Top 10 Hospitality and Restaurant Marketing Agencies in the UK: A Curated Guide

Key Takeaways

• Hospitality marketing is about direct bookings and covers, not clicks: the agencies worth hiring report bookings, revenue per available room or covers, and the cost of winning each one.
• Specialists split three ways: hotel agencies such as 80 DAYS, Journey, Umi Digital and UP Hotel Agency; restaurant and bar agencies such as CJ Digital and SideDish Media; and multi site hospitality groups, where Propeller has worked for more than 25 years.
• None of the nine other agencies on this list publishes its prices. Ask for a written scope and the figure before the first call ends; ours are published.
• Reviews are regulated now: commissioning fake reviews, or publishing reviews without reasonable steps to remove fake ones, is a banned practice under Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and Google's own policy bans paying for reviews or asking only happy customers.
• Own your accounts. 95% of the Google Ads accounts we inherit were owned by the previous agency or freelancer rather than the business; your Google Business Profile, ad accounts and booking data should be in your name from day one.
• If you also sell online, judge the agency on the store too: when we helped Halo Coffee relaunch, conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3% once the new site went live.

Quick Answer

The right hospitality marketing agency depends on what you run. Hotels wanting a specialist that does nothing else should look at 80 DAYS, Journey, Umi Digital and UP Hotel Agency; independent restaurants and bars at CJ Digital and SideDish Media; pub companies and restaurant groups with many sites at Propeller; northern venues at Fenti; and destinations and tourism bodies at Blue Sail. Hospitality and food and drink brands that also sell online, from coffee subscriptions to drinks sold direct and to trade, are where Why Matters fits. Shortlist two or three, ask each to show bookings or covers it has won for a venue like yours, and make sure every account is set up in your name.

Table of Contents

• How We Selected These Agencies
• Quick Comparison
• Why Matters (our agency)
• Propeller
• 80 DAYS
• Journey
• Umi Digital
• CJ Digital
• SideDish Media
• UP Hotel Agency
• Blue Sail
• Fenti Marketing
• How to Choose the Right Hospitality Marketing Agency
• What Should Hospitality Marketing Cost?
• The Review Rules Every Venue Should Know
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

Hospitality marketing has a harder job than most: a hotel competes with the booking sites that list it, a restaurant lives or dies by what Google shows at 6pm on a Friday, and every venue pays commission on bookings it could have won direct. The agencies below are the UK specialists we would shortlist, grouped by the kind of business they serve.

This guide profiles ten agencies across hotel marketing, restaurant and bar marketing, multi site hospitality groups, destinations and tourism, and hospitality brands that sell online. Where an agency publishes results we quote them; where it does not, we say so.

A note on our own position. Why Matters is a Shopify agency and we appear in this list, labelled as our agency. We held ourselves to the same selection criteria as everyone else and describe our own services in the same format, so you can compare like with like. Details about other agencies come from their own websites and published case studies, so check them before you shortlist, because services, clients and fees change.

How We Selected These Agencies

We looked for a clear hospitality specialism, named clients, published case studies, partner status with Google or industry bodies, and openness about fees and contract terms. We read each agency's own website in October 2026 and dropped candidates we could not confirm were still trading as hospitality specialists. The list is not ranked, because the right choice depends on whether you run a hotel, a restaurant, a group or a destination, and our own entry is labelled.

Quick Comparison

Why Matters (our agency)

Location: Brighton. Specialism: Shopify stores and online sales for hospitality and food and drink brands. Notable clients: Halo Coffee, Gunna, HOLOS.

Why Matters is a Shopify agency rather than a restaurant marketing agency, and we say so at the top. We appear in this list for the growing number of hospitality businesses that also sell online: the roaster with a coffee subscription, the brewery or kombucha brand selling direct and to trade, the restaurant group with a meal kit or a pantry range. For those businesses we build the store, then run SEO, paid search, paid social and creators, email and SMS and affiliates against one set of numbers, and connect online orders to wholesale and point of sale so stock and customers match across the business.

Two results from our own clients show the shape of the work. When we helped Halo Coffee with its rebrand and relaunch, Halo invested in specialist product photography and worked with the creative agency Uncommon, and conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3% after the relaunched site went live. And a trade portal we built for a fizzy drinks client cut the time spent keying trade orders from five hours a week to 30 minutes a month.

Our retainers start from £650 a month plus VAT and are published on our website. We are a Shopify Select partner with Verified Skills across development and marketing, and a Klaviyo, Recharge, Awin, Meta and TikTok partner. Retainer clients are billed one month in arrears and are not tied into long contracts, and development projects carry a 3 month guarantee.

Best for: hospitality and food and drink brands that sell online as well as on site, and want the store, the marketing and the trade channel run together.

Propeller

Location: London, with a New York office. Specialism: digital marketing and web development for hotels, pubs, breweries, restaurant groups and bars. Notable clients: Young's, JW Lees, Hall & Woodhouse, Zizzi, Sushi Samba. Website: Propeller website.

Propeller has worked in hospitality for more than 25 years and runs SEO, PPC, social, conversion work and multi site website builds for pub companies, breweries and restaurant groups. Its published case studies report traffic up 56% and bookings up 5% year on year for JW Lees, and goal conversions up 53% in 12 months for Zizzi, and it won a Web Excellence Award in 2024 for the Cotswolds Distillery Shopify site. It does not publish prices.

Best for: pub companies, breweries and restaurant groups that want one agency for websites and digital marketing across many sites.

80 DAYS

Location: Edinburgh and London, with offices in Málaga and Dubai. Specialism: creative and digital marketing for hotels and travel brands only. Notable clients: The Savoy, Gleneagles, Red Carnation Hotels, The Ned. Website: 80 DAYS website.

80 DAYS was founded in Edinburgh in 2002 as Occupancy Marketing and works only with hotels and travel brands, covering brand, websites, digital marketing, social and training. It has been a certified B Corp since July 2024, received the King's Award for Enterprise for international trade in 2025, and won an HSMAI Europe award for best use of brand with The Savoy in January 2026. Its case study for The Headland in Cornwall reports transactions up 45% and conversion rate up 38% in 2022 against 2021. It does not publish prices.

Best for: independent and luxury hotels that want brand, website and marketing from a specialist that does nothing else.

Journey

Location: Cheltenham, with a Midlands office in Cannock. Specialism: hotel ecommerce and technology, with digital marketing for hotels and spas as one service line. Notable clients: Grantley Hall, Beaverbrook, The Ned, Chewton Glen, PoB Hotels. Website: Journey website.

Journey started in 2013 as a hotel marketing agency and now describes itself as a hotel ecommerce and technology company, with its own booking engine, experience management system and payments alongside websites, SEO and paid media. It has more than 160 people, is a Google Premier Partner for 2025 and won Hotel Marketing Association awards in 2023 and 2025. Published case studies report traffic up 416% and ROAS up 24% for PoB Hotels, and return on investment up 116% with direct revenue up 13% for Beaverbrook. It does not publish prices.

Best for: hotels that want marketing and booking technology from one supplier, and are happy to buy both.

Umi Digital

Location: London. Specialism: marketing and technology partner for hotels and travel brands. Notable clients: The Stafford London, The Landmark London, The Resident, Fuller's. Website: Umi Digital website.

Umi Digital pairs hotel marketing with technology: websites and booking integrations, paid media, SEO and search in AI assistants, plus its own data platform. It has been a Google Ads partner for more than a decade and is a member of the Hotel Marketing Association and the British Educational Travel Association. Its case studies are written as stories rather than percentages, so ask for the numbers behind them. It does not publish prices.

Best for: London and luxury hotels that want their booking technology and marketing designed together.

CJ Digital

Location: UK, working mostly with London venues. Specialism: restaurant and bar marketing: local SEO, PPC, social, influencers, reviews and websites. Notable clients: Bistro Freddie, Fallow, LIVIN'Italy. Website: CJ Digital website.

CJ Digital works with a handful of restaurants and bars at a time, which it presents as a feature rather than a limit, and offers month to month plans as well as longer packages. It claims an average return of 8 times spend across its clients; that is an agency wide figure rather than a named case study, so ask for the venue level numbers. Pricing is given at consultation rather than published.

Best for: independent restaurants and bars that want a small team, month to month terms and local search handled.

SideDish Media

Location: Soho, London. Specialism: marketing for restaurants, pubs, cafes, bars and hotels, with a return on investment focus. Website: SideDish Media website.

SideDish Media runs local SEO, Google Ads, content and video, websites and micro influencer campaigns for London restaurants, from Soho dining rooms to pop ups and dark kitchens, and talks about tracking the return on every pound spent. It names no clients on its website, so ask for references before you shortlist it. It does not publish prices.

Best for: London restaurants and pop ups that want local search, ads and content from one small specialist.

UP Hotel Agency

Location: UK. Specialism: hotel web design and development with hotel SEO, PPC and metasearch. Notable clients: The Athenaeum Hotel, London (testimonial). Website: UP Hotel Agency website.

UP Hotel Agency builds hotel websites and runs the search, paid and metasearch marketing that feeds them, for independent and luxury hotels. It shows a Google Partner badge and says it won seven WMA WebAwards in 2026, and a client testimonial on its site reports direct conversion up by around 30% after a new website. We could not find an office address on its site, so ask where the team sits. It does not publish prices.

Best for: hotels whose first job is a better website that converts direct bookings.

Blue Sail

Location: UK. Specialism: tourism and destination strategy for councils, destination organisations and attractions. Notable clients: Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, Warwickshire County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Belfast City Council. Website: Blue Sail website.

Blue Sail is the tourism option on this list rather than a venue marketing agency. It writes destination management plans, tourism growth strategies and visitor economy research for councils and destination bodies, and its directors bring decades in the industry. If you run a destination, an attraction or a tourism body and need a strategy before a campaign, it is the right kind of firm; a single restaurant should look elsewhere on this list. It does not publish prices.

Best for: destinations, attractions and tourism bodies that need a strategy and research before marketing.

Fenti Marketing

Location: Sheffield. Specialism: digital marketing for hotels, bars, restaurants and event venues on a single monthly retainer. Notable clients: Radisson Blu Sheffield, OEC Sheffield. Website: Fenti Marketing website.

Fenti has worked in Sheffield since 2010 and sells paid social, Google Ads, SEO, branding, web, photography and video as one monthly retainer that gives a venue access to the whole team. It is a Google Partner. Its site describes the agency as award winning without naming the awards, and the retainer figure is not published, so ask for both.

Best for: hotels and venues in the north of England that want everything from one local team on one fee.

How to Choose the Right Hospitality Marketing Agency

• Does it report the numbers you run on? Direct bookings, revenue per available room, covers, average spend and the cost of each booking. An agency that leads with impressions is selling the wrong thing.
• Will you own everything? Google Business Profile, ad accounts, booking engine data, email lists and social accounts should be created in your name. 95% of the Google Ads accounts we inherit were owned by the previous agency or freelancer rather than the merchant; do not let that happen to your venue.
• Does it know your kind of venue? A hotel agency fights booking site commission and metasearch; a restaurant agency fights for the map pack and the Friday night search. Ask for a case study from a business like yours, with numbers.
• How does it handle reviews? Ask how it will grow reviews without breaking the rules. Google bans incentivised reviews and asking only happy customers, and UK law now treats fake reviews as a banned practice.
• What are the terms? Month to month or rolling quarterly terms are available from the smaller specialists; a twelve month lock in should buy you something specific, such as a website build.
• What about the online shop? If you sell coffee, drinks, hampers or meal kits online, ask who runs that side. Our guide to snacks and drinks ecommerce shows what the online channel involves.

What Should Hospitality Marketing Cost?

None of the nine other agencies on this list publishes its prices, which is normal in hospitality marketing and unhelpful for a venue trying to budget. CJ Digital says it offers packages for all budgets with pricing given at consultation and month to month plans; Fenti sells one monthly retainer for its whole team without publishing the figure; the hotel specialists quote by scope. Ask for the monthly fee, what it includes, and whether ad spend sits on top, before the first call ends.

For comparison, our own prices are published: retainers start from £650 a month plus VAT, PPC management starts from £650 a month plus VAT, and our guide to PPC agency costs in the UK explains the fee models you will meet, from flat fees to a share of ad spend. Whatever you pay, insist on a monthly report that names the bookings or orders the work produced.

The Review Rules Every Venue Should Know

Reviews decide where a restaurant ranks on the map and whether a hotel converts, so agencies are often asked to "sort out" reviews. Two sets of rules now limit what that can mean. Under paragraph 13 of Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, submitting or commissioning fake reviews, and publishing reviews without taking reasonable steps to remove fake ones, are banned commercial practices, and the Competition and Markets Authority can now fine businesses directly. Google review policy separately bans paying for reviews, reviews from owners and staff, and asking only satisfied customers to post.

What an agency can do is make honest reviews easy: a QR code on the bill, a follow up email after a stay, a reply to every review within a day, and a Google Business Profile that follows Google guidelines on names, categories, menus and booking links. Ask any agency you shortlist to describe its review process in exactly those terms.

Why Matters Perspective

We are honest about where we sit in this list. We do not run marketing for a restaurant's Friday night; we build and grow Shopify stores, and a growing number of hospitality businesses have one. The roaster who sells a subscription, the brewery that sells direct and to trade, the hotel with a shop for its own products: for them the online channel deserves the same care as the bookings. When we helped Halo Coffee with its rebrand and relaunch, Halo invested in specialist product photography and worked with the creative agency Uncommon, and conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3% after the relaunched site went live. And a trade portal we built for a fizzy drinks client cut the time spent keying trade orders from five hours a week to 30 minutes a month, which is the kind of saving a venue with wholesale customers notices every week.

Whoever you hire, check ownership first. 95% of the Google Ads accounts we inherit were owned by the previous agency or freelancer rather than the merchant, and a venue that cannot take its ad account, its Google Business Profile or its booking data with it is not free to leave. We are a Shopify Select partner with Verified Skills across development and marketing, and a Klaviyo, Recharge, Awin, Meta and TikTok partner. Retainer clients are billed one month in arrears and are not tied into long contracts, and development projects carry a 3 month guarantee. If you sell online, email us or see our Shopify ecommerce agency page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a restaurant marketing agency cost in the UK?

Almost none of the hospitality specialists publish prices, so expect to be quoted after a call. Smaller restaurant agencies offer month to month plans; hotel agencies quote by scope and often bundle a website. For a benchmark, our published retainers start from £650 a month plus VAT, with ad spend on top.

Is it worth hiring a marketing agency for a small restaurant or cafe?

Only if the agency can show it wins bookings or covers for venues your size. For a single site, the highest value work is usually a well kept Google Business Profile, honest reviews, local search and a small paid budget around your quiet nights, which some agencies will do on a month to month basis.

What should a hotel marketing agency do to increase direct bookings?

Make the hotel's own website the cheapest and easiest place to book: a fast site, a booking engine that works on a phone, metasearch and paid search that bid on the hotel's own name, and email that brings guests back. Judge the agency on direct bookings and revenue per available room, not traffic.

How long does restaurant SEO take to work?

Map pack and local search changes can show within weeks once the Google Business Profile, categories, menus and reviews are right. Ranking for broader searches, such as the best restaurants in a town, usually takes three to six months of consistent work.

Should I hire a specialist hospitality agency or a general digital agency?

A specialist understands booking engines, booking site commission, metasearch and the map pack without being taught. A general agency can be a good fit when the venue also sells products online, because the store, the marketing and the trade channel need to be run together.

What questions should I ask a hospitality marketing agency before signing?

Which bookings or covers has it won for a venue like mine, with numbers; who will own the ad accounts, Google Business Profile and booking data; what the monthly fee includes; what the contract term is; and how it grows reviews without breaking Google's rules or UK law.

Can a marketing agency manage my Google Business Profile and reviews?

Yes, and it should, as long as the profile stays in your name. An agency can keep the listing accurate, add menus and booking links, reply to reviews and make honest reviews easy to leave. It cannot buy reviews, write them, or ask only happy customers, because Google's policy and UK law both ban that.

Final Thoughts

The best hospitality marketing agencies are the ones that talk about bookings and covers rather than reach, know the difference between a hotel and a restaurant, and leave every account in your name. Use this list to build a shortlist of two or three, ask each for a case study from a venue like yours, and compare what they would do in the first 90 days.

If your hospitality business also sells online, see our Shopify ecommerce agency page and our guide to coffee and tea ecommerce, or email us.

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