After being closed since December 2020 due to another national lockdown, hospitality has bounced back with record-breaking numbers under its belt.
Across DesignMyNight, the UK’s leading nightlife and discovery platform, and Access Collins, the leading booking and enquiry management software dominating the hospitality market, it has been recorded that four bookings were made every second on 12 April across the B2C website and the software which has over 6,000 clients.
DesignMyNight had over 1,500 users on the site per second on 12 April and recorded a 1,021% increase in searches for outdoor areas compared to 12th March (18 days after the public were addressed by the Prime Minister about the reopening plan), alongside a 755% increase in users visiting beer garden channels.
Katie Kirwan, Head of Content and Website, commented, “While it's been a turbulent 12 months of reorganising content, keeping our users entertained with lockdown inspiration and being there for every whiff of reopening news, positive or not, we're so excited to see our website thrive with the positive return of hospitality. We can't wait to share more outdoor content, restaurant reopenings and get back to the all-important business of drinking at the pub.”
Sarah Groves, Sales and Events Manager of Youngs, stated that, “Pubs with large outside spaces and gardens were in high demand after the roadmap announcement on the 22nd February with many SW London pub gardens booking up within 24 hours for the first weekend.”
To put this into perspective, a weekday at The Ship in Wandsworth would usually have around 50 to 70 covers booked. On April 12th they had 687 which was similar to their sister pub, The Leather Bottle in Earlsfield, which secured 637 covers. The coming weekend, being the first out of lockdown, is also completely booked out at the two award-winning pubs with 807 covers booked for The Ship and 902 for The Leather Bottle.
Groves has also reported “a large increase for large garden bookings for 17th May onwards (up to 30ppl) as well as party occasions due to guests wanting to celebrate missed occasions, birthdays and so on”.
DesignMyNight’s Concierge & Venue-Sourcing Service have seen private event enquiries for the summer months and beyond rise by 386% since the Prime Minister’s roadmap announcement in February 2021.
The team have also seen a 470% increase in party planning requests compared to this time last year. Moving forward, the concierge team will be re-branding to ‘Premium Concierge’; providing an exclusive one-on-one service for corporate parties and special events with budgets of £10k+ whilst also working to improve the private hire pages across DesignMyNight so that smaller groups and lower budgets can easily source their own venues.
(source: Access Collins, DesignMyNight)
