We spoke about reasons to be cheerful for retail last week, and as Instagram becomes awash with photos of Japanese cherry blossom, things are looking rosier for hospitality too.

Activity in the food and drink sector rose by 6.8%, after a fall of 8.1% in December when Omicron led to loads of cancelled bookings for Christmas parties and gatherings.

There’s no doubt that the British pub remains integral to the continued bounce back of hospitality, and keep your eye out for a new report released this week, entitled ‘The Return of the Pub 2022’ and published by our friends at KAM Media.

They have released a sneak preview of some of the results via their newsletter, but we can share them with you here:

Our own recent Mind The Gap research into retail & hospitality customer behaviour also revealed some interesting findings, more specifically into what hospitality customers are missing and what they think will make the experience better. 

Well over half (55.6%) of regular, frequent pub goers, (effectively your loyal pub-goer), believe the experience would have been better with the sound of music (see graph 1). Only 20.15% disagreed.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how the pub of the future shapes up, with competitive socialising poised to play a prominent role (we’ll tell you more about this in a future blog, so stay tuned).

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MUSIC TO MAKE THEM DRINK UP, DRINK MORE, DRINK A TOAST, DRINK A WHISKEY DRINK, DRINK A LAGER DRINK.

So what is a great hospitality customer experience?

Yes, music is important, but it takes more than just music. We call it Music+.

For us at Startle, it is something customers tell friends about. It elevates a brand to distinction, with all sites harmonising in unison. Ultimately it improves your bottom line.

What do we mean exactly? For your own brand and business, imagine an atmosphere that’s built to run itself, optimising moment to moment the music, displays and lighting to make sure the experience is always it’s best. Couple that with bespoke entertainment or competitive socialising that integrates seamlessly into your atmosphere and we’re suddenly talking about the pub of the future which we're already building.

It’s all possible with Startle.

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