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Pubs in the UK aren't just about pints anymore. While hotels may have cornered the accommodation market, pubs with rooms can combine all the benefits of gastro dining, a cosy watering hole, and an intimate home-away-from-home atmosphere – all of which can make for a unique guest experience. We surveyed more than 500 guests to find out more about the features that prove most attractive for both hotels and pubs with rooms in order to help hospitality businesses hit the mark with their guest experience.
Pubs with rooms – the pros and cons
While 4.4% of respondents demonstrated a preference for the idea of staying in a pub with rooms, compared to the 81% who preferred a hotel and 12.7% who chose an AirBnB or similar, we found that when it came to making the actual booking, 52% of those who said they would prefer a pub ended up booking a hotel.
The reasons that pubs with rooms appealed to guests is the convenience of the bar and restaurant; the perceived friendlier atmosphere and personal touches; and the fact that dogs are quite often welcome. The 100% year-on-year rise in trip enquiries at dog-friendly holiday company PetsPyjamas demonstrates that the nation's love of travelling with their pooches shows no sign of slowing.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that pubs with rooms aren't that well marketed in comparison to hotels – popular booking sites don't have the option to search for pubs with rooms, for example. This can lead to confusion on the identity of a pub with rooms – is it a B&B? A hotel with a restaurant? Or an inn? An inn we recently spotted on booking.com did not even show a picture of the bar or mention that the accommodation was also a pub in the description.
Feedback from guests on why they would choose not to stay in a pub with rooms included comments such as, "I didn't know they existed" and that they were "less common to find on sites like TripAdvisor." We also found that the general perception is that pubs with rooms tend to be a lower quality of accommodation compared with hotels.
Factors that attract bookings
Our research revealed that 87% of guests cited the brand as well as nice rooms and ease of booking to be 'important' or 'very important' when looking for accommodation. These factors were just below friendly and helpful staff which was chosen as 'important' or 'very important' by 89% of guests. WiFi also scored highly with 75% of the votes.
Hotels and pubs with rooms might want to consider how they market their business to guests. Perhaps quality images of the rooms should take precedence on websites over shots of the exterior of the accommodation and strategies to showcase the warmth and friendliness of staff, such as featuring customer reviews or even quotes from members of the team on marketing materials.
