Where Do People Eat Most When They're Traveling for Work?

A new report reveals the restaurants business travelers eat at most — and the ones they rate the highest.
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Photo by: Photographer: Hongqi Zhang (aka Michael Zhang and michaeljung) ©Copyright: all rights reserved, michaeljung@163.com

Photographer: Hongqi Zhang (aka Michael Zhang and michaeljung), Copyright: all rights reserved, michaeljung@163.com

Where do travelers eat when business calls them away from their desks? Many of us grab a bite wherever it's convenient — but more of us expense Starbucks than any other restaurant, according to a new quarterly report by the expense-management-software company Certify revealing how business people spend their company cash when they’re traveling for work.

Starbucks, which constituted 5.32 percent of corporate dining cash, with an average of about $12.22 spent per visit, topped Certify’s list of most-expensed restaurants. McDonald’s was second, taking in 2.56 percent of eating expenditures, with an average of $7.91 spent per visit. In third place was Panera Bread, which, though it constituted just 1.81 percent of expenses, showed an average of $41.35 spent per visit.

Rounding out the top 10 were Subway (1.55 percent/$18.81), Dunkin’ Donuts (1.47 percent/$12.37), highway and airport food purveyor HMS Host (1.08 percent/$17.76), Chick-Fil-A (0.94 percent/$22.61), Wendy’s (0.65 percent/$9.58), Jimmy John’s (0.57 percent/$39.64) and Burger King (0.57 percent/$8.88).

Interestingly enough, where the business travelers ate most often were not necessarily the same places they rated highest, though in some cases they were. Their three top-rated business-travel restaurant picks were Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle and Panera Bread, in first, second and third place, with Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Cracker Barrel, Pizza Hut, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s and Olive Garden also making the top 10 top-rated list.

And of course a lot of where we eat depends on the time of day. For breakfast, business travelers tend to stop at Starbucks. At lunchtime, they favor Subway. And the most-expensed restaurant for dinner is McDonald’s.

Way to keep those expense reports from being supersized, guys.

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