Dwell time: when a longer stay pays, and when it doesn’t

Dwell time, how long guests stay once they’ve arrived, is one of hospitality’s quieter numbers. It rarely appears on a weekly report. But it’s changing, and it affects what a visit is worth.

Guests are staying longer

The Oxford Partnership tracks occupancy, spend and dwell time across UK pubs in its Market Watch reports. Its 2026 figures show guests lingering:

• January 2026: average dwell time held at 150 minutes, and spend per head reached a new high of £26.74, with food spend per head at £31.85.
• April 2026: dwell time rose by 11 minutes to 157 minutes, and spend per head held at £26.89. But total drinks volumes fell 2.1% year on year.

Guests are using venues more as places to spend time, and less as places to drink a lot. As Alison Jordan, the Oxford Partnership’s chief executive, put it in February: “With margins under pressure from rising costs, simply being busy is no longer enough.”

Longer isn’t automatically better

A longer stay is only worth more if the extra time turns into spend. A table that lingers for an hour over one drink earns no more than one that leaves after twenty minutes, and it blocks the table for the next group.

The value of dwell time depends on the night:

• On a busy Saturday, you need tables to turn. Extending stays costs you the next booking.
• On a quiet Tuesday, there’s no queue for the table. Every extra half hour is a chance for another round, a dessert or a coffee, at no cost to anyone.

So the aim isn’t to keep every guest longer. It’s to make quiet nights worth staying for.

What keeps people at the table

Atmosphere does more than most venues realise. In a classic 1986 study, Ronald Milliman found that background music tempo could significantly affect how long restaurant guests stayed and how much they bought. Diners stayed longer when the music was slower and spent more on drinks.

The same principle applies to everything else that makes guests comfortable: lighting, warmth, seating, and having something to do. Guests leave when the evening feels finished. Give them a reason to keep it going, and the second round follows.

Turning time into spend

A few practical moves for quiet nights:

1. Time the dessert and coffee offer. Offer it before the table starts reaching for coats, not after.
2. Make the second round easy. Don’t make guests hunt for a menu or flag someone down.
3. Give the table something to do. A shared activity between courses keeps the evening going rather than letting it wind down.
4. Set the mood for the night. Slower music and softer lighting suit a quiet midweek evening better than Saturday’s energy.
5. End on a reason to return. The final minutes of a good visit are the best moment to give guests a reason to come back.

Where Clink fits

Clink gives guests something fun to do together at the table, between courses or over a last drink. On quiet nights that keeps the evening going, and the prize at the end gives them a reason to come back.