How do stags and hen dos benefit the trade?
Despite stag and hen nights having somewhat of a bad reputation, not all involve pink veils, L-plates and rowdy behaviour.
Licensees could, in fact, benefit from these notorious nights.
Big spenders
The survey carried out by myracing.com revealed Brits turn into big spenders on stag and hen dos with an average personal spend of one in 10 climbing higher than £500.
Men are the biggest spenders with an average of £218 spent per stag do, compared to £201 spent by women on hen dos while almost a third (27%) of Brits don’t expect to pay anything for a stag or hen do.
North Laine Brewhouse manager Adam Smith said up to 20% of income is from stag and hen events, with parties of up to a 150-capacity coming into the Brighton venue every Saturday.
Smith said: “People coming from London and other outside areas who don’t know the pub can see what else we offer.
“People can see were not just a normal pub, we’re a brewery as well. And we also provide activities such as our new axe throwing, bottomless brunch and our ice cream truck.
“It’s a self-advertiser for the pub.”
Top locations
Research into what is top of Britain's wish lists reveals that long-haul trips are not a popular choice with many happy to see their single status off closer to home.
Four of the top 10 locations for stags and hen dos are in the UK.
London is first with 11%, followed by Brighton at 6%, Liverpool takes 5% and Edinburgh 4%.
Brighton-based bar crawl, On the Rocks, leads many stags and hen dos around the pubs and bars in the East Sussex seaside city.
General manager Ryan Holdsworth said: “Of course, let’s not ignore the elephant in the room.
“Stag and hen dos do have a reputation for being somewhat unruly and our private ones have, on occasion, fallen slightly short of being a shining beacon of exceptionalism to this rule.”
Holdsworth does admit, however, that there are many advantages that can be brought to pubs and bars that host these events.
An apparent advantage
He continued: “The most readily apparent advantage of having a crawl regularly visit a venue is the increased drinks sales.
“We find that with very few exceptions our customers buy at least one or two drinks in each venue, often more.
“They’re guaranteed to have their profit margin increase if that’s what they’re aiming for.”
Holdsworth added the crawls also boost the amount of people in the pub earlier in the night and this helps avoid a situation where other customers walk in and turn back out straight away after seeing an empty venue.
