How to choose a hospitality PR agency in the UK

Choosing the right PR agency for a hotel, restaurant or hospitality business can be tricky. There are plenty of agencies offering hospitality PR in the UK, ranging from large London firms representing international hotel groups to small specialist consultancies working closely with independent hotels, restaurants, pubs and venues. The right choice depends on what you want PR to achieve, how much support you need and, importantly, whether the people doing the work really understand hospitality.

Hospitality is a particularly competitive sector for PR. Journalists receive a constant stream of information about new hotels, restaurant openings, menus, afternoon teas, spa packages, weddings, Christmas events and seasonal offers. Having a beautiful property or a brilliant restaurant is a good starting point, but it doesn't automatically mean there is a media story. A good hospitality PR consultant needs to understand what makes journalists take notice, find stories within the business that aren't immediately obvious and know how to present them to the right people at the right time.

If you're looking for a hospitality PR agency or consultant in the UK, here are some of the things I'd consider before making a decision.

Look for someone who actually understands hospitality

Hospitality PR is about far more than promoting rooms, menus and special offers. Hotels and restaurants are busy businesses with lots of different things happening at once, and some of the best stories can come from places you wouldn't necessarily expect.

A new chef, an unusual supplier, a local producer, a restoration project, a historic building, an interesting member of staff or a change to the way a business operates could all have PR potential. So could something happening outside the business: a new film or television series, a major anniversary, a travel trend or a national conversation about food, tourism or hospitality can suddenly create an opportunity for a hotel or restaurant to be part of a much bigger story.

Someone who works regularly in hospitality should be able to spot those opportunities without needing the client to come up with every idea. They should also understand the commercial side of the industry. Filling bedrooms on a Sunday night, increasing midweek restaurant bookings, selling weddings or attracting visitors from outside the local area may be far more important to a business than simply generating the largest possible number of press mentions.

Good hospitality PR should ultimately support what the business is trying to achieve.

Ask who will actually be doing the work

This is one of the most important questions to ask any PR agency.

A pitch meeting might involve a very experienced director, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the person writing your press releases, talking to journalists or coming up with ideas once you've signed a contract. There's nothing inherently wrong with an agency team structure, and larger businesses may need the resources a bigger agency provides, but it's worth knowing exactly what you're buying.

Independent hospitality businesses often suit a smaller agency or specialist consultant because the relationship can be much more direct. If you have a new idea on Monday morning, you can speak to the person who is actually going to turn it into a story. They get to know the property, the owners, the team and the personality of the business, which can make an enormous difference to the quality of the PR.

At Feather & Fern PR, clients work directly with senior PR consultant Jen Bell. We're an independent hospitality PR consultancy based in the Peak District, working with hotels, restaurants, pubs, venues and other hospitality businesses in Derbyshire and across the UK.

That means the person advising you on the strategy is also close to the day-to-day work, rather than disappearing once the pitch meeting is over.

Make sure they know the difference between marketing and PR

Hospitality businesses have an enormous amount of content to promote, but not all of it belongs in the press.

A new Sunday lunch menu might be perfect for Instagram, an email newsletter and the hotel's website, but it doesn't necessarily warrant a press release. On the other hand, a restaurant beginning to dry-age beef reared on its own nearby farm might contain a much stronger story about provenance, food miles, farming and what is happening behind the scenes.

Knowing the difference matters because journalists very quickly stop opening emails from PR people who send them things that aren't relevant.

A good hospitality PR agency should be prepared to tell you when something isn't a media story and suggest another way to use it. More importantly, they should be able to take a piece of information that initially sounds quite ordinary and ask enough questions to discover whether there is a better story underneath it.

That's a big part of what PR is.

Consider the media you actually want to reach

One of the first things we ask a new hospitality client is who they want to attract.

For a luxury country house hotel, that might mean national travel editors, luxury travel writers and lifestyle publications. A restaurant may be more interested in food writers, restaurant reviewers and regional media. A wedding venue might need a combination of bridal publications, regional lifestyle media and national wedding titles. Often, it will be a mixture.

Local and regional media shouldn't automatically be treated as less important than national coverage either. If you're running a restaurant in Derbyshire and the majority of your customers live within an hour's drive, a strong feature in a well-read regional publication may lead to considerably more bookings than a national mention seen by people who live hundreds of miles away.

Equally, there are times when a local hospitality story can travel much further. An unusual hotel package, beautiful new accommodation, a remarkable food story, a quirky event or a strong connection to something happening nationally can open the door to travel, food, lifestyle and national news coverage.

The job of your PR consultant is to understand the difference and pitch accordingly.

Look for experience with press stays

Press stays can be one of the most useful parts of hotel PR, but only when they're handled properly.

Inviting a journalist or travel writer to stay at a hotel costs the business money. There's the room itself, staff time, food and drink and potentially other experiences included in the visit. It therefore makes sense to be selective rather than automatically agreeing to every request that arrives in the inbox.

A hospitality PR agency should be able to assess whether an opportunity is worthwhile, look at the journalist's previous work, understand the publication and likely coverage, manage the arrangements and make sure the writer has the information they need.

It's also worth remembering that good press trips shouldn't feel over-managed. Journalists need enough information to understand what's interesting about a property, but they also need space to experience it for themselves.

For independent hotels in particular, a carefully managed programme of press stays can generate excellent coverage over time without giving away large numbers of complimentary rooms unnecessarily.

Awards can be valuable – but choose them carefully

Hospitality has no shortage of awards, and they're certainly not all equal.

A respected award can provide excellent PR, strengthen a hotel's reputation, give the team something to celebrate and provide useful third-party endorsement for future marketing. Awards can also create several opportunities rather than one: being shortlisted, winning, celebrating the people behind the achievement and using the accolade within future media pitches.

But businesses can also spend a surprising amount of money entering awards with little recognition or value attached to them.

A hospitality PR consultant who knows the sector should be able to help identify the awards that are genuinely worth entering, rather than encouraging a business to chase every badge available.

Your location can be one of your strongest PR assets

People don't choose a hotel in isolation. They're choosing where they'll wake up the next morning, where they'll walk, what they'll eat, what they'll see and how they'll spend their weekend.

That means a property's location can create stories throughout the year. Walking and cycling, seasonal landscapes, major local events, new attractions, food and drink producers, filming locations, literary connections and changing travel trends can all give journalists a reason to talk about a hotel even when the hotel itself hasn't launched anything new.

For rural hotels and restaurants, this is particularly useful because it stops PR becoming dependent on refurbishments and openings. There should be plenty to talk about between the big announcements.

Don't assume you need to be constantly launching something

One of the biggest misconceptions about PR is that a business needs a constant stream of company news.

It doesn't.

Some months there will be obvious announcements: a new opening, major refurbishment, new restaurant, appointment or award. At other times, PR is about creating opportunities from what is already there.

A beautiful terrace might become relevant when the first warm weekend of spring arrives. A roaring-fire country pub can suddenly be exactly what a travel writer needs for an autumn feature. A chef might have something interesting to say about rising ingredient costs, changing dining habits or a particular food trend. A hotel near a famous walking route could contribute to a feature about walking breaks.

Hospitality gives you an enormous number of potential angles because it touches food, travel, interiors, weddings, tourism, business, lifestyle and consumer trends. The skill is knowing which ones are worth pursuing.

Think about photography as well as words

Hospitality PR is incredibly visual.

A brilliant story can be difficult to place if the accompanying photography isn't strong enough, particularly for travel, food, interiors and lifestyle media. Journalists and editors need images that make people want to visit, eat, stay or keep reading.

Good photography is therefore one of the best investments a hospitality business can make in its PR. Ideally, you'll have a library containing a mixture of landscape and portrait images, exterior and interior shots, food, bedrooms, people and seasonal photography, with clean versions that aren't covered in logos or text.

It's also worth updating photography regularly. If a room has been refurbished, the menu has changed substantially or the garden looks completely different from the images taken five years ago, journalists need the current version.

A hospitality PR consultant should be thinking about imagery from the beginning rather than treating it as something to find once a journalist has already asked.

How much does hospitality PR cost in the UK?

Hospitality PR costs vary considerably depending on the agency, the amount of work involved and the type of support you need. A large hotel group looking for a national agency programme will have very different requirements from an independent restaurant that needs a few months of support around an opening.

Some agencies work solely on monthly retainers, while independent consultants may also offer project work for launches, openings or specific campaigns.

When comparing proposals, I'd look beyond the monthly figure and consider how much experienced PR time you're actually receiving. Who will be doing the work? How many other accounts are they managing? How proactive will they be? Does the fee include writing, media relations, press stay management and strategic advice? Are there additional charges you need to know about?

Most importantly, does the person proposing the work understand your business and already have ideas about what they could do with it?

A good initial PR conversation should leave you thinking about stories you hadn't considered before.

Choosing the right hospitality PR agency for your business

There isn't one hospitality PR agency that's right for every hotel, restaurant or venue.

Large international hotel groups may want the reach and resources of a large agency. Independent hotels, restaurants, pubs and hospitality groups may prefer a smaller specialist consultancy where they have direct access to the person doing the work.

Whichever route you choose, I'd look for someone who understands hospitality, asks good questions, knows the media you want to reach and is interested in the commercial objectives behind the PR rather than simply producing coverage reports at the end of each month.

And perhaps most importantly, choose someone you actually enjoy working with. PR involves a lot of conversation, ideas, quick decisions and trust. The relationship matters.

Hospitality PR from Feather & Fern

Feather & Fern PR is an independent hospitality PR consultancy based in the Peak District, working with hotels, restaurants, pubs, venues and hospitality businesses in Derbyshire and across the UK.

We work particularly closely with independent and luxury hospitality businesses, helping them find the stories that make people want to visit, stay, eat and experience what they have to offer. Our work includes hotel and restaurant PR, media relations, press stays, new openings, awards, food and drink PR, weddings, events, executive profiling and ongoing PR support.

Feather & Fern is led by senior PR consultant Jen Bell, who works directly with clients from the initial ideas and strategy through to writing stories, speaking to journalists and securing coverage.

If you're looking for a hospitality PR agency in the UK, hotel PR support, restaurant PR, or an experienced PR consultant for an independent hospitality business, we'd love to hear a little more about what you're doing.

Get in touch with Feather & Fern PR at hello@featherandfernpr.co.uk to have a chat.