Mother’s Day Highlights The Value Of Seamless Payment Experiences

New Lloyds Merchant Services research highlights how payment choice, speed and reliability help hospitality businesses deliver great customer experiences on busy family dining occasions

London, 11 March 2026: Mother’s Day brings one of the year’s biggest surges in family dining, with restaurants and pubs busier than usual as larger tables gather from morning through to the evening. Lloyds Merchant Services research suggests that on occasions like this, the final stages of service can play an important role in how smoothly the day runs when demand is high.

Lloyds Merchant Services’ latest hospitality research shows how payment technology is becoming a central part of the dining experience. Across the UK, 77% of hospitality businesses say contactless is now the most requested way to pay, while 44% report growing demand for mobile wallets.

For many venues, payment speed becomes particularly important on busy days. When service is full and tables are turning, quick and reliable checkout helps keep the flow of service moving smoothly across the floor. That experience is reflected in Lloyds Merchant Services’ recent hospitality research: 42% of hospitality businesses cite slow processing as a concern during busy service, rising to 49% among restaurants and 48% among pubs.

Customers notice it too. Three in 10 businesses say guests occasionally comment on delays when paying, while around 15% say they hear this feedback regularly. Restaurants are the most exposed, with 14% reporting frequent complaints, compared with 9% of hotels and 5% of pubs.

Alongside speed, managing customer payment preferences is becoming an important part of the checkout experience. Twenty-four per cent of hospitality businesses say they want greater payment choice, rising to 30% among restaurants, while one in five highlight the need for tighter links between payments, tills, booking and loyalty systems.

That variety is reflected in how customers choose to pay at the table. In restaurants, 26% say customers ask to pay at the table, while 22% report requests to split the bill, increasing the number of transactions handled at the end of a meal.

Ross Taylor, Managing Director and Head of Payment and Liquidity Sales at Lloyds Merchant Services, said: “Mother’s Day is all about making mums feel appreciated. With busy venues and lots of ways to pay, seamless payments help everything flow, so teams can concentrate on great service, and families can concentrate on celebrating.”

For hospitality businesses preparing for busy trading occasions, fast, reliable and flexible payment systems help venues keep service running smoothly. Systems need to handle volume, support different ways to pay and fit smoothly into existing service setups, particularly during peak periods when staff and floor space are under pressure.

Lloyds Merchant Services supports hospitality businesses across the UK with dependable, scalable payment tools designed to perform during busy trading periods. As part of Lloyds Banking Group, businesses can also benefit from an integrated banking relationship that connects payments, reporting and financial insight, helping venues manage busy trading days with confidence.

The full report, From Till to Table: Smarter Payments Driving Innovation in Hospitality, is available at: https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/resource-centre/insight/payments-driving-innovation-in-hospitality.html.

Lloyds Banking Group is a UK based financial services group. As part of the Group, Lloyds Merchant Services offers leading end-to-end payment acceptance solutions. We help businesses from all parts of the UK, and across all different sectors and sizes, giving them the support they need to take payments online, in store, or over the phone at any time.  

For more information on how we help businesses to receive payments please visit: www.lloydsbank.com/cardnet 

This whitepaper is based on research conducted by Censuswide among a sample of 250 UK owners and managers of hospitality businesses, including restaurants, food halls, cafés, pubs and pop-ups. All respondents were aged 18 and over. Fieldwork was carried out between 18 August and 26 August 2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.

*Lloyds Bank Market Intelligence (LBMI) uses aggregated and anonymised transaction data from Lloyds Banking Group’s 28 million customers to deliver actionable insights and support business decision making. These insights are limited to the Bank’s retail market share of personal current accounts and/or personal credit cards, and do not reflect all spending within the United Kingdom. Whilst Lloyds Bank has exercised reasonable care in preparing these insights, no liability is accepted by Lloyds Bank for any loss or damage caused to any person relying on any statement or omission. This is for information only and should not be relied upon as offering advice for any set of circumstances. Specific advice should always be sought in each instance.