Industries

Marketing for hospitality businesses

Websites, Meta Ads and local search for independent pubs, bars, cafés and venues. Built to fill quiet midweek nights, win more private-hire bookings and bring more of your trade direct. Fewer platforms taking a cut.

Start a conversation

The situation

How the work is won.

Most independent venues know the pattern: packed on a Friday, thin on a Tuesday. The gap between a good week and a lean one can come down to a quiz, a function or a sunny weekend that people heard about in time. And they decide fast, on a phone, using Google Maps, Instagram and whatever your website says about hours, events and space. If that's scattered or out of date, the trade drifts to the booking apps, the delivery platforms or the venue down the road.

What sends them looking

Midweek trade is flat, and your fixed costs aren't.
The function room, garden or upstairs space sits empty on nights it could be earning.
Delivery and booking platform commission has become a line in the accounts you notice every month.
You're launching live music, a quiz or a supper club, and it needs a crowd from week one.
The season's turning, and you want tourists, students or summer crowds to know about you before they arrive.

The problem

Why it's harder than it looks.

Where the work slips away

When hours, kitchen times and event dates differ between your website, Google and social pages, you lose trust and footfall.
Private-hire enquiries come in by phone, DM and email with no standard form, so details go missing and follow-ups slip.
A quiz, a gig or a big match needs a few days of promotion to people nearby. One post on the day gets lost.
Your audience shifts through the year, from locals to tourists to Christmas bookers, and the marketing has to shift with it.
Delivery apps and booking platforms bring visibility, then take a cut of every order and keep hold of the customer relationship.

What makes customers hesitate

Regulars and word of mouth have always kept the place going. Why pay for marketing now?
Someone already posts on Instagram, so what would ads or a new website add?
Boosted posts brought likes before, but nobody could say whether they put anyone through the door.
Running a venue leaves little time for sending photos, event details and sign-offs.

The approach

Where Arête would start with hospitality businesses.

Every service works on its own. Which one comes first depends on how your customers search and decide.

Proof and measurement

What customers check, and what counts.

What customers look for before they call

Honest, recent photos of the space, the bar and the food on an ordinary night.
Capacities, layouts and what's included for private hire, so organisers can see it'll work before they ask.
Up-to-date hours, kitchen times and an events calendar that match what Google shows.
A steady run of recent Google reviews, with replies that show someone's paying attention.
The practical stuff: step-free access, dogs, parking and how to get there.

What counts as an enquiry

A private-hire enquiry with the date, numbers and occasion already filled in.
A table or area booked straight through your own site.
A ticket or place booked for a quiz, a gig or a ticketed night.
A tap to call, or a request for directions from Google Maps or your website.

What gets tracked

Where each functions enquiry came from, and how many turn into confirmed bookings.
The share of bookings coming direct versus through third-party platforms, tracked over time.
Calls, direction requests and website clicks from your Google Business Profile.
Ticket sales and bookings for each event, set against what it cost to promote.

Worth knowing

The rules and the practicalities.

Constraints for hospitality businesses

Any ad featuring alcohol has to follow the CAP Code's alcohol rules, including not appealing to under-18s, and Meta applies age restrictions to alcohol advertising.
Information on the 14 regulated allergens must be available to customers, and for food ordered online for delivery or collection, it has to be available before the order is placed.
Prices you show online should include any compulsory charges, with any discretionary service charge labelled plainly as optional.
If guests can be identified in photos or video, you need their agreement, particularly for paid ads.

Questions

Marketing for hospitality businesses: your questions answered

Does this page cover restaurants too?

Restaurants have their own page, because table reservations, menus and covers shape the marketing differently. This one is for pubs, bars, cafés and venues, where events, private hire and walk-ins matter as much as bookings. Plenty of places sit across both. Arête can combine the two approaches.

Can marketing cut what a venue pays to delivery and booking platforms?

It can reduce your reliance on them. Not overnight, though. A website with direct booking, plus prompts on menus, receipts and social profiles, gives regulars a reason to come straight to you. Keep the platforms for discovery while more of your repeat trade moves direct.

What should a venue fix first?

Consistency. Your hours, events and contact details should match across the website, Google Business Profile and social pages. Next comes a proper private-hire page with a structured enquiry form, because functions are booked well in advance and deserve a proper way in.

Start a conversation

Tell Arête about the business and what currently feels missing.

You will receive a direct reply with the most sensible next step, even if that means recommending that nothing needs changing yet.

A direct reply
A personal reply, usually within one working day. No sales script, no chasing.
A short conversation
A look at the business, your current website and what a good result would look like for you.
A clear recommendation
The leanest sensible next step, with fixed scope and a fixed price. Sometimes that's nothing yet, and you'll be told so.

Prefer email? Write to info@aretemarketing.co.uk.