What makes hospitality memorable? Twenty years of lessons from the floor

I’ve been lucky enough to experience hospitality from a lot of different angles. I’ve worked in Michelin-starred restaurants where every detail was considered, founded burger restaurants, created a large-scale street food market, led food and beverage operations across multiple venues and spent years helping hospitality and drinks brands grow through strategy and positioning. On paper, those businesses couldn’t look more different. One relied on precision and ceremony, another on speed, energy and informality. Some were built around a special occasion, others around becoming part of someone’s weekly routine. But the longer I’ve worked in hospitality, the more convinced I’ve become that the fundamentals don’t really change.

People obviously remember great food, but food is only one part of what makes somewhere worth returning to. They remember the warmth of the welcome, the atmosphere, the generosity, the confidence of the team and the feeling that somebody genuinely cared about whether they had a good time. OpenTable’s 2026 research found that 39% of British diners consider atmosphere as important as the food and drink when choosing a restaurant, while 45% say they would pay more for a dining experience with a unique atmosphere or vibe. That’s a useful reminder that guest experience isn’t something that sits alongside the commercial side of the business; it is part of the commercial proposition.

One of the misconceptions I still see in hospitality is that high service standards automatically mean formal service. They don’t. Some of the best hospitality I’ve experienced has been in cafés, pubs, neighbourhood restaurants and casual dining rooms. Equally, I’ve been in beautifully designed restaurants serving technically brilliant food where the experience still felt cold. Great service is about being appropriate to the business. A two-Michelin-starred restaurant and a burger restaurant shouldn’t look or feel the same, but both can make the guest feel recognised, comfortable and looked after. That principle has stayed with me throughout my career. The execution changes. The fundamentals don’t.

That matters even more now because people are becoming increasingly selective about where they spend their money. OpenTable reports that dining out in Britain increased by 4% year-on-year in 2025, while 49% of British diners expected to spend more on restaurants in 2026. Separate UKHospitality research found that 65% of consumers still regarded eating and drinking out as a priority, despite ongoing pressure on household finances. To me, that suggests people haven’t stopped valuing hospitality; they’re simply making more deliberate choices about where they go and what feels worth paying for. And that makes mediocrity increasingly difficult to hide.

Operators can spend a huge amount of time thinking about menus, interiors, technology and marketing. All of those things matter, but some of the highest-impact improvements are surprisingly simple. A better briefing before service. Clearer expectations. Giving a team member enough confidence to solve a problem without finding a manager. Remembering a regular’s drink. Noticing that someone is in a hurry. Recognising when a table wants attention and when they want to be left alone. None of those things are particularly glamorous, but collectively they create the feeling of being looked after. And that is usually what brings people back.

There’s also a tendency, especially when margins are under pressure, to think of efficiency and hospitality as separate things. I don’t think they are. Better systems, forecasting, technology and workflows can make a huge difference to profitability and consistency, but the best operational systems should remove friction behind the scenes so the team has more capacity to be hospitable in front of the guest. A smoother operation isn’t just cheaper to run. It should also feel better to visit. That distinction is important, because guests don’t see the rota, the supplier negotiations or the margin analysis. They experience the result of those decisions.

The hospitality businesses I remember most strongly are rarely trying to be everything to everyone. They understand what they are good at. Their service style fits the concept. Their teams know what’s expected. Their menus make sense. Their atmosphere feels intentional. Most importantly, the experience feels coherent. That coherence can exist at every level of the market, from a brilliant £15 lunch to a £250 tasting menu. Value isn’t simply about price; it’s about whether the experience feels worth it. OpenTable’s 2026 research also found that 40% of Brits consider restaurants, cafés, bars or pubs to be an important “third place” outside home and work, which says a lot about the wider emotional and social role hospitality still plays.

I’ve always believed we can sometimes make hospitality sound more complicated than it needs to be. At its heart, it’s still about looking after people and giving them a good time. The complicated part is building a business that allows that to happen consistently while remaining profitable, keeping a team engaged and navigating all the operational realities that sit behind it. That’s where good systems, clear standards and strong leadership matter. Because ultimately, guests don’t see the machinery behind the business. They feel the outcome. And after more than twenty years in hospitality, that’s still the thing I think matters most.