In early May 2025, the ONS found that 82% of UK accommodation and food service businesses reported at least one challenge impacting turnover, which is a useful reminder that more demand isn’t always something we can simply buy with another offer.
More positively, independent venues have a lever chains often struggle to replicate: genuine local identity, delivered through experiences that make guests want to return.
Full Rooms and Never Cheap Rooms
If you run a hotel, pub, restaurant, or small group of venues, you already know the uncomfortable moment when “let’s run a promotion” becomes the default answer. Discounts can fill capacity, but they can also train your best future guests to wait you out.
VisitEngland’s England Occupancy Survey gives a helpful indication on why protecting yield matters right now. For November 2025, it reported 79% room occupancy in England, down 2 percentage points versus November 2024, with room demand down 6.3% year-on-year and room supply down 4.3%.
In the same release, ADR was £169 (up 1%) and RevPAR was £134, and VisitEngland noted both sat below the November inflation rate of 3.2%.
That mix is exactly why a loyalty system should be designed to protect margin rather than dilute it. Instead of asking, “What can we knock off the rate?”, a stronger question is, “What can we add that feels valuable but costs us little?”
Loyalty isn’t a discount programme, but actually a permission system. It gives people a reason to choose you first, book earlier with the right tools, and show up more often, because they feel recognised. So, the aim in 2026 isn’t to eliminate promotions, but to stop leading with them.
Be the Place People Plan Around
PwC’s UK Hotels Forecast coverage for 2025–2026 points to demand being supported by things like international demand and event-led travel, even with rising operational costs in the background That’s important for independents because it rewards a type of marketing you can do very well: making your venue part of people’s plans, not just an option they stumble on.
Experience-led demand can sound like a branding slogan until you ground it in real operational choices. Start small and stay specific: a recurring series, a partner collaboration, or a simple ritual that regulars want to bring friends into.
Another way to think about it is building a calendar that people can rely on. Not a constant stream of one-off special nights, but one recognisable format that becomes part of the local rhythm. And there’s another reason locality matters: performance is not uniform across the country.
In VisitEngland’s November 2025 EOS update, the South West had the biggest occupancy increase year-on-year (+3pp), while Yorkshire & Humberside saw the biggest decline (-5pp) and the East of England was down -4pp. That sort of divergence is a nudge to design offers around local context, not generic national messaging.
The most effective community programmes don’t try to appeal to everyone. They build a strong, repeatable reason for a clearly defined group to come back, then they let word-of-mouth do what it does best.
Loyalty You Can Prove Works
A community-led loyalty system earns trust when you can show it working as a commercial channel. That doesn’t mean overcomplicating it with dashboards nobody checks. It means picking a handful of signals that relate to revenue and capacity.
The ONS also gives a useful constraint to design around: for accommodation and food service businesses, 66% reported “cost of labour” as a challenge impacting turnover in early May 2025. So the loyalty system has to be operationally light, easy for teams to deliver and clear enough that it doesn’t create friction at the point of service.
It’s also worth noting that in an ONS BICS bulletin, several businesses commented they were affected by increases in employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) that were implemented in April 2025. Whether your own cost pressures come from payroll, suppliers, or energy, the principle stays the same: retention needs to be efficient.
Here’s a general build that works well for independents; particularly because it respects time and staffing while still being measurable:
- Define the “member win” (for example: priority access to events, first release tables, room upgrades when available), and avoid blanket percentage-off rewards.
- Track three behaviours only: time-to-return, direct share, and one experience metric (event attendance or partner-perk redemption).
- Collect minimal data you’ll actually use: email or mobile, preference tags, and visit frequency.
- Set a simple cadence: one monthly “what’s on”, one member-only drop, one partner feature.
- Cap benefits so they protect peak revenue (limited inventory, clear blackout rules, and staff scripts that are consistent).
Treat that system like a loop, not a campaign. Each month should produce insights you can act on quickly, such as which event themes pull forward demand, which partner sends higher-value guests, and which member segments respond to early access versus added-value perks.
If you want this to feel natural (and it should), keep one element deliberately manual. A short personal note to high-frequency members, a quick “we saved you a spot” message, or an invite to something small where you’ll actually be present.
That’s not being inefficient either. It’s the point. This works amazingly with any AI voicemails you implement.
Own the Return Visit
The wider outlook still leaves room for confidence, with PwC-linked commentary pointing to demand being supported by factors like event-led travel even as cost pressures remain part of the picture.
So the opportunity for independents in 2026 is refreshingly practical: build a loyalty system that rewards belonging and access, anchor it in experiences people plan around, and measure it just enough to prove it’s earning its keep. Do that well, and discounts become an occasional tool, not your main story.
Because if your best guests already like being part of something, why not make that intentional, repeatable and profitable?