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The importance of ambiance

It has been five years since the pandemic forced us to abandon the in-person dining experience for takeout or delivery. According to the National Restaurant Association State of the Restaurant Industry 2025 report, onsite dining is back in full force. This is good news for location-based entertainment venues that offer onsite food. But it does come with a caveat: ambiance matters.

Ambiance is so important that according to the National Restaurant Association survey, 47% of limited-service customers and 64% of full-service customers feel that the restaurant experience is more important than price. That is especially significant, considering that inflation is up 22% in the last five years, and restaurant prices have increased even more.

We have written before about the 4-legged stool, the four pillars necessary to provide your guests with a quality experience. The metaphorical stool fails if any legs are missing, wobbly, or broken, and your guests are unhappy. Physical environment, or ambiance, is one of those legs.

So, let's look at this critical ambiance leg of our stool, what guests are looking for, and how to achieve it at your location-based entertainment venue (LBE), which includes family entertainment centers.

A common pitfall for many LBEs is basing their designs on other LBEs in the area, who in turn based THEIR design on previous LBEs, all the way back to the designs of the early family entertainment centers of the 1990s. Think tall, hard ceilings and hard wall surfaces with little to no acoustics, and filled with attractions, what we have coined the carnival in a box. The result is a loud, cavernous, uninviting space that discourages conversations and socialization, the main driver of out-of-home experiences.

White Hutchinson has long been designing our clients' venues with a focus on creating a warm and inviting ambiance for their guests to achieve more extended length of stay, repeat visits, and positive word-of-mouth. You can check out some of our previous articles on the subject here, here, and here. There is data to back this up as both TDn2K and Black Box have noted that the restaurants with higher guest sentiment for ambiance consistently performed better financially.

Your guests aren't just comparing your facility to the other LBE down the road (you know, the one you based your design on) but to all the other out-of-home experiences they have, primarily restaurants. According PGAV's research, guests visit attractions only 4.0 times per year, while a 2023 U.S. Foods survey found people dining out at restaurants an average of 3 times a month or 36 times a year, twelve times more often than a leisure attraction.

Restaurants have been consistently upping their game, from fast food chains like Taco Bell, introducing upscale modern design (sometimes even fireplaces!) and to sit-down restaurants, introducing inviting outdoor spaces and even entertainment. To get some insight into the future of restaurant design, you may look at CAVA, one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands in the U.S. since its IPO in 2023.

Updated Taco Bell interior

Wendy's with fireplace

CAVA, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant around since 2011, has been making waves recently. With over 300 restaurants nationwide and another 700 slated to open by 2032, this fast-growing chain has recently undertaken a new design initiative called Project Soul. They are ditching their previous minimalistic, industrial design motif in favor of a warmer, softer, and more inviting ambiance that they hope encourages patrons to linger and savor their experience.

So, if you are an existing LBE, maybe it is time to take a look at your ambiance. Do the finishes and fixtures match the quality of those your guests find at other out-of-home experiences, especially restaurants? Does your décor reinforce your brand identity or detract from it? How about acoustics? Can you sit and chat with ease? And speaking of sitting, how soft are your chairs, and how long would you be able to sit comfortably in one?

If you are new to the industry and designing a facility, don't leave your interior design to the end. All too often, we see new businesses run low on funds at the end of their build, attempting to save money by downgrading their interior finishes, which are the important items your guests care about. This is why our company uses a process called concurrent design, where we work with our design team, kitchen designers, and landscape architects, among others, and a general contractor throughout the entire design process to ensure that all aspects of design receive the attention they need and will fit in the budget.

Bottom line: As one of the four legs or pillars of the guest experience, ambiance is essential to your LBEs success. Providing a comfortable and inviting space for your guests increases guest satisfaction and benefits your bottom line from increased attendance.

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