Do You Have to Be at a Hotspot For Doordash?

There’s a lot to know, and do, if you’re just joining the food delivery industry.

On DoorDash, one always confusing topic is how Hotspot —a feature on the app that shows areas with the potential of high order density— works.

For this article, we’d go through whether or not staying in Hotspots are a must for everyone, best place to stay, etc.

Do You Have to Be at a Hotspot For Doordash?

Simply put, no. Hotspots on DoorDash are not an ultimate location thingy, of which you can’t get orders without them.

You can get orders from just about anywhere you stay all depending on how busy that location is. You could also do anything you wish to do while waiting for orders.

DoorDash is as flexible as it’s being advertised.

The idea of Hotspot is to create a sort of guidance to drivers, probably new to DoorDash or their location, on where the market is currently booming.

This would allow drivers easily move to these locations and start getting orders as expected.

But then, going there is actually not necessary unless you’re getting little to no orders.

There’s also no guarantee you’ll get orders in a Hotspot location. This is due to the way it’s programmed to work.

While we don’t know exactly how Hotspots are made, we know that a part of its data is fed from historical order requests gotten by the company over time in a location, and not actually on current demand as most think.

This is not a bad idea as demand could temporarily fluctuate in a place, but a location with historically high demand can be safe to bet on.

However, it has its own cons.

For instance, a situation of you not getting orders even while at a Hotspot. While not common, it happens. And perhaps, the reason is due to the fact that the demand in that location was currently poor, based on trends.

So do you need to go to a Hotpot location? are they useful?

Not a bad idea, if you get little to no orders and you don’t properly know your location. But, it’s never a necessity.

This now brings us to the next section of this article…

What do you do Instead of Having to Be At a Hotspot?

Firstly, if you’re already at a location with a good order request flowing, stick to it.

If after some days of dashing on that location, it still gets a level of order requests flowing as usual, keep it. That’s likely a good location to settle in. You can call it your personal Hotspots.

You see, as with most drivers experienced with DoorDash, they barely follow the trend of Hotspots, rather create “their personal Hotspots.”

For one reason, there are a lot of locations with good order requests that DoorDash Hotspots lacks data in. If you can get to them, why not?

Secondly, there’s also on penalty for doing so.

Editors note: A potential personal Hotspot is usually a place with a high-order restaurant or a number of restaurants. Parking slots, office districts, large residential areas, and places with a good number of restaurants, often fit into this.

So how do you find a personal Hotspot?

There’s actually no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, other than knowing your location better.

Generally, you want to understand how busy your area is, know what restaurant is the busiest, take note of locations you often get orders, and start making experiments.

How Close do you have to be to a Hotspot on DoorDash?

There’s generally no strict distance rule that dictates how close a Dasher must be to a hotspot to receive orders.

Also, keep in mind that you’re not assigned orders based on your proximity to a hotspot, but if the current demand in that location is high, whether Hotspots or not.

While moving to a particular Hotspot may have a higher probability of getting orders, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get orders without going to the exact spot. Hotspots are just like every normal location.

However, if you’re already so close to a Hotspot, moving right into it is not a bad idea as well, especially in a situation where you’re not getting orders.

Final Thoughts

Note that this doesn’t make Doordash’s Hotspots bad.

Hotspots are still a good guide for drivers and would always be.

Should you go to them? If there’s a need for that. But it might not be worth it if you’ll need to take a long-distance route just to get to one, whereas you can have a personal hotspot or just drive around to get orders.