A FUNNY thing happened to me on the way back from the family vacation this August: I didn't get stuck behind a convoy of caravans with UK licence-plates on the A16 into Calais, and as a result I was early at the Eurotunnel terminus. Better than that, there seemed to be hardly anyone waiting, so I got bumped onto an earlier train and was home in time for tea.

Where was everyone? Thanks to a combination of recession and killer exchange rates, they'd stayed in Britain (and looking at my bank statement, I wish I had too). They might even have been staying with you – and hopefully, this summer's “staycation” trade will have offset some of the decrease in conference business you will almost certainly have suffered.

Gold, though, is dubious about its efficacy. “The problem is that discounting moves demand around the market,” he says. “Does it create any new demand? Probably a little, but not enough to make a huge difference.”

A double whammy, then: the negative impact on revenue caused by the recession compounded rather than reversed by price-cutting. Time to take a long, hard look not only at cutting costs and managing overheads, but also at improving income streams across the board. And one of the areas with potential for increased traffic is the bar.

Not all hotels, it is true, suffer from poor traffic at the bar. On the one hand, there are town-centre hotels, often the older coaching inns typified by the Greene King-owned Old English Inns chain, with pub-style bars that are well-established and popular local watering holes. For instance, the historic George is the smartest meeting-place in Huntingdon and boasts a 17th-century inn yard that hosts an extremely popular annual Shakespeare festival. Many Whitbread-owned Premier Inns, by the same token, come complete with fully-fledged pubs whose wet trade is to be envied, among them the Anchor, fronting the River Thames, opposite St Paul's Cathedral. On the other, there are conference and banqueting-oriented hotels whose bars are more or less adjuncts to the various halls and suites and where too busy a local trade might actually reduce the level of amenity to delegates and guests.

But then there are the middle-market chains, often heavy on roadside or out-of-town locations, whose bars suffer when residential demand and/or conference and banqueting business is depressed, and in some cases even close altogether during the week. As a frequent business traveller I have all too often come down from my room for a pre-dinner drink to find an empty and unwelcoming bar, sometimes only manned – and that sporadically – by a member of the reception staff.

In such cases, the temptation to abandon the hotel and seek a more cheerful atmosphere, a wider range of drinks and in most cases, a far more modest price in a nearby pub is almost overwhelming. And once that happens the whole of my business is lost for the evening, because I'm far more likely to opt for a curry or a Thai than risk a gloomy hour as the hotel restaurant's sole occupant.

“Maximising use is definitely a challenge,” says Melvin Gold. “Too many guests won't use the hotel bar when there are pubs nearby. The 2003 Licensing Act hasn't been a help here, because the biggest advantage that hotels enjoyed over pubs was their ability to serve after-hours drinks to residents. Now, to some extent, even that has been eroded.”

Hotel chains by and large, he points out, aren't seeking to establish destination bars and would shy away from risking the capital commitment and running costs the effort would involve. But he also points out that they have come to depend on a certain level of income, and with recovery from the current recession not expected until the end of 2010 or even later, capturing more spend from existing guests – in the restaurant as well as the bar – is an option they will have to examine.

And would it take that much commitment to create a bar attractive enough to persuade guests to stay in rather than take their chances on the town? There is, after all, a powerful pull already in that most guests are, by definition, visitors. They don't know what they'll find once they've left the hotel, and as they don't know their way around, they don't know where to find it either. And many of them will be tired after a day's travelling or a round of business meetings and would rather stay in, only a stone's throw from bed, than wander round a strange town centre.

To create the environment that would keep them from straying should not, in most cases, be too expensive. A lick of paint, warm but subdued lighting, a few sporting prints or local historical photographs, and – a key ingredient – some barstools should be enough to create a homely atmosphere. A dedicated and preferably chatty barman or barmaid to say hello too is also a boon for the business traveller on his or her own. A more modest pricing policy will prolong the guest's sojourn in the bar.
And as for the range of drinks – well, that's another story...

Ted Bruning has been a journalist in the brewing industry and hospitality trade press for over 20 years and is a former editor of What's Brewing, the Campaign for Real Ale newspaper.