Help Our Hospitality: Four in a Bed winners see revenue growth despite energy bills trebling

According to Monday night’s BBC News at Six, new figures show 4,500 hospitality venues have shut down in Britain over the past year alone.

With this equating to around 12 closures per day, shining a light on the hospitality industry and the businesses who deserve to be championed has never been more important.

One venue still going strong is The World’s End in Northampton Road, Ecton and owner Andrew Chapman spoke to the Chronicle & Echo for this week’s Help Our Hospitality campaign coverage.

Having appeared on Channel 4’s Four in a Bed in February and taking home the top spot, Andrew described The World’s End as doing well at the moment.

Andrew has owned the rural bed and breakfast, which has a fresh food restaurant, bar and 22 rooms to let, for 16 years.

His son Chris, who joined his father on the popular Channel 4 show, has worked as the operations manager for the past 13 years – joining Andrew three years into his venture.

Andrew, who has a long history in the hospitality industry, said: “We’ve got a double digit turnover growth compared to pre-pandemic levels, and we’re running on four percent up compared to this time last year.

“Four in a Bed was great for us as we saw a huge spike in our business through social media.”

The venue experienced a 693 percent increase in traffic across all platforms following their appearance on the show, with its Facebook page exceeding 102,000 views two days after their winning episode was aired.

“We still get people coming in after seeing us on the show and it’s allowed us to attract a lot of new faces,” added Andrew.

However, like many other businesses in the hospitality industry, Andrew says they have concerns over what is going on outside of their control – such as inflation, energy costs and mortgage interest rates impacting customers’ disposable income.

The bed and breakfast has seen its energy prices treble from £2,500 a month to more than £8,000 and Andrew says “there is nothing you can do to claw that back”.

When asked what he believes The World’s End does that keeps visitors coming back for more, Andrew said: “Our vision is to constantly refresh and look at new ideas.

“We maintain the standard of our fresh food operation and we serve no frozen food.

“It also comes down to the longevity and friendliness of our staff. We’re a family-run business and we like to look after and keep hold of our staff.”

The World’s End has worked hard to build its reputation over the past 16 years and the plan now is to “keep the momentum going for as long as they can”.

With the hope that food prices will reduce and take the pressure off, as well as mortgage interest rates coming down, Andrew hopes consumers will have more money to spend.

One recent and positive change the venue has seen is more people over the age of 55 visiting – which has only now seen a growth because of the caution caused by the pandemic.

Despite the fact that lockdown restrictions were eased some time ago, it is only now that some people feel ready and comfortable to visit restaurants and dine out.

As Andrew has worked in the hospitality industry since he trained for three years at catering college, we asked him what changes he has noticed over the decades.

“People demand more now than they used to in the eighties and nineties,” he said. “The standard of service and quality has increased dramatically.

“A lot more people also dine out more now than thirty to forty years ago.”

After buying The World’s End in 2006, Andrew and the team had a clear vision for the venue as they conducted research into what the local area was missing.

Having worked in Milton Keynes, the Midlands and the Cotswolds, it was important they familiarised themselves with the new area.

As a result, the venue successfully found a gap in the market – placing itself in the middle of family dining venues and destination fine dining.

Andrew noticed there was a high density of family venues with deals like two meals for £10, as well as extreme fine dining locations – which he says dropped off following the financial crisis in 2009.

“We pitched The World’s End as restaurant quality food served in a pub environment,” he said. “We’re all about home cooked meals made with fresh ingredients.”

As this has proved successful for them over the years, the team has simply tweaked their offering in line with trends – and will continue doing this moving forward.

The father and son duo were pleased to have been praised for their “value for money” offering by their competitors on Four in a Bed – Duplex Relocations in Bradford and Taypark House in Dundee.

Their stays of up to £85 per night including breakfast saw them take home 100 percent of their final bill total – and their winning plaque, which takes pride of place in the foyer, still attracts new visitors.

The World’s End now boasts a healthy 6,400 followers on Facebook alone and Andrew hopes they will maintain the additional popularity they have seen off the back of the show.

If you would like to see your venue featured as part of the Chronicle & Echo’s Help Our Hospitality campaign, email [email protected].