November 2025 landed like that first genuinely cold week, the one that forces everyone to admit Christmas is not “upcoming”, it’s here. While teams were trying to lock festive rota gaps and chase party deposits, the industry got a reminder that government, councils and landlords all want a slice of the same December pound.

The big surprise was how quickly “visitor levy” went from theory to something operators can price into a P&L.

Hotels and holiday parks just got a new line on the bill

The accommodation end of hospitality had a busy November, and not the fun kind. Scotland passed visitor levy legislation, with Edinburgh launching its scheme next summer, and Glasgow and Aberdeen following in 2027. Wales introduced a tourist tax too, but with local authorities having to opt in, so operators now face a patchwork, not a policy.

Liverpool makes it real

In Liverpool, the government upheld the city’s £2 overnight visitor charge, clearing the way for a claimed £9m investment in the city. That is the key operator takeaway, levies do not arrive as “extra admin”, they arrive as a price conversation at the desk, on OTAs, and in online reviews when the bill lands.

Business rates are the bigger shock

Then there’s rates. Whitbread is expecting a £40m to £50m increase in business rates following the Budget changes. Travelodge also warned about wage and tax pressure, plus a “tourist tax” and a new surtax on larger commercial properties. When accommodation gets more expensive, the customer experience expectations do not go down, they go up, and your guests will absolutely blame you for costs that were set in Westminster or Holyrood.

Pubs are still investing, but only where the format stacks up

Away from hotels, pubs spent November doing what pubs always end up doing in tough cycles, tweaking the format rather than waiting for demand to magically return. Marston’s said it will accelerate growth of its new pub formats with at least 50 conversions this year, alongside a 71.3% jump in underlying full-year profit to £72.1m. That isn’t a “nice to have” refresh programme, that’s an admission that the old blueprint is not delivering the same return.

There was a quieter but just as important proof point in managed versus leased models. Upham Inns completed the integration of its 14-pub acquisition of Oakman Inns & Restaurants and reported 7.5% like-for-like sales growth across its core estate. Integration is where deals either pay off or turn into permanent firefighting, and in publand the guest rarely cares what your organisational chart looks like. They care whether the menu is the same, the toilets are clean, and the team can handle a Saturday lunch without looking panicked.

The pattern to watch is capex being aimed at “repeatable upgrades”, kitchens, outside space, clearer offers, rather than grand reinventions that need perfect staffing to work.

Competitive socialising keeps swallowing the high street

If 2024 was “competitive socialising is trendy”, November 2025 was “it’s becoming structured capital.” Ten Entertainment Group bought Fairgame in a deal valued at about £40m. That’s a serious marker that experiential leisure is being treated as a scalable play, not a one-off London gimmick.

Deals follow density

At the same time, Red Engine lined up its 15th UK Flight Club site, heading to Newcastle. These concepts still love big footfall locations with office spillover, transport links, and weekend tourism. London remains the engine room, but the push into regional cities like Newcastle is where the operational challenge bites, because you cannot “London your way” out of regional labour markets, local competition, and different spend patterns.

The night-time economy is trying to get permission to grow

Add in Westminster City Council talking about turning Oxford Street into a nightlife destination with new night-time zones, and you can see the argument forming: councils want evening activity, but operators need licensing that is consistent and workable. This is where guest feedback becomes political, because noise, queues, dispersal and door policy are lived experiences that end up on Google reviews, not in consultation documents.

Turnarounds are the new normal, and customers can smell them

While pubs and leisure talked growth, casual dining and food-to-go looked more like a trading floor, brands being bought, reshaped, and put back on the market quickly.

Leon being repurchased by co-founder John Vincent is a proper statement, not a minor refinancing. He also moved fast on simplification, confirming Leon will end its coffee subscription service, Roast Rewards, by the end of 2025. Subscriptions sound clever until the operation underneath is stretched, then they become a discount engine that irritates customers when redemption is awkward or quality is inconsistent.

Then there’s TGI Fridays UK, which is now officially up for sale with advisers appointed, just a month after its acquisition by Sugarloaf TGIF Management. The business includes 49 sites and employs nearly 2,000 people. In the same month, the operator brought in a new management team, including Giles Fry as COO and Jonathan Grenville Grey as operations director. That combination, “new leadership, then a sale process,” tells operators exactly where the pressure sits: leases, labour cost, and the need to rebuild customer satisfaction quickly enough to make the numbers credible.

Finally, Pret A Manger scrapping self-service coffee machines is a small operational story with a big subtext. Brands are quietly stepping away from anything that adds friction, policing, or maintenance burden, because front-line time is now more valuable than marginal speed gains.

The thread through all of this is not “growth versus decline.” It’s that hospitality is being pushed into tighter definitions, either you have a model that holds up under higher tax and wage costs, or you simplify, convert, sell, or get bought.

Where measurement matters

When levies and rates add cost, and conversions and acquisitions add complexity, the fastest route to margin damage is guessing what guests are reacting to. A structured programme of Online Reviews Monitoring lets multi-site operators see whether complaints spike around “hidden charges”, queue times, or service tone as pricing shifts land. Pair that with Reporting & Dashboards and you can track customer satisfaction by city, format and week, which is exactly what you need when Edinburgh, Liverpool and London are all moving in different regulatory directions.

December trading will tell us which operators have priced and staffed for reality, and which ones are hoping footfall does the heavy lifting. If you’d like a sample report or a quick chat about what’s possible, get in touch.