With over a decade of experience in tech-enabled marketing, including building an agency from 0 - £150,000 MRR without investment, Duncan has also worked in-house at a variety of startups in private healthcare and professional services before becoming a co-founder of hoo. Keen on disrupting industry norms, he applies his broad commercial skillset to bringing hoo's fairer OTA model to new audiences on both the hotel and the visitor side.

Co-Founder

Duncan McKenna

Revolutionary Hotel Booking Platform Unveils Game-Changing Feature: Make an Offer

Justhooit.com , a brand new digital hotel booking platform that gives access to discounted hotel rooms through cutting edge technology is eyeing aggressive growth in London off the back of its latest fundraising round.

The platform is built around an innovative ‘Make an Offer’ feature which enables value-savvy consumers to bid directly to over 500 hotels in London by naming their price- to unlock unbeatable prices for hotel rooms, transforming the way they experience travel.

With thousands of offers already made, resulting in discounts of up to 40%, justhooit is poised to transform the way customers book their hotels online.

Justhooit, which also enables users to book rooms at list price has been boosted with £1m funding from a combination of existing investors and High Net Worth individuals- and will look to invest in a London-focused marketing campaign to drive awareness of its unique proposition.

The platform has an extensive network of partner hotels across London from cozy boutiques to luxurious Five Star hotels and everything in between.

"We want to revolutionise the way people experience travel; we know consumers are looking for value more than ever in these cash challenged times so with ‘Make an Offer’ we are enabling our customers to unlock unique prices - and experience a sense of adventure and thrill during their hotel booking process,” said Adrian Murdock, Justhooit.com’s CEO.

Alongside London, justhooit.com has an expanding inventory of hotels across the UK and is planning to broaden its network to include Europe in the coming months.

Justhooit.com Lands in London

Twixmas travel has risen in popularity over the last few years; let’s explore what it is, why it matters to hotel owners, and how to approach this rise in demand to benefit your hotel. 

What Is Twixmas? Twixmas is the period when people are stuffed full with Christmas dinner, the kids are slowly but surely getting bored of the presents Santa brought, and parents are tidying up empty boxes. Extended families that came to stay are on the roading fighting through traffic to get home and everyone is experiencing the lull that exists between Christmas Day and New Year. 

The word itself originates from betwixt which means between so it fits quite nicely with this idea. How popular is Twixmas? Well, a quick look at the Google trends will show that searches for this keyphrase tend to balloon around November. This means that before people even manage to get through the festive season of celebrations they are thinking about how to spend their time after the presents have been opened. 

How Can You Encourage Christmas Travel As A Hotel Owner? 

Marketing is always going to be key when encouraging travellers to commit to the idea of ‘Twixmas.’ Sure, the idea of having a lovely rest before New Year sounds great, but what about enjoying that break in a luxury hotel? Instead of heading back to work, why not head away for a week and start again after New Year? These are the ideas that hotels and travel companies should be pushing if they want customers to embrace this period. 

Marketing needs to be more creative than the typical campaign. In 2018, 250,000 households on the mainland received postcards encouraging them to visit the Isle of Wight during the twixmas break. Crucially, these postcards were sent out on Boxing Day 2017, bringing a whole new meaning to ‘early Christmas advertising.’ Another 250,000 emails were sent out as well encouraging families to come enjoy some late festive celebrations on the island. The cards and emails specifically mentioned the exciting possibilities that families would be able to explore and the potential options that were available for hotel stays. 

This campaign was a success because it tackled the lull that customers were likely feeling while also giving them some unique ideas on how they could spend their ‘twixmas’ break. 

You might think that a good discount will lure customers into the comfort of a hotel in the gap between Christmas and New Year. However, don’t be so sure because polls suggest that customers want a little more than a great price these days. 
Furthermore, competing with price could cause you to lose your unique value proposition. If you drop your prices, then you’ll be basing the new price on what competitors are charging for their own twixmas deals. The problem is that they may not be offering the same value of service. As such, you could end up undercharging customers and lose out on revenue. You could also become engaged in a dreaded price war where there are never any real winners. 

Changing the price will also mean that you attract low-price guests. This isn’t an issue in the short term but in the long term it will mean you’ll never gain their loyalty. They will always be loyal to the company that can offer the lowest price. 

Instead of relying on discounts and offers to keep occupancy high around this time, you should consider opting for a more personalised approach. This could be based on highlighting the USP of your hotel so that guests understand why they should stay there during the ‘twixmas’ break. 

Ideally, you need to make sure that you are treating your customers as individuals rather than lumping them all into one group looking to save as many pennies as possible. The best kept secret of customers is that they’ll always be willing to pay a little more if a company is delivering the right value. 

There are lots of different ways that you can customise the options that you bring to the table for your customers. You need to find the model that works for your business. 

As you can see, “Twixmas” presents a great opportunity for hotel owners who are interested in bringing bored and drained customers out of their homes after festive celebrations are over. This doesn’t have to be a slow or quiet period for your business. You just need to understand what customers are looking for when they book a trip like this and hopefully understand there’s a little more to it than just a low price. 

The Rise of Twixmas Travel

...including why they suck, and why the industry can (and should) do better in order to stay competitive and sustainable, especially in an economic downturn!

There are few hoteliers that aren’t familiar with booking.com and its many subsidiaries. In the world of hospitality there are 2 dominant players in the online hotel booking game; Booking Holdings (BKNG) and Expedia Group (EXPE). These 2 behemoths have spent the last couple of decades buying up competitors and consolidating their positions as the pre-eminent distribution solutions for hotels online.

63% of all travel bookings are made online and every hotelier knows that a majority of that is happening on platforms owned by these 2 corporations. Ironically,, most guests don’t know that when they book using Agoda, Kayak, Getaroom, Priceline, HotelsCombined, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Trivago, or Wotif (among others) they are in fact just booking with with Booking Holdings or Expedia group.

Old news right, so why is this important? Well, it demonstrates how broken this model has become. A market that creates the false impression of choice is no market at all - the competitive dynamics that drive innovation and value simply don’t exist.

All this results in a raw deal for hotels (not to mention guests) that has seen costs of sale increase, control of pricing and booking conditions becoming harder to manage, and a dizzying number of ‘competing’ schemes thrust upon hoteliers in a unilateral fashion to maximise revenue for these intermediaries. What does this all mean? Well, commission, lots of it, and charged in even more complicated ways to obscure the real cost and to increase dependency on these platforms.

This should be simple to understand, yet it is anything but. The scale and complexity of how booking.com’s various commission structures work is labyrinthine.

Let’s start with the basics. As a hotel you’re going to pay a fixed commission of anywhere between 15-25% of the gross booking value, including VAT (except in territories where that is specifically excluded). This doesn’t provide any preferential placement in a guests search results or any added value to the hotel, it’s just to be listed.

If the hotel wants to be more visible to booking.com’s audience they could be paying a lot more. The Visibility Booster in the hotel’s extranet panel provides a wealth of options for how to get more eyeballs from booking’s huge user base, whether it’s based on itinerary, geography, length of stay etc. The trade being even higher commissions which can be north of 40% of the gross booking value. It’s a model that’s familiar to digital marketers as that’s pretty much how any auction-based ad platform works - want more, pay more.

So, whilst the costs are high, they’re simple and clear right? Wrong.

Where things start to get interesting (and that means more complex!) are when it comes to the “Programmes”. Let’s take a look at 3 of those most commonly suggested; Genius, Smart Flex Reservations, and Preferred Plus.

Probably the most common programme. Booking.com applies a discount to the list price of 10% and the hotel get’s increased visibility in search. This discounted price is exclusive for signed-in users of booking.com. However it is also the rate that often seems to appear as a promo rate on the booking.com-owned platform, Agoda, and other affiliates (although it’s worth noting that booking.com states this isn’t the case).

The claim here is that a hotel can pump their booking numbers through lows however the discount the user receives is simply added onto the hotel’s commission. So if a hotel is already paying 18%, add on the genius discount for a Level 1 guest, and suddenly the hotel is paying 28% commission for that booking. While this may be good for the guest, it certainly isn’t for the hotel who is effectively subsidising the cost of acquiring Genius members for booking.com whilst cannibalising their own direct sales. Remember - these users are being incentivised to be loyal to booking.com, even if they stay at your hotel, the likelihood is, if they return, they’ll do it via booking.com. Oh, and they also distribute Genius rates through their business channels so if a hotel has existing corporate rates negotiated they may find that booking.com is able to undercut them there too.

Bottom line, enabling Genius might pump bookings from booking.com and its sub-brands and affiliates but it’ll cost the hotel significantly and in many cases cannibalise a good percentage of direct bookings and repeat business.

Here’s a clever one. Booking.com claims that using Smart Flex Reservations helps hotels “generate bookings that you might not get otherwise”. Super! Well, it’s not quite that simple. 

Many hotels will sell a non-cancellable room cheaper than one that has a flexible cancellation policy for pretty obvious reasons - it’s guaranteed revenue versus slightly more that may or may not materialise. Smart Flex helps hotels sell more rooms by applying a flexible cancellation policy across all rates and then promises to fill those rooms if they are subsequently cancelled or reimburse the hotel the difference. It sounds great but look a little deeper and again it becomes problematic.

Let's work with an example: A hotel sells a standard double room at £120 per night with a flexible cancellation policy whilst offering the same room with a non-cancelable rate at £100. Makes sense. However with Smart Flex the £100 room is now flexible, meaning your £120 per night rate effectively ceases to exist. The hotel will still list it on their own site as £120 flexible rate but will be undercut again by the booking.com website. So, the hotel loses over 16% on the list price which when added together with the underlying 18% commission means the hotel is effectively paying 34% commission on the booking.

Again the winners here are booking.com because they get a rate that can’t be beaten by the hotel (or other OTAs) and the guest because they’ve paid the non-cancellable rate for full flexibility to cancel. Whilst booking promises to resell the room if cancelled they don’t guarantee that it won’t be subject to additional Genius discounts so a hotel could very quickly end up charged 43% of the original gross booking value. Ouch.

Here’s the final one we’re going to take a look at. So booking.com promises hotels a 60% boost in visibility and a 30% boost in bookings if they join Preferred Plus. Love it. How much?

Well, as always this is a little opaque but from the hotels I know who have looked at it in their extranet it appears to be between 3% and 5% additional per booking on top of their existing commission rate. Well, for a 30% uplift in bookings that might seem attractive but let's break it down a bit and try and understand how it can deliver on this.

So the guest incentive here is they get Travel Credits on their next booking at booking.com if they book with a Preferred Plus hotel. So the hotel is paying higher commission for increased visibility and bookings by paying to incentivise users to book again with booking.com. Again, it looks like hotels are footing the bill of booking.com’s loyalty programmes. According to this deepdive in PhocusWire, booking.com won’t provide any breakdown of how this increased visibility delivers in terms of bookings and simply means the hotel will be paying increased commission across all bookings without the hotel being able to measure its impact.

It’s pretty self-explanatory why this is less than ideal for hoteliers who are already at the sharp end of soaring energy prices and a staffing crisis. At a time when the macroeconomic climate means that consumers have less to spend on discretionary purchases it’s important that all service providers, including hotels, look for ways to improve value for their guests. At the same time, if too much value is stripped out of the sector then this essential and huge part of the global economy becomes unsustainable. 

The hospitality industry employs 1 in 10 people in the UK and this ratio is bigger in many other territories. Those people are an essential part of our economy and are also consumers themselves. Hotels need to sustain appropriate staffing levels, and pay sufficient salaries to ensure hospitality professionals can live good quality lives, contribute in  tax, and continue to run the businesses that are the lifeblood of many communities.

The truth is that the current hotel distribution model has a shelf-life, and I believe we’ve come to the point where it has expired. The reality is that Booking Holdings has built a business that is entirely dependent on scale with 34% of their revenue being spent on marketing, and a huge amount of that going directly to Google through its advertising platforms. As a result Booking Holding’s own margin per sale is pretty low andto make the huge profits they do requires them to process as many hotel bookings globally as possible. As a publicly traded company the scope to fundamentally shift its revenue model away from increasing commission is limited as ultimately the first responsibility is to deliver a dividend to shareholders. The problem is that beyond their unrivalled brand recognition, what they sell is effectively the same whether you buy it from them, the hotel directly, or one of their competitors. The vast majority of the tens of millions of bookings they process a week start with a high-cost digital ad. 

What’s left is a whole range of programmes that are narrowly focussed on building loyalty to booking.com into a guest’s purchase journey, and passing the cost of this on to hotels, which ultimately drives up prices for the consumer. If they were to achieve this loyalty and then provide more equitable fee structures to hotels then maybe it would be a good thing. The problem is commissions. Since the creation of distribution platforms like booking.com, commission rates have only ever gone in one direction - up. That means less revenue to hotels and higher costs to the consumers.

Doing things fundamentally differently. The current status quo locks hotels and distributors in a vicious cycle of a price war, where hotels have to try and police the distribution of their own inventory against their supposed partners. Hotels should live and die based on the quality of their offering, not on the amount of commission they’re willing to pay per booking.

With justhooit.com we’re pioneering a reinvention of hotel distribution from the ground up by offering a platform that IS fundamentally different for both hotels and guests. We offer guests something they can’t get anywhere else so they come back to us, and we charge hotels a fair commission of 5% to process the booking.

Our unique “Make an Offer” functionality means that hotels can now negotiate directly with prospective guests and agree a price that works for both parties, based on the specifics of the need. It’s effectively like having a dedicated reservations team empowered to make decisions that work for a hotels’ own revenue strategies but without any of the overheads, because this is all delivered automatically by our proprietary negotiation engine.

We do this by building relationships with each of the hotels on our platform. They understand that by having ultimate control of the price a booking transacts for they can flex when it suits them. It actually increases their revenue at the same time as offering their guest better value than they’ll ever get elsewhere. 

We do this transparently, not building in loads of opaque layers of distribution that means hotels don’t even know who sold their rooms or for what cost. We’re putting the ‘market’ back into the marketplace and making it fairer for everyone.

A Hotel Owner's Guide To Booking.com's Fees

Our latest research has found that promises of quarantine-free travel for those who have received both their COVID-19 vaccinations has failed to boost holidaymaker confidence for a trip abroad this summer. 

hoo’s foreign holiday intent tracker found that back in January, 88% of UK holidaymakers had no plans of heading abroad this summer. With talk of the travel ban lifting, this did fall to 65% in March, however, the latest results show that 90% of us will stick to our staycations in 2021. 

Just 10% of us are now planning a trip abroad despite the latest announcements that those with both COVID jabs will not have to quarantine even after visiting an amber list destination. 

Despite this latest reassurance from the government, hoo also found that 72% of those contemplating a foreign holiday will still stick to green list destinations when they do travel. 

However, the promise of a quarantine-free holiday has had one positive impact. A third (28%) of those asked stated that the ability to skip quarantine when they return home has made them more likely to get their COVID vaccinations sorted.

hoo's co-founder, Adrian Murdock, commented:

“There’s no doubt that last week’s announcement will have helped boost the hopes of the travel and tourism industry that some form of stability may return this summer. 

However, it seems as though more UK holidaymakers are sticking with their plans for another summer of staycations than they were in January, despite the removal of quarantine measures for those who have received both doses of their COVID vaccination. 

You can’t really blame them, to be honest, with many falling foul of an ever-changing traffic light list while on holiday, not to mention the additional hoops that need to be jumped through and the continued risk of catching COVID itself. 

While we’re all desperate to get away it seems as though the predominant choice will be to sit tight and enjoy the fantastic offerings on our doorstep for one more summer, at least.”

(results from a survey of 1,282 UK population carried out by hoo, 13th July 2021).

Quarantine-free holidays for double jab holidaymakers fail to boost intent to travel

We've created our own COVID-19 traffic light system for our most popular staycation destinations to give holidaymakers confidence when choosing a safe location for their summer break.

By analysing the rate at which English counties and regions are vaccinating their population against COVID-19, hoo has been able to highlight where the nation’s most vaccinated staycation destinations are based on the number of those to have received their full complete, double jab vaccination. 

By matching a traffic light colour to the percentage of people each place has vaccinated, COVID-19 risk levels can be clearly allocated.

42% - 58.9% vaccinated = Amber, medium risk

59%+ vaccinated = Green, relatively low risk

The current vaccination rate for the whole of England is 55.5%. Any locations that have reached a higher number than this are doing well and are quickly returning to a normal way of life with low risk levels. But those places that are yet to match the national average still present a risk for visitors. 

Sadly, very few of the UK’s major cities have jabbed enough of their populations to be given a green light, with 2nd vaccination levels well below the national average. Nowhere is this more true than in London and Manchester. 

In Manchester, only 37% of the population has so far been given two jabs, while in London it’s just under 41%. Both of these cities are major tourist attractions but, for the next few months, the COVID-19 risk remains higher than almost anywhere else in the country. 

Birmingham (44%), Liverpool (48%), and Newcastle (45%) are all under amber lights, doing slightly better than London and Manchester, but yet to reach that all important green light threshold.

There is good news for those of us who are looking specifically for an English seaside holiday. Skegness (72%), Margate (67%), Great Yarmouth (62%), and Bournemouth (60%) are all in the green light zone, making them some of the lowest risk places to visit in England. They all also happen to boast glorious beaches and endless adventure.

There are, however, some seaside locations that remain in the amber light bracket, such as Hastings on the south east coast where just 57% of the population has had the 2nd jab. Herne Bay and Hastings also currently sit within the amber classification where vaccination levels are concerned.

For holidaymakers who prefer the countryside over the seaside, there are plenty of green light options. 

Alnwick, Northumberland, has fully vaccinated 69% of the population, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and Tetbury in the Cotswolds have both reached 67%, while Nantwich, Cheshire, has hit 64%. These are some of the lowest risk UK countryside holiday destinations this summer.

hoo Co-founder, Adrian Murdock, commented:

“Fingers crossed, we’re finally coming to the end of this most difficult of times. It’s been a long 18 months and while we’re not out of the woods yet, we look to be well on our way. 

Foreign travel, however, remains very much in doubt for this summer with only a handful of countries being given the green light by the government with no guarantee that it will stay green for long.

Here in the UK, our vaccination programme has been going great guns, outperforming most larger countries around the world. This means that, while foreign holidays are off the table, a Great British holiday is very much in play. 

We’ve analysed England’s current vaccination levels and created our own traffic light system for staycation destinations this summer. And while there is always going to be an element of risk, high vaccination levels of 60% and up suggest that it’s at its lowest in these places.

We encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the amazing holidays that England has to offer - so long as you follow the guidelines and act with caution where necessary, this summer should be a time to remember for all the right reasons.”

Staycation-safety traffic light system shows which destinations are the safest this summer

Our latest research highlights which British seaside resorts can most accurately replace your European summer holiday location this year, and how much money can be saved in the process. 

By matching popular European beach holiday locations with their closest UK counterparts, hoo has revealed that British holiday-goers can save, on average, around 50% on their holiday costs by staying in the UK rather than travelling abroad. All while maintaining the vital ingredients they’re looking for in their preferred European holiday resort. 

While a European beach holiday costs an average of £397 per night, the average UK beach break costs just £206 per night, a saving of 48%.

The biggest savings are available to those who would normally choose an upmarket European holiday destination, a good example of which is Thira on the iconic and remarkably beautiful Greek island of Santorini. The average holiday here will cost you a whopping £590 per night.

The closest UK alternative is Salcombe, a stunning spot on the south coast of England, found in the protected South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A holiday here provides all the class and perks of Santorini, from world-class beaches to Michelin-starred restaurants, but costs a relatively affordable £191 per night, a saving of 68%. 

There are also great savings to be had for those who like to holiday in Positano on the Amalfi coast of Italy where the average break will cost £587 per night. The good news is that Portmeirion, in Wales, stage for the iconic 60s TV series, The Prisoner, offers a very similar kind of holiday for much less money. 

Sure, the sun might not be quite as hot in Wales, but the whole place was purpose-built to mirror the style of an Italian village and has a stunning beach to rival any European destination. A holiday in Portmeirion will cost £225 per night, offering a 62% saving compared to Positano

The rich and famous often choose to holiday in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and so lots of UK holidaymakers like to travel there, too, in order to share some of the star-studded sunshine. But a visit to Monte Carlo will cost you an average of £663 per night. 

The closest UK equivalent is Sandbanks, Poole, on England’s south coast, this time located in a spot informally known as Britain's Palm Beach which boasts some of the highest land value in the world.  A holiday here will cost an average of £320 per night - still pricey, but 52% less than Monte Carlo.

If your usual holiday destination is the hugely popular Benidorm, in Spain, you can save 50% by choosing instead to visit the closest UK equivalent. People tend to visit Benidorm in search of cheap and cheerful beach holidays with a keen focus on partying the night away. While the glorious Spanish sunshine is hard to replicate, Blackpool offers a great UK-based alternative to this affordable party vibe. 

And while the average Benidorm holiday will cost you £239 per night, a Blackpool equivalent costs just £120 per night.

For those who travel to Albufeira in Portugal for the famous long, sandy beaches, Great Yarmouth, on England’s east coast, is a good alternative thanks to its immense popularity and 15-miles of immaculate sandy beach. A holiday to Albufeira will cost an average of £341 per night, whereas Great Yarmouth will cost just £175 per night, a saving of 49%. 

“Britain’s beach resorts have been criminally overlooked for years now. The introduction of cheap flights and package holidays to Europe meant that those on a budget could still make their way to Spain or Portugal and so little notice has been given to our own remarkable destinations.

From Wales to Devon, and Norfolk all the way down to Brighton and Hastings, we have towns and resorts to rival anything you’ll find in Europe, and now that travel restrictions are stopping people from jumping on cheap flights, there is hope that our love for the British seaside will be reinvigorated, especially given how much more affordable it is to holiday at home rather than abroad. 

We’re already seeing a huge uptick in demand for holiday accommodation throughout the UK and vacancies are running out fast, but there are still plenty of opportunities to secure a great deal on a Great British holiday this summer. ”

Data sourced from Hoo, Booking.com and Expedia based on 2 adults and 2 children taking a seven-night holiday in August:

Britain’s Benidorm, Monte Carlo and Amalfi offering a far more affordable summer of fun

Our latest research has revealed which seaside towns offer the best chance of a summer staycation without the need to pack an umbrella. 

With foreign travel remaining uncertain for another year, it’s looking like a second summer of staycations for UK holidaymakers. Of course, the one uncertainty where a staycation is concerned is the Great British weather and having basked in a heatwave in recent weeks, recent downpours have reminded us of this unpredictability. 

On average across England and Wales, 938 millimetres of rain falls in a year. However, the good news is that hoo analysed rainfall across 51 major seaside towns and found that 90% of them come in below the national average.

The best bet for a rain-free staycation is Essex, home to the top three seaside towns with the lowest levels of rain per year. Southend-on-Sea ranks top with an average of just 515mm, with Clacton-on-Sea (549mm) and nearby Felixstowe (561mm) also offering the best chance of staying dry this summer. 

Further north, Cleethorpes sees an average of just 588mm of rainfall per year, with Herne Bay in Kent (593mm) also making the top five.

Other seaside staycation destinations with some of the lowest levels of rainfall include Margate, Whitley Bay, Skegness and Great Yarmouth. 

Watch out all those heading to Cornwall though. Surfers’ bolthole Newquay is one of three seaside towns with over 1,000mm of annual rainfall - 8% over the national average. Penarth in Wales is the wettest with 1,152mm of rainfall a year, with Morecambe (1,049) and Newquay (1,017) following close behind.  

Hoo's co-founder, Adrian Murdock, commented:

“If last summer taught us anything, it’s that we don’t have to board a plane to have an outstanding holiday by the beach and many of us will be rediscovering just how much Britain has to offer in this respect. 

Of course, the one spanner in the works of a great staycation is often the British weather and a week of rain can really dampen the holiday mood. 

The good news is that the vast majority of British seaside towns are home to below-average levels of rainfall and so fingers-crossed it turns out to be a great couple of months ahead. But a trip to the seaside wouldn’t be the same without a little bit of drizzle and if the worst comes to the worst, another British institution can provide refuge while it rains - the pub.”

Table shows the average annual rainfall across seaside towns in England and Wales. Rainfall data sourced from the Met Office. Largest seaside towns sourced from the Office for National Statistics.

The driest seaside towns for a summer staycation without the rain

For those who just can't go a whole holiday without a shopping spree, there are plenty of gift and specialty shops for you to explore. Whether you need to satisfy your retail therapy needs, enjoy window shopping, want to treat yourself while you are away or there is something particular you are in search of, Great Yarmouth has it all. 

Retail therapy is a guilt-free and effective pick-me-up, which should be thoroughly enjoyed, especially while on your staycation in the UK. Why not treat yourself to some new clothes, pick up an unbeatable bargain, or find some quirky knick-knacks to remember your family holiday. 

Great Yarmouth is known for its markets in the heart of the town, filled with lively, friendly locals and a wide variety of stalls and traders. Great Yarmouth's markets not only include one of the largest markets in England, but also one of the oldest too. The markets have a permanent placement in the cobbled town, so regardless of when you visit on your staycation, there’ll be time for a trip. However, for shopping enthusiasts, the best days to hit the central markets are Wednesdays and Saturdays, when extra stalls are added to the selection. The markets can make for a quick trip or a day out, as they are surrounded by beautiful historic buildings from Victorian times, as well as a wide selection of eateries to enjoy lunch. 

Head to Gorleston-on-Sea where you can peruse the high street and larger warehouses. From your standard high street finds like Boots, Peacocks, the Card Factory, and Iceland to homemade sweet treats, exotic jewellery, and specialty gift shops. 

Smaller, quaint shops can be found in Caister-on-Sea village. These are ideal for small, quirky purchases that you wouldn’t usually find back home. You can also benefit from the local fishmongers, butchers, and bakers located there, which are perfect for families who are cooking for themselves in a self-catering staycation or planning some picnics with their day trips to the beach.

If you’re looking for something that makes you feel right at home, shop until you drop and explore the stores until late, Gapton Hall Retail Park is the ideal shopping spot for you. Find national favourites such as Next, Sports Direct, Outfit, TK Maxx, and many more. Make it a day or evening, grab some coffee at Costa and refuel at everyone’s favourite, McDonald's. 

If you are enjoying your staycation in Great Yarmouth at the beach and don’t want to travel far, spending time walking up the Marine Parade can be a great way to spend the day and is perfect for window shopping. Walk through the streets and you’ll find something different in each. If you are not shopping for anything in particular, this is a great way to find something you weren’t expecting. Many of the shops close to the beach are independent boutique stores, like Martyns Walk Around, Mermaid Quay, Fancy Fair, Kit-N-Caboodle, and Dead Good. They are great for finding unique items for both adults and children. 

Like to peruse the malls? The Market Gates Shopping Centre is located in the centre of the seaside of Great Yarmouth and has everything in one place. They host a wide range of stores and eateries with affordable prices, for example, Pandora, F. Hinds, New Look, Wilkos, and Warren James. Going to the mall means you can enjoy the fun of shopping with lunch, trying on clothes, and hanging out in the book store! 

Victoria Arcade is another shopping centre located in the heart of Great Yarmouth historical town. Victoria Arcade is a unique blend of shops and offices, giving tourists a great feel for the local working life in the town! Victoria Arcade is a beautiful heritage site that is worth the visit. 

Visiting a shopping centre while on staycation can be a fun and exciting way to spend the day and explore your favourite shops in a new town, find quirky new items that you wouldn’t get back home, or even buy new holiday attire to enjoy on your trip! Shopping can be a one-off stop or you can make a full day of it; most local shops are close to a range of food and drink options so you can stop off, refuel and then get back to it, whether that's lounging on the sand or enjoying the Pleasure Beach. There are plenty of options to explore for shopping in Great Yarmouth, and remember if you're staying here or nearby you can get an even better bargain if you make an offer on your hotel room... just hoo it!

Arona Guest - hoo

Taunton Guest House - hoo

Elmfield Guest Accommodation - hoo

The Best Shopping Spots in Great Yarmouth

Our latest research has highlighted how Covid has impacted the great British seaside and how a growing trend for staycations in the face of foreign travel uncertainty could help it bounce back to its former glory. 

The British seaside has long lost the glamorous allure that it had back in the 50s and 60s, and while it helped contribute to an estimated domestic tourism spend of £91.6bn in 2019, total tourism spend across coastal locations fell by -57% between 2019 and 2020.

The fall in popularity has also hit coastal towns, with the employment growth rate averaging just 0.2% per year between 2009 and 2018 . In larger seaside towns this has dropped to an average of -0.2%, and many traditional favourites have suffered even more, with Great Yarmouth (-11%), Folkestone (-12%), Torquay (-13%) and Weymouth (-18%) all seeing a steep decline. 

However, while the pandemic has proved extremely problematic for the UK hospitality industry overall, one inadvertent silver lining could well be the revival of the great British seaside. 

Previous research by hoo found that restrictions around foreign travel have boosted the number of us opting for a British staycation by as much as 18%. With more of us opting to spend our hard earned cash at the British seaside, this uplift has helped boost tourism spend in coastal areas by an estimated 42% since the start of the pandemic. 

This bodes well for the likes of Great Yarmouth, the destination of choice for hoo’s latest campaign to champion the British seaside this summer, with the town ranking as the 8th most popular seaside town prior to the pandemic and enjoying the 7th largest level of holiday spend of all coastal destinations. 

In the three years (2017-2019) prior to the arrival of Covid, an average of 464,000 per year visited Great Yarmouth, spending an average of £116m per year while they were there.

In hoo’s latest campaign, spearheaded by RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finalist, Ellie Diamond, the brand is hoping to persuade British holiday makers that Great Yarmouth and other British seaside towns are more worthy of their Instagram attention than any foreign holiday destination. 

Why? Well it’s clear we take our outstanding coastline for granted as around 10% of all international visitors from outside of the UK flock to the coast when they arrive. In fact, Great Yarmouth alone has seen international visitor levels climb by 24% per year on average between 2014 and 2019 before Covid struck.

So if it’s good enough for them, maybe the Brits will look again at what’s right on their doorstep.

“Like all areas of tourism and hospitality, the pandemic has brought incredibly tough times for local coastal communities who rely heavily on tourism in order to survive. But these traditional seaside resorts have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put themselves back on the holiday map. 

The one saving grace of the pandemic has been the ban on foreign travel, forcing many to look to the UK coastline for their summer fix of sun, sea and sand. As a result, many of us have rediscovered just how great our coastal towns and cities are and we're at a crossroads now where the great British seaside really could reclaim an aspect of its former glory. 

It doesn’t matter if you live in Dorset, Derby or Dundee, there will be a stretch of outstanding coastline that can offer you all the same draws of a holiday abroad, if not more, even with the unpredictability of a British summer.

So while foreign travel continues to cause chaos across the rest of the travel industry, we urge you to look again at places like Great Yarmouth, you may be very pleasantly surprised by what you find.”

Covid has set the Great British seaside resurgence in motion

Whether you are looking for a pub to enjoy a gourmet burger and a relaxed evening, or a bar to let your hair down, Great Yarmouth has some great options for you to enjoy as a couple, with friends, or on a family trip!

Along the seafront, you can find a whole host of different pubs and bars to choose from. Just by walking from one end to the other, you are presented with lots of unique choices. During the day they are great for meals and the odd drink, but by night it comes alive with music and good vibes. There are pubs and bars in Great Yarmouth to suit all tastes when you fancy a staycation tipple.  

The ideal location to enjoy a drink on the patio terrace that overlooks the coast, or get involved with the sports on one of the many big-screen TVs, dart boards, poker, pool, or snooker tables. 

The King’s Arms is the ideal pub to enjoy a summer evening. An ideally located beer garden, you can enjoy the warm summer breeze and blue skies until sundown. Take advantage of the exceptional range of guest ales and best pub grub in Great Yarmouth. 

A community-based pub where you can guarantee a warm and friendly welcome. Pub On The Shrubs prides itself on being a pub like no other, with games for adults and children alike to enjoy. So whether you are on holiday as a couple or with the whole family, there is something for everyone. Pool tables, darts room, and a children’s play area that can be seen from the garden! 

Excellent family-friendly pub, for a more low-key night out. Enjoy a taste of their extensive menu while admiring the view from the terrace on a summer evening. 

Your staycation go-to for a fun night out! The Coachmakers Arms is known for its entertainment weekends and karaoke nights, the best way to let your hair down while on holiday in the UK. As a bonus, the pub is family-run. This means friendly service, great prices, and full of character! 

The Prince Regent is a few minutes walk from the seafront but is worth it for the historic architecture, superb live music line up and extensive selection of drinks you can enjoy in the afternoon or late at night. 

Enjoy sea views and a lively atmosphere after a long day at the beach. The Pier Tavern is known for its guest musicians, bands, and live DJs, which will have you dancing the night away! 

A popular location with holidaymakers and locals, the Kings Wine Bar is equipped with cultured wines, unique cocktails, and over 30 types of gin! This is a local institution that, if you are on a staycation in Great Yarmouth, you will probably want to visit more than once! With over 300 drinks to choose from, you’ll never have a dull evening at the Kings Wine Bar! 

For an evening where you can relax and de-stress after a day at the beach, the Great Yarmouth Brewers Fayre is the perfect little spot. With a laid back and relaxing atmosphere, you can enjoy some classic dishes and international favourites, while sipping on an ice-cold brew. 

If it is drinking and dancing you are looking for, then Bar X is the place to go. Known for the dance floor shenanigans, it is the ideal for a bar for high energy and fun. Enjoy your day at the beach then head over to Bar X for the evening excitement to begin! 

Let loose and dance the night away at Bar 1. Enjoy a cocktail or four from their sizable menu while getting down with some cheesy pop music. The place to be for a wild time and a night out to remember. 

For a unique experience, Peggotty’s Lounge Bar & Tapas offers a funky drinks bar with 1920’s decor. The perfect location for a couple of friends on a trip to relax during the day with drinks and tapas in the sun, and then drink and dance the night away with good music and karaoke. 

Everyone has a different idea of what makes a staycation special, so whether you prefer a lively bar to dance the night away, or a quirky spot to relax and enjoy a drink, there are plenty of pubs and bars in Great Yarmouth to choose from. Don't forget to check out the famous Pleasure Beach while you're there, and remember you can grab a super bargain deal on accommodation if you make an offer on a hotel room... just hoo it!