Hospitality PR that fills bookings and brings people through the door
Prohibition is a hospitality PR agency in Leeds working with restaurant groups, bars, leisure destinations and visitor attractions across the UK. We plan every campaign around footfall, bookings or covers. Our City Beach pop-up for The Light in Leeds lifted centre footfall 11% year on year and added £18,000 in revenue.
Clients that trust us for Hospitality PR
What should hospitality PR deliver for your venue?
More people booking, visiting and spending. Coverage matters only when it moves one of those numbers, so Prohibition agrees the commercial measure with you before we plan anything, whether that is covers, bookings, footfall or tenant spend.
The Light is a leisure destination in Leeds city centre with restaurants, bars and a cinema, and one of our longest-standing clients. Families were not thinking of it as a summer day out. For the 2022 school holidays we worked with Leeds City Council to put a free beach outside the doors, with deckchairs, tenant food and drink stands and live music.
More than 2,000 people visited City Beach. Footfall across the centre rose 11% on the year before, and revenue grew by £18,000.
How do you get a restaurant group fully booked?
Give diners a reason to book this month. Thai Leisure Group, which runs Chaophraya and Thaikhun, wanted Gen Z diners through its doors. Most people in the UK have never heard of Songkran, Thai New Year, so we brought the world’s biggest water fight here.
A water fight stunt, a hosted dinner for media and creators, and 22 creator posts earned 10 national pieces of coverage and 20M circulation. The restaurants were fully booked during the campaign.
For Thaikhun’s Freshers’ Week push in Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge, we offered students a free meal and ran a tuk-tuk from campus to the restaurant. Coverage in the Manchester Evening News, Yahoo News and MSN reached 33M people, and 248 students signed up.
Can a pop-up bar really drive footfall and spend?
Yes, if it gives people something they want to photograph and share. When The Light wanted to be seen as a food and drink destination rather than a shopping centre, we built Starks Tavern for the new Game of Thrones series, with an official throne, actors and themed cocktails.
Offices in Leeds could tweet the campaign hashtag to book a direwolf visit, and 40 did. The campaign trended at number one in Leeds, 800 people came on launch night, 120% more than a usual Friday, and the night took £9,000.
After the first lockdown we turned the rules into the attraction. Dining at a Distance let households book their own dome, and every slot sold out across three weekends.
“A venue launch only works if people have a reason to come this weekend. Give the press a picture and give the public an easy yes, then measure who walked through the door.”Chris Norton, Founder and Managing Director, Prohibition
How do you launch a new venue or attraction?
Build a run of stories in the weeks before the doors open, then use the opening as the final one. Stockeld Park, near Wetherby, opened the Playhive in July 2022: 20,000 square feet of indoor play.
We hired four Yorkshire children as the Play Panel. They applied by video, tested the Playhive before anyone else and cut the ribbon. The job advert, the winners, the test day and the opening each earned coverage, 78 pieces in all with 4.5M combined reach and more than 100 pieces of influencer content.
What does Prohibition do for hospitality brands?
Press, social, influencers, events and video from one team in Leeds, so the launch, the photos and the paid push all tell the same story.
- Press office: regional and national media, food and drink critics, and trade titles.
- Launches and pop-ups: openings, new menus, seasonal events and experiential stunts.
- Influencers and creators: local food, family and lifestyle creators who match your guests.
- Social and paid social: content made by our in-house team, then targeted at the people most likely to book.
- Video and photography: filmed on site by our own production team.
- Reputation and crisis: review monitoring and fast, calm responses when something goes wrong.
Looking for restaurant-only PR? See our restaurant PR agency page. For drinks brands supplying the on-trade, see PR for drinks brands.
How do you measure hospitality PR results?
We report against the AMEC framework, which separates outputs, out-takes and outcomes. Coverage and reach are outputs. Sign-ups and social engagement are out-takes. Outcomes are the numbers you care about: bookings, covers, footfall and spend.
One lesson from our own case studies is to agree tracking before launch. For Songkran we know the restaurants were full, but we could not say how many bookings came from the campaign itself. We now set up booking codes, footfall counts or tenant spend tracking with every venue at the start.
How much does hospitality PR cost?
Prohibition works with hospitality brands in two ways: a monthly retainer for an always-on press office, or a fixed fee for a launch, pop-up or seasonal campaign. The price depends on how many venues you have, how many media moments you need, and whether you add events, influencers, paid social or video. We give you a written quote after a first call.
How long does hospitality PR take to work?
A well-built launch or stunt can fill a venue within days, as Starks Tavern did on its first night. Regional coverage usually lands within the first month. Seasonal stories run on longer lead times: Christmas features are pitched in the summer. Give an always-on programme at least three months before judging it.
Is Prohibition the right hospitality PR agency for you?
A good fit
Restaurant groups, bars, leisure destinations and visitor attractions that want PR tied to bookings or footfall, and that will share the numbers so we can prove what worked. Our clients include The Light, Thai Leisure Group, Chaophraya, Thaikhun and Stockeld Park.
Probably not the right fit
A single independent café or bar with a very small budget will get better value from a freelance PR or a short local project. And if you want a guaranteed review from a named critic, no honest agency can promise that.
Prohibition is a previous PRCA Agency of the Year and a member of the Worldcom PR Group, with 45+ industry awards.
Questions hospitality brands ask us
Do you work with hotels as well as restaurants and bars?
Yes. Our published hospitality case studies are mostly restaurant groups, bars, leisure destinations and attractions, and the same launch, press and creator methods apply to hotels. Tell us about your property and we will show you the most relevant work.
Do you only work with venues in Leeds and Yorkshire?
No. Prohibition is based in Leeds and works across the UK. Our Thaikhun campaign ran in Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Songkran campaign earned national coverage.
Can you help with a new opening?
Yes. We plan a run of stories in the weeks before the doors open, as we did for the Stockeld Park Playhive, then support the opening with press, creators and social.
How do you handle bad reviews or a crisis?
We monitor reviews and social conversation, help you respond quickly and calmly, and handle difficult media enquiries. See our crisis management service for more.
Talk to Prohibition about your venue
Tell us about your venue, who you want through the door and what you have tried before. We will give you an honest view of what PR can do for it. Prefer to talk? Call us on 0113 430 4160.
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