, wanted to know what they could learn from it. That resistance is aimed mainly at visible technology at the table, and far less at AI working behind the scenes.
Where can AI work in a restaurant without pushback?
A useful way to think about it is AI in front of the pass versus AI behind the pass. AI in front of the pass directly shapes the guest experience, think robots or digital table service, and that is what triggers the polarisation BUNKR experienced. AI behind the pass handles tasks guests never perceive as technology: replying to reviews, asking for a review after the visit, publishing Google Business Profile posts and keeping the website up to date. That second group delivers better rankings and more reviews, without diners noticing any robotisation at the table.
Why does visible AI polarise guests so strongly?
Guests see hospitality as human work, so technology at the table feels like a break with what they know. At BUNKR, according to Robin Vromans, it went "left or right, nothing in the middle".
What do fellow restaurateurs want to know about AI?
Peers in the industry mainly asked two questions: what are you learning, and what can a regular restaurant take from it? The practical gains are in tasks that are still done by hand today, such as handling reviews and managing your profile.
Which AI tasks do guests never notice?
Replying to reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, Booking and Facebook, and asking for a review at the right moment by email, text or WhatsApp. Negative feedback then reaches you privately first instead of in public.
It really went left or right. There was nothing in between.
Frequently asked questions
What was the first AI restaurant in the Netherlands?
BUNKR, fronted by Robin Vromans, presented itself as the first AI restaurant in the Netherlands. The opening drew a lot of attention from television, radio and newspapers. Reactions were sharply divided: some guests hoped the restaurant would close within a month, while fellow hospitality professionals were mostly curious about what the experiment would reveal.
Why are some guests against AI in restaurants?
Some guests feel technology has no place in an industry built on hospitality and personal contact. At BUNKR, critics called the idea stupid and asked why the restaurant was doing it at all. That resistance is mostly about technology guests can see for themselves. AI that works in the background, such as review management, rarely provokes the same reaction.
How can a regular restaurant use AI without changing the guest experience?
Start with recurring tasks behind the scenes. Examples include automatically replying to online reviews, asking guests for a review after their visit, creating Google Business Profile posts and keeping the website up to date. These tasks improve your online visibility and reputation, while service and atmosphere in the dining room stay as human as ever.
Try it on your own restaurant first.
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Video transcript
All kinds of, you know, if you look into the response of guests, because we had a lot of eyes on us also from the news, like television, radio, everybody was really curious about what is it going to be, how is it going to work. A lot of, yeah, maybe guests who didn't like the thought of using technology in the, in the restaurant industry. And they were telling us, well, I hope you're going to close within the first month because why are you doing this and it's such a stupid thing, you know.
Well, a lot of restaurants and also, yeah, competitors maybe, or, uh, yeah, just colleagues in the, in the industry, they were really, um, yeah, curious. And they were always asking questions like 'What are you learning out of it? ' and 'Why are you doing such a thing?
' So what could we learn from the, yeah, the more common way of running a restaurant on things what you are doing? So yeah, it was really going left or going right. There was nothing in the middle.