HuddleBolton is a blog for the people who run hospitality businesses — restaurants, bars, cafés and small hotels. Not recipes, not restaurant reviews for diners: gross profit and food cost, staffing and retention, suppliers and stock, the kit in the kitchen, card payments and delivery apps, and the marketing that actually brings people back.
What you will find here
Around sixty guides, in two strands. The larger one is about running the place: what a plate costs, why the bartenders keep leaving, what a supplier price rise does to next month, which software earns its subscription. The smaller strand reviews places to stay — hotels, resorts and bed-and-breakfasts — written from the same angle: what the operator got right, and what it costs to do it.
Who writes it
The site is maintained by the HuddleBolton editorial team. Articles are researched and edited from published trade reporting, industry surveys and public guidance from regulators and hospitality bodies. We do not publish under invented bylines, and we do not claim professional credentials we do not have: nothing here is accountancy, legal or employment advice, and anything with money or staff at stake should go past your accountant or an employment specialist before you act on it.
The calculator
Our one tool is the menu GP calculator: ingredient costs and a wastage allowance in, the menu price your gross profit target needs out — ex VAT, inc VAT, and the GP you actually end up with once the price is rounded to something a menu can print. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
How it pays for itself
The site is free to read, with no sign-up and no paywall. It carries advertising, which is what covers hosting and editing. Advertising never decides what we cover or how we cover it.
Corrections
Costs move, wage rates change and supplier terms are renegotiated constantly, so guidance dates quickly. If something here is out of date or plainly wrong, tell us and we will fix it: [email protected]. Corrections to figures are made in the article itself rather than quietly deleted.