UK company counts · Hospitality
Hospitality businesses in the UK
About 270,000 active hospitality businesses are registered in the UK, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 59% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026.
Accounts filed up to 24 October 2026 Register of 1 September 2026
The list behind the number
Which companies these are, with names, company numbers, registered addresses and each dated headcount, is what the report is for. Here they stay hidden.
| Company | Location | Incorporated | Employees |
|---|
One-off payment · no sales call · no account needed · CSV sent to the email you pay with. A report holds the first 1,500 by name; narrow by region or size, or Unlimited holds 5,000 a list.
Growing hospitality businesses in the UK, every Monday
Firmo Weekly: how many hospitality businesses in the UK added staff since their last filed accounts, the searches that find them, and one click to the list. Free, at 08:00 every Monday.
By size: hospitality in the UK
| Employees | Companies | Share | All sectors, UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro 0 to 9 | about 130,000 | 48% | 58% |
| Small 10 to 49 | about 27,000 | 10% | 4% |
| Medium 50 to 249 | about 2,800 | 1% | 1% |
| Large 250 or more | about 390 | under 1% | under 1% |
| No figure filed not known | about 110,000 | 41% | 37% |
| All active companies | about 270,000 | 100% | 100% |
| Grew by 10 or more staff any size | about 2,400 | 1% | under 1% |
Shares are worked out from the rounded counts. No figure filed means the company has not filed a machine-readable headcount: it may be large or small, and it is never counted as zero. A filed 0 is a real answer and sits under micro.
By region
| Region | All sizes | Medium 50 to 249 | Large 250+ | Grew by 10+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | about 8,900 | about 90 | fewer than 10 | about 80 |
| North West | about 29,000 | about 280 | about 30 | about 250 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | about 21,000 | about 190 | about 20 | about 170 |
| East Midlands | about 13,000 | about 130 | about 30 | about 120 |
| West Midlands | about 23,000 | about 170 | about 30 | about 190 |
| East of England | about 22,000 | about 180 | about 30 | about 190 |
| London | about 68,000 | about 740 | about 110 | about 600 |
| South East | about 28,000 | about 280 | about 40 | about 270 |
| South West | about 20,000 | about 260 | about 30 | about 200 |
| Wales | about 10,000 | about 110 | fewer than 20 | about 110 |
| Scotland | about 21,000 | about 230 | about 30 | about 180 |
| Northern Ireland | about 4,700 | about 130 | fewer than 10 | about 80 |
Region comes from the registered office postcode. Companies with no UK postcode count in the UK totals only.
What is counted
- Sector
- All of Section I: hotels and other accommodation (division 55), and restaurants, cafes, takeaways, event caterers, pubs, bars and licensed clubs (division 56). SIC 2007: Section I (Accommodation and food service activities).
- Companies
- Active companies on the Companies House register. A company with several of these codes counts once.
- Headcounts
- 59% of these companies have an employee count in accounts we have read. The rest are shown as No figure filed, never as zero.
- Dates
- Each company's size is from its latest filed accounts, read up to 24 October 2026. Accounts are filed up to nine months after the year end, so a figure can describe a year that ended some time ago.
- Rounding
- Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and under 20 are shown only as fewer than 10 or fewer than 20, so no count points at a single company. The report is exact.
Questions about these figures
How many hospitality businesses are there in the UK?
About 270,000 active hospitality businesses are registered in the UK, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 59% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and are for active companies only.
How is company size measured?
By the average number of employees each company states in its latest filed accounts, read from the tagged figure in accounts filed electronically. The bands count employees only: micro 0 to 9, small 10 to 49, medium 50 to 249 and large 250 or more. That is not the Companies Act size test, which also uses turnover and balance sheet. 59% of hospitality businesses in the UK have filed a figure; the rest are counted as No figure filed, never as zero.
How up to date is this?
The register is the Companies House snapshot of 1 September 2026, and new accounts are read every day; these figures use accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Each company's headcount is as of its own accounts date, which can be a year or more before the day it was filed.
Can I download the list?
Yes. The list of these companies, with names, company numbers, registered addresses, SIC codes and every headcount with the date of its accounts, is a one-off CSV for £25 (up to 1,500 companies), with no account and no sales call. Unlimited, from £159 a month, allows up to 5,000 companies a list. The free search shows the same count, not which companies.
Which SIC codes count as hospitality?
All of Section I: hotels and other accommodation (division 55), and restaurants, cafes, takeaways, event caterers, pubs, bars and licensed clubs (division 56). Codes counted: Section I (Accommodation and food service activities). A company counts if any of its SIC codes is in the set.