September 18, 2026

Can Hospitality Really Do Flexible Working?

Few workplace ideas have travelled as quickly as the four-day week. For office-based businesses, the debate is largely about productivity. For hospitality, where guests arrive seven days a week and often around the clock, the question is harder and more interesting. Can an industry built on being available give its own people more control over when they work?

We think the answer is yes, though rarely in the form the headlines suggest. And the businesses that work it out first will have a real advantage in the talent market.

Why this has moved up the agenda

Flexibility has become one of the deciding factors in where people choose to work. The 2026 Hospitality People Survey of more than 1,400 UK hospitality workers found flexible hours sitting alongside fair pay, holiday and training among the job factors people rate most highly, at a time when work-life balance scores are slipping. Across the wider UK workforce, CIPD research found that more than a million people left a job in a single year because of a lack of flexibility, with younger workers the most likely to move.

Hospitality starts from behind. Work Foundation analysis shows that lower-paid workers, who are more likely to work in sectors such as hospitality, are far less likely than higher earners to have flexible working hours. When the sector is competing with retail, logistics and office employers for the same people, that gap matters.

Legislation is adding momentum. From 2027, under the Employment Rights Act, employers will still be able to refuse a flexible working request on the existing eight business grounds, but they will need to show that the refusal is reasonable, consult the employee first and explain their reasoning in writing. Employees will be able to challenge unreasonable refusals at tribunal. The government has also consulted on reasonable notice of shifts, and compensation for short-notice cancellations, for workers on zero and low-hours arrangements. Rota design is becoming a compliance issue as well as a cultural one.

What a four-day week really looks like in hospitality

In most hotels and restaurants, a four-day week does not mean 32 hours for the same pay. With the National Living Wage at £12.71 and employer National Insurance higher than a year ago, few operators can simply add headcount to cover a fifth day. What is working is more practical:

Compressed hours. Full-time hours worked over four days, giving teams a genuine three-day break. Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants has been widely reported as moving full-time teams to a four-day pattern, with kitchen teams among those who felt the biggest difference.
Fewer trading days. Some destination restaurants and restaurants with rooms trade four or five days a week, concentrating demand and giving the whole team consistent time off.
Predictable rotas. Fixed patterns published well in advance, so people can plan their lives around work rather than the other way round.
Self-scheduling and shift-swap tools. Technology that lets team members manage availability within agreed rules, reducing last-minute gaps.

None of these is free. Long compressed shifts can be tiring in physical roles, and reduced trading only suits certain concepts. But each gives people more control, which is often what they value most.

The senior leadership question

The debate is usually framed around frontline teams, yet some of the most interesting shifts are happening higher up. General managers, heads of department and commercial leaders have long accepted unpredictable hours as the price of seniority. That expectation is changing.

In our conversations with senior candidates, questions about working patterns, hybrid days for commercial and revenue roles, and realistic expectations of availability now come up much earlier than they once did. The best candidates are not asking to work less. They are asking whether the role has been designed so they can perform well for years, not months.

For owners and operators, that makes role design part of the hiring proposition. A director of sales and marketing who can work two days remotely, or a general manager supported by a deputy structure that protects a day off, may be the difference between securing a proven leader and losing them to a competitor. Leaders who experience sensible flexibility themselves are also far more likely to create it for their teams.

Where to start

For most hospitality businesses, the aim is not a headline-grabbing policy but a credible, sustainable approach. Four questions can help:

Which roles could flex without affecting the guest experience, and which genuinely cannot?
Do our rotas give people enough notice to plan their lives, and will they meet the new expectations on shift notice?
Could we answer a flexible working request from a senior leader with a clear, reasonable rationale today?
When we recruit, do we explain the flexibility we offer as clearly as we explain the salary?

How we can help

Flexibility is now part of almost every senior search we run, from general managers to revenue and commercial leaders. Our new Madison Mayfair website sets out how we approach each discipline, including how we assess candidates for cultural fit and motivation, and our CV and Resume Drop gives senior professionals a confidential way to share what they are looking for.