The next squeeze on hospitality won’t be loud - but it’s coming

Something unusual is happening in hospitality right now. Not gradually, not evenly, but in a way that’s setting the sector apart from the rest of the economy.

Over 85% of hospitality businesses are worried about energy costs - more than double the national average. That alone is eye-catching. But the real story sits underneath the numbers.

A large share of pubs, restaurants and hotels are about to lose the protection of fixed energy deals they locked in after the 2022 crisis. As those contracts expire over the coming months, costs won’t spike overnight, but they’ll creep up, quietly, operator by operator.

That’s what makes this moment so important:

👉 It’s not a shock event

👉 It’s a slow, rolling squeeze that many won’t see coming until it hits

And just as operators are dealing with that pressure, they’re also facing a more subtle challenge - what customers actually want from hospitality.

A small but telling moment involving Wetherspoon’s app sparked a bigger question:

Are we making venues more efficient… at the expense of what made them worth visiting in the first place?

Because here’s the tension:

• Some customers want speed, ease, and zero friction

• Others want conversation, atmosphere, and human connection

And increasingly, businesses are being forced to choose between them.

This week’s issue connects the hard economics with the softer (but critical) question of experience. Rising costs on one side. Fragmented customer expectations on the other.

It’s a combination that could define the next phase of the sector.

Read the full story