The Evaluation of Restaurants Websites: American Pizza Restaurants Case Study

Many Authors highlighted the advantage of being affiliated in hospitality industry. This was challenged by the evolution of technology and new generations' characteristics. Today’s Internet afforded limitless opportunities for independent restaurants to stand against the affiliated ones. The wide spread of smartphones created an opportunity to reach customers anywhere and opened a channel of distribution for restaurants products targeting new generations, who were recognized as technology savvy customers. The research aimed to evaluate the restaurants’ websites in today’s business environment. This research used restaurant's website assessment tool and word cloud analysis technique. The authors developed a website checklist, which was customized for restaurants. The study started with sixty-seven restaurants (i.e., twenty-eight independent restaurants, thirty-nine chain restaurants) and ended with forty-seven restaurants (i.e., twelve independent restaurants, thirty-five chain restaurants) which were included in the research sample. The research findings highlighted several issues in restaurants’ websites’ performance and how far the affiliation supported restaurants’ websites compared with independent ones. A list of recommendations was developed to help restaurants’ owners in maximizing the impact of affiliation on their business and to develop their restaurants’ websites.