It's been my recent experience that standards of service in pubs are on the rise.
Sure, you can still get a 'traditional' welcome in certain robust boozers pretty much anywhere - heck, it's often part of the fun - but anecdotal evidence suggests a warm welcome in pubs is on the increase.
Similarly, thousands of pubs are bending over backwards to encourage new customers to visit, as fears of a smoking ban-related revenue and profitability downturn gather pace.
Pub companies and individual pubs alike are looking at new and innovative ways to entice families, childless couples, the elderly, the not-so-elderly-but-getting-on-a-bit, young adults, lone punters looking for a social life, etc, into their pubs. This is all jolly good stuff. The more people who visit pubs the better, both from a revenue generation point of view and because, let's face it, busy pubs are fun places to be in.
But there are certain groups which trigger a less-than-wholesome reaction when pitching up at a pub. Football fans in large numbers are the most obvious.
Then there are motorcyclists.
As a rider of two (motorised) wheels myself I know some pubs are happy enough accommodating bikers. Yet many pubs view us as a problem, maybe because they've encountered difficulties in the past. But most modern motorcyclists aren't the Hell's Angel types of yore. Far from it.
I don't know any bikers who cause trouble in pubs nor who drink large quantities of alcohol and then ride off into the sunset. I'm sure there are bikers who do, and they are at risk of doing themselves - and possibly others - serious injury. To put it politely.
Most of us are all too aware that booze and motorbikes simply don't mix. Instead, the vast majority of riders spend a fortune on soft drinks and stand around the pub car park staring at their mate's new machine.
But stereotypes remain, and while pubs move into a new customer-friendly era, for many bikers quite a few hostelries remain no-go areas.
Which surely is at odds with the industry's aim of being 'hospitable'…