Why Cleanliness Can Make or Break A Pub’s Reputation

We Asked AI… and the Truth Hurts

We at Hops and Barley are always curious about what makes about what makes good pubs stand out, what makes people stay home and what stops perfectly good ideas in their tracks. We’re practically evangelical about pubs building communities, and we’re always here to help innovative businesses bring their offering to the world. But sometimes businesses can’t help but shoot themselves in the foot, and that can be painful to watch as often its the little details that are easily sorted.

We asked AI to trawl through trip adviser reviews, hygiene reports and trade press to find out what triggers someone to leave a bad review. We sampled the negative reviews of over 500 pubs and analysed around 5000 reviews to find the answer. The largest reason is one of the simplest. Cleanliness, in particular dirty toilets and sticky tables were buzzwords in a vast cross section of bad reviews.

Here’s the hit list of the top reasons people slate pubs online:

• Cleanliness & hygiene – More than 30% of reviews… and in many cases, the dealbreaker.
• Food quality – Poor food quality goes hand in hand with poor reviews. 19% of complaints.
• Slow or inattentive service – 17%.
• Value for money – 9% reckon they paid too much for what they got.
• Atmosphere issues – 20% grumble about noise, vibe, or décor.

Food and service might seem like big headlines, but cleanliness is the silent assassin. Customers might tolerate a slow pint if they see you’re really busy and your staff are rushed off their feet. They’re slower forgive lipstick on their glass, a sticky table or an awful loo.

Cleanliness Hits Right in The Face

31% of UK pub-goers have walked out of a pub over poor hygiene issues. One in Three people have chosen to up and leave a place at some point if the establishment isn’t up to scratch.

Of the bad reviews we analysed we found some of the following highlights as to why these indelible reminders of customer dissatisfaction were left.

• 53% of them did so because of dirty toilets.
• 49% couldn’t get past grimy tables.
• 44% had enough after sticking to the floor.
• Other Highlights include:
• Off putting Smells
• Filthy Glassware
• Sediment Floating in Drinks

Even with 74% of pubs getting a perfect 5 on hygiene scores, around 2–3% fail — and those failures live forever on Google.

These issues literally hit customers right in the face. Customer experience isn’t just about a smile at the till and speedy service. Cleanliness issues assault a person’s senses in 3 different ways. Nobody wants to walk in to the stench of the toilets. They don’t want to feel sticky underfoot and they don’t want walk through the door to see a mess of unclean tables and dirty glasses. Aside from a sense of satisfaction customers have 5 other senses that need to be considered! Sound, Touch, Smell, Sight and Taste all factor in to how your customer feels.

What “Clean” Really Means to a Customer

If a customer claims that your pub is dirty then they’re rarely going to mince words, and they’re certainly not going to nit-pick. Not only that they’ve probably got a list of things they’re not happy with. If you’re honest you’ve probably seen or said these yourselves.

• “Toilets were filthy.”
• “Sticky tables everywhere.”
• “Glass still had lipstick on it from the last person.”
• “Smelled like damp the minute you walked in.”
• “Tables haven’t been cleared for ages”

Its about showing that you care, not just about germs, but about your customers and your pub in general. If you can’t find the time to clean the toilet, then nobody who goes in there is going to care as much about what they do in there quite as much as they normally would. And that stacks up and up until you’re left with wet floors and blocked toilets.

“If your toilets are immaculate, customers will assume the rest of your pub is too. If they’re grim, nothing else matters.”

We saw plenty of reviews that proved it. Glowing praise for the food and drink offering — then a tanked star rating because the loos were “unusable.”

The Publican’s Guide to Staying Spotless

The good news is that this is something that you can control. While it seems like a lot and a bit of a pain in the backside particularly when you’re busy, it’s worth investing in to make sure that your busy pub doesn’t get out of control and turn into a busy mess! In fact when your busiest is when this focus matters most!

Whenever you get the chance, particularly when its busy, go outside and walk back in through your own front door. What do you see and smell? Walk to your bar, is it straight forward or do you stick to the floor dodging awkwardly placed tables. Pick a table at random and sit down. What state is the table in, do the legs wobble, is it sticky, are the beer mats all tattered and soggy?

• Make Cleaning Visible – Customers love seeing staff wipe tables or polish glasses. It screams “we care.”
• Own Your Toilets – Check them every 30–60 minutes when it’s busy. Top up loo roll. Bin the paper towels. Neutralise smells.
• Never Serve a Dirty Glass – One lipstick mark and you’ve lost them. Check before pouring.
• Kill the Sticky Table Curse – Wipe after every customer. Don’t just move the menus and hope for the best.
• Train Everyone to Care – Cleanliness is everyone’s job — not just the cleaner’s. There are loads of innovative ways to help make everyone accountable for your clubs cleanliness. Whether it’s incentivising staff who clear the most tables, sign the toilet check list most or rewarding the most diligent you can motivate staff to help.
• Shout About Your 5-Star Hygiene – Got the rating? Show it off on menus, social media, and near the bar. Believe it or not these things matter to people, the last thing you want is to appear in the local press’s annual rundown of eateries without a 5 Star Rating!
• Drink your own product! – Don’t get me wrong we’re not advocating getting sloshed every lunchtime at the bar, but quality control is a very real thing. In almost every industry across the country there are quality controls and check lists and your pub is no different.

Final Word

There’s good news! This is 100% in your control, it just takes a little bit of elbow grease and a little bit of planning and you can make a huge difference to your pub’s atmosphere and the experience for your customer.