Hospitality needs to ‘get used to U-turns overnight’

14-Dec-2021 - Last updated on 14-Dec-2021 at 12:08 GMT

The Onslow Arms in Loxwood: We have had to get used to U-turns overnight due to indecisive leadership and misplaced trust

The hospitality sector needs to ‘get used to U-turns overnight’ and new restrictions over the festive and new year period due to indecisive leadership and knocks to consumer confidence, according to one West Sussex operator.

Despite having held steady operationally, with staff and suppliers remaining in good stead as well as trade continuing to be stable at the pub, Rob Barr, who runs the Onslow Arms in Loxwood, said the pub wasn’t where he thought it’d be based on the previous months trading.

Built on reputation

Barr said: “Confidence is key within our industry, prior to the pandemic, our businesses were built on reputation and word of mouth, which feeds directly into the bracket of confidence, with recent announcements of course guests’ confidence has been knocked, especially the idea of ‘oh if my friend isn’t going, then maybe I shouldn’t either’.

“The public have been influenced into believing crowded, busy or congested indoor settings are dangerous, where in fact if managed correctly they aren’t, while direct confidence in hospitality is still strong, I do believe indirect confidence in hospitality is very low indeed.

Responsible steps

“Christmas and new year will certainly be mixed with a lot of people not wanting to risk catching the new variant and having to isolate, so I do expect trade to decline further in the run up to it."

Since the announcement of Plan B restrictions and the Omicron variant of coronavirus, bookings at the Onslow Arms, which won the award for Best Family Pub at the Great British Pub Awards 2021, have decreased by 35% in comparison to same period in 2019, however the pubs revenue against 2019 is up by 50%, but its forecast is down 32%.

“We have to take reasonable steps towards reducing the impact of this new variant and we need to be sensible, which is why I currently support the Government’s decision to leave hospitality free of restrictions, however we have had to get used to U-turns overnight due to indecisive leadership and misplaced trust, so my gut would be we’re heading for additional restrictions very soon.”