Hospitality marketing: a practical strategy for small UK venues

Short answer: Hospitality marketing is how pubs, cafés, restaurants, B&Bs and small hotels attract guests, win the booking or order, and bring people back. For small UK venues, the strategy that works is: get found locally, take bookings and orders direct where you can, make the visit worth talking about, and stay in touch with guests who said yes. Third-party platforms are useful for reach, but every repeat guest should come back to you direct.

This guide gives you a framework, a playbook for each type of venue, the maths on direct vs third-party bookings, and a 90-day plan.

Written for UK independent hospitality businesses. Updated October 2026.

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The guest journey: five stages to market to

Every guest goes through the same five stages, whether they want a pint, a latte or a room for the weekend.

Most small venues spend all their effort on stage 1 and forget stage 5. But stage 5 is the cheapest place to win. A guest who already loves you only needs a reason and a reminder.

Your hospitality marketing strategy in four parts

1. Be easy to find locally

• Complete your Google Business Profile: hours, menu, photos, booking or order link. See our local SEO guide.
• List on Apple Maps, Bing Places and Tripadvisor with the same name, address and phone number.
• Keep opening hours and seasonal closures up to date everywhere.

2. Win the booking or order direct

• Put a direct booking or ordering link on Google, your website, social bios and email signature.
• Make direct the easy choice: fewer clicks, clear prices, instant confirmation.
• Give direct guests a small, honest perk, such as a free upgrade on availability, an early check-in or a free coffee with breakfast. Keep it to extras rather than a lower room price, and check your booking-site contract first.

3. Make the experience shareable

• One "signature" thing people talk about: the Sunday roast, the view, homemade breakfast, the dog-friendly fire.
• A short, warm welcome. People remember being remembered.
• Somewhere and something worth photographing. More on this in restaurant branding.

4. Stay in touch, with permission

• Ask guests if they'd like news or offers by email or WhatsApp. Record who said yes.
• Send useful messages: seasonal menus, events, quiet-period offers.
• Ask every guest for a review, and reply to all of them.

Direct vs third-party: the maths

Booking sites and delivery apps bring new guests, but you pay on every booking, including repeat guests.

Example: a 6-room B&B If 40% of 1,200 room nights a year come through a booking site at £120 and 15% commission, that's 480 × £18 = £8,640 a year in commission. If you move a quarter of those guests (120 nights, mostly repeat guests) to direct booking, you save about £2,160 a year. These are illustrative numbers. Use your own.

The aim isn't to leave third-party platforms. It's to use them for first-time guests and bring repeat guests back direct. For food, see how Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats compare.

Playbooks by type of venue

Pubs

• Give every quiet night a reason: quiz, steak night, live music, a club or league.
• Book tables for big sporting events.
• Make food a reason to visit, not just drink.
• More ideas: 35 pub promotion ideas.

Cafés and coffee shops

• Build daily habits: stamp cards, a regular "usual", order-ahead for commuters.
• Partner with nearby offices, gyms and schools.
• Post the morning bakes on Instagram and Google before 8am.

Restaurants

• Push group bookings, private dining and seasonal menus.
• Reviews and photos matter most at the "decide" stage.
• Start planning December in October. See our Christmas marketing ideas.

B&Bs and small hotels

• Your website and Google profile should make direct booking easy, with clear prices and real photos of every room.
• Sell the local area: walking routes, events, the best pub nearby (and if that's yours, even better).
• Guests who book through a booking site still stay with you. Win them at breakfast with great service, and ask if they'd like news for next year.
• Use a QR code room-service or breakfast menu, so guests can order food and drinks from their room or table. See QR menus for hotels.

Bars and late-night venues

• Events, DJs and themed nights drive footfall more than discounts.
• Keep drinks promotions responsible. The licensing rules are strict (see below).
• Instagram and TikTok matter most for younger crowds. See social media for restaurants.

Plan around UK seasonality

Coastal and rural venues often have the opposite pattern to city centres. Plan around your quiet months, not the national average.

A 90-day hospitality marketing plan

What to measure

• Direct share: the percentage of bookings or orders that came direct.
• Repeat guests: how many guests or customers came back this month.
• Reviews: new reviews per month and average rating.
• Average spend: per cover for food, per stay for rooms.
• Cost per booking: what each channel costs you per booking, including commission.

The rules for UK hospitality marketing

• Marketing messages by email, text or WhatsApp need consent, or the soft opt-in for existing customers, plus an opt-out in every message (PECR).
• Prices must include compulsory charges. The DMCC Act 2024 bans drip pricing, so mandatory fees (such as a compulsory service charge at a restaurant or a resort fee) must be in the headline price. The CMA's guidance gives both as examples.
• Reviews: fake reviews and hidden incentivised reviews are illegal since 6 April 2025. Don't offer rewards for reviews.
• Influencers: a free stay or meal in return for a post makes the post an ad, which must be labelled.
• Alcohol promotions: irresponsible promotions are banned under the mandatory licensing conditions in England and Wales, and Scotland has stricter rules.

Where Menuthere fits

Menuthere handles the food and drink side of hospitality marketing. It isn't a room booking engine.

• Your own ordering page for collection, delivery, dine-in and room service, with 0% commission (Free plan up to 50 orders a month).
• QR codes for tables and rooms (Free).
• Table booking for your restaurant (Lite and above: US$17 a month, billed in US dollars; your bank converts it. 7-day free trial; a card is needed to start, but nothing is charged until the trial ends).
• Pre-orders and scheduled orders, such as breakfast or picnic boxes (Lite and above).
• Coupons and discount codes for direct guests (Lite and above), and a Google menu push to your Business Profile (Lite and above).
• Allergens and calories on every dish (all plans, Free included). Guests see them when they open a dish, which matters for room service and breakfast orders.
• WhatsApp broadcasts and order updates from your own number (Pro).
• Loyalty points and review requests after each order (Pro: US$39 a month).
• Your own app on Google Play and the App Store, with push notifications for offers and events (Branded App: US$99 a month). See the restaurant app builder.

For software options across all channels, see our guide to restaurant marketing software. For quick wins, read our 48 restaurant marketing ideas.

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