Dirty toilets top pub deterrent for customers

Research by Mintel found that unclean toilets/facilities were the main reason deterring people from visiting a pub, cited by 53% of adults. Poor customer service (47%) and the related issue of overcrowding (42%) were additional deterrents.

The poll also found that a human element to pub deterrents, with an unwelcoming atmosphere (44%), and ‘not my crowd/type of people’ (29%) also influential reasons for avoiding certain pubs.

Only 15% of the 1,500 adults polled cited distance as a deterrent, indicating that many consumers are prepared to travel to pubs/bars with unique or high quality offerings.

The report said: “Many consumers justifiably make judgements about the quality of the pub based on the cleanliness of facilities such as toilets. For this reason, Wetherspoon’s victories in the Loo of the Year award in recent years are in fact something which the company can be rightly proud of.

“While such an award may seem a little curious, many customers do respond to the quality of the toilets and pubs which fall behind on standards risk deterring patrons from visiting them again in the future.”