Pubs winning favour among families with young children

Nearly three-quarters of customers feel pubs are doing enough to appeal to families, according to a survey by HospitalityGEM.

Steven Pike, managing director of HospitalityGEM, said: “For those pubs wishing to be more than just wet-led and wanting to appeal across all of the day parts, it is clear that making younger guests feel welcome offers a great opportunity to boost income.”

A considerable majority of respondents to the survey (91%) said they expected separate children’s menus to be available when they visited a pub.

Separate menu​

However, despite just over half saying they preferred to order from a separate children’s menu, 36% said they would prefer smaller portions of dishes from the full menu.

Health considerations also played an important role in whether customers would take their family to eat in a pub: two- thirds said they wanted to see calorie, health and allergen information displayed on the menu.

Despite being a wide-ranging concern, this insistence on health varied according to respondents’ ages - over 65s (45%) prioritised health concerns considerably less than 18-25 year-old customers (72%).

Just over one-quarter of customers said they thought the most important way to attract families to pubs was to offer a separate dining room for those with young children.

Chain restaurants​

With chain restaurants performing similarly well in HospitalityGEM’s survey, Pike said pubs could look to brands in that sector for inspiration.

“We’ve found from diner feedback that each chain often has one or two things they do well or differently, which means there are sure to be some specific aspects from these brands that other operators can apply to their own business.”