The responses from 900 people surveyed by mystery dining and customer feedback specialist HospitalityGEM about their bank holiday habits revealed that 77 per cent of people plan to visit a pub or restaurant on the 25, 26 or 27 May with Sunday likely to be the busiest.
Pubs with gardens or restaurants offering al fresco dining could be the biggest winners with the highest percentage of those surveyed - 27 per cent - claiming they would be heading somewhere with a garden.
Friends and family recommendations and value for money were also top of mind for most consumers with 24 per cent saying they planned to go somewhere recommended by someone they knew and 19 per cent saying 'somewhere inexpensive' was their deciding factor.
Valuable insight
HospitalityGEM director Steve Pike said he hoped the insight would be valuable for the industry when it came to planning ahead for the extended weekend.
“The first step for a successful business is always to understand its customer base, and it’s more important now than ever in an age of fierce competition in the hospitality industry and at a time when customer feedback can make or break a business," he said.
“The 900 feedback forms we received over the last bank holiday gave us significant insights into customer behaviour and expectations, and confirm that it really is time to cash in."
While rain is forecast for much of the UK over the next two days, drier and warmer weather is forecast for Saturday and Sunday with temperatures expected to reach a high of 19C in southern England on Sunday, according to weather reports.
With the bank holiday weekend leading into schools' half-term holiday, Pike said operators could also expect a busy week.
“The spending could well spill over into the following half-term week, so our advice to businesses would be to make sure that family-friendly dining is high on the agenda for the rest of May, and to ensure that standards don’t slip with the higher turnover of customers," he added.