Restaurants, hotels, licensed premises and venues
Choose guidance for your type of hospitality premises, understand the issues that affect scope and cost, and request a properly matched assessment quote across London and Surrey.
Start with the main use
A mixed venue may need more than one guide. Use the page that best reflects the main life-safety risk, then bring in every overlapping use.
Food premises
Cooking, extraction, hot oil, gas, electrical equipment, customer capacity, late opening and mixed-use buildings.
Licensed venues
Alcohol, loud music, low lighting, crowd density, entertainment, decorations, door control and late-night staffing.
Sleeping accommodation
Sleeping and unfamiliar guests, bedrooms, protected corridors, night staffing, laundries, kitchens and function rooms.
Commercial event premises
Changing layouts, guest capacity, caterers, entertainment, temporary equipment, marquees, accommodation and shared duties.
Use more than one where needed
The applicable fire-safety benchmarks follow the actual use and people at risk. A hotel with a restaurant, late bar and wedding suite is not adequately described by one label.
Sleeping accommodation requires sleeping-risk guidance. Public dining, entertainment and functions bring assembly considerations. Temporary structures, outdoor events and dangerous substances can add further assessment and coordination.
Start with hotel and sleeping-accommodation guidance.
Add restaurant, café and commercial-kitchen considerations.
Add the licensed pub, bar and nightclub guide.
Add the commercial wedding and event-venue guide.
Hospitality risk profile
Assessors should examine the premises in realistic operation, including the busiest credible occupancy and the interaction between public and back-of-house areas.
People may not know alternative exits, understand the alarm or recognise staff instructions.
Tables, queues, stages, seasonal décor and events can narrow routes or invalidate assumed capacities.
Hot oil, gas, charcoal, electrical equipment and grease deposits can produce fast-growing fires.
Reaction, communication and movement can be slower in busy or late-night venues.
Hotels and venues with bedrooms must protect guests who may be asleep, isolated and unfamiliar with the building.
Agency staff, caterers, entertainers and contractors need relevant information and coordinated emergency roles.
Concealed voids, flats above, shared systems, basements and limited stairs can complicate fire spread and escape.
A fire, prohibition notice or unresolved high-priority action can stop trading as well as threaten life.
Control determines responsibility
Hospitality premises commonly involve several organisations. Contracts can allocate tasks, but responsible persons must still cooperate, coordinate and share relevant information.
| Potential dutyholder | What should be made clear |
|---|---|
| Operating employer or company | Staff, work activities, day-to-day hazards, procedures, training and the parts of the premises under its control. |
| Owner, landlord or freeholder | Structure, common escape routes, building-wide systems and other matters retained under its control. |
| Licensee or premises controller | Licensed activities, operating arrangements, occupancy controls and areas or systems controlled in practice. |
| Hotel, restaurant or venue manager | The operational tasks and decisions delegated to the role; delegation does not automatically transfer every legal duty. |
| Event organiser, hirer or concession | Areas and activities placed under its control, together with cooperation and information needed by the venue. |
| Contractors and suppliers | Risk information for their work, equipment and substances, plus compliance with the coordinated site arrangements. |
Common instruction points
Review is driven by change, incidents and evidence—not only a date printed on the previous report.
Do not assume the previous operator’s report covers a new menu, occupancy, management model, licence or use.
Partitions, kitchens, extraction, bedrooms, stages, bars, alarms and escape routes may change the assessment basis.
Review seating, standing areas, function layouts, external areas, queueing and the maximum credible occupancy.
Cooking fuel, entertainment, pyrotechnics, charging, temporary structures or supplier arrangements can add risk.
Establish the evidence requested while keeping licensing, insurance and fire-safety duties distinct.
Respond promptly where an incident, defect, evacuation issue or new information suggests the FRA may no longer be valid.
Indicative assessment costs
These are planning ranges for relatively straightforward small or medium premises—not fixed prices. Confirm site time, scope, report, exclusions, VAT and follow-up in writing.
Indicative starting range
See premises-specific cost factorsIndicative starting range
See premises-specific cost factorsIndicative starting range
See premises-specific cost factorsIndicative starting range
See premises-specific cost factorsLarge, multi-floor, historic, sleeping, mixed-use or multi-space premises can fall outside these ranges. Compare what the quotation includes rather than selecting a headline price alone.
A useful assessment scope
The exact work must follow the venue. A checklist can support the inspection, but it cannot replace premises-specific judgement.
Confirm every trading, sleeping, staff, storage, plant, external and shared area in scope.
Understand the busiest credible operation rather than assessing only an empty or closed venue.
Examine capacity, exit distribution, travel, door security, external routes and people needing assistance.
Confirm that alarms and staff procedures remain effective in kitchens, bedrooms, outdoor spaces and noisy venues.
Consider fire doors, walls, floors, ceilings, ducts, service penetrations, concealed spaces and shared construction.
Follow the real cooking, entertainment, laundry, storage, charging, waste, gas and contractor activities.
Check maintenance, opening checks, training, drills, incidents, capacities, handovers and completed actions.
Record premises-specific evidence, priorities, responsible owners, limitations and any specialist work required.
Prepare for the visit
Missing records should not prevent an assessment, but identifying them early helps the assessor test uncertainty and quote for the work accurately.
Use the full preparation guideDetailed supporting guidance
These focused guides answer narrower questions that sit underneath the main hospitality premises assessment.
Use this detailed restaurant fire risk assessment checklist to prepare for an FRA, identify evidence gaps and understand when specialist help is needed.
Read the detailed guide →02Commercial kitchen fire risk assessment guidance covering cooking, extraction, gas, LPG, solid fuel, suppression, escape, records and competence.
Read the detailed guide →03Event organiser fire risk assessment guide covering venue responsibilities, event-specific risk, capacity, temporary structures, suppliers, TENs and emergency plans.
Read the detailed guide →London hospitality evidence
Compare LFB incident trends for restaurants, takeaways, pubs, hotels and event venues across all 33 London authorities. Filter the borough table and download the underlying aggregate data.
Explore the hospitality dataRead the wider London Workplace Fire Safety Report 2026Acting on the findings
The FRA should define the risk and required outcome. Any inspection, design, repair, installation or training must then be scoped competently.
Warning suitable for public, sleeping, noisy and back-of-house areas.
Read the guide →02Escape lighting for dining rooms, bedrooms, stairs and external routes.
Read the guide →03Doors protecting kitchens, bedrooms, stairs and compartment lines.
Read the guide →04Suitable provision, maintenance and staff understanding for actual hazards.
Read the guide →05Investigate suspected gaps in walls, floors, risers, ducts and concealed spaces.
Read the guide →06Venue-specific emergency roles for permanent, temporary and night staff.
Read the guide →Local assessment support
Request assessment support for a single venue, a property taking a new operator or a hospitality portfolio. The quote should be based on the actual use, occupancy and complexity rather than the postcode alone.
Frequently asked questions
Concise answers for operators, owners, landlords, managers and venue teams.
The Fire Safety Order applies to workplaces and most other non-domestic hospitality premises in England. The responsible person must ensure a suitable and sufficient assessment is carried out, recorded in full and kept under review.
Start with the premises’ main use, but combine the relevant guidance where uses overlap. A hotel with a restaurant and wedding suite may need sleeping-accommodation and assembly considerations as well as kitchen and event controls.
Indicative starting ranges on this page reflect relatively straightforward premises. Final cost depends on size, storeys, occupancy, sleeping risk, kitchens, entertainment, temporary structures, mixed use, access, records and report scope.
A small straightforward café may be inspected within part of a working day. A hotel, multi-room venue, nightclub or estate with accommodation and temporary structures can require substantially longer. Ask the assessor to state expected site attendance and report delivery separately.
No. A premises licence, club premises certificate or Temporary Event Notice deals with licensable activities. Relevant conditions and operating arrangements should coordinate with the FRA, but they do not replace it.
Treat it as background information only until it has been checked against the present operator, layout, hazards, equipment, occupancy, licence and management arrangements. A change of operator or use is a strong reason for review.
The operating employer commonly controls day-to-day risks while the landlord may control structure, common routes and shared systems. There can be several responsible persons, who must cooperate, coordinate and share relevant information.
There is no universal annual expiry date in the Fire Safety Order. Review regularly and whenever there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or a significant change occurs, including after refurbishment, changed capacity, new equipment, an incident or altered event use.
A common method and reporting format can support a portfolio, but every premises needs findings based on its own construction, hazards, occupants, systems and management. A generic group document is not a substitute for site-specific assessment.
Compare the named assessor’s relevant hospitality experience, expected time on site, exact areas included, report and action-plan format, limitations, insurance, post-report support and whether competence evidence matches the assignment.
Professional support
Tell us the venue type, postcode and essential context. We can ask about capacity, kitchens, bedrooms, events, access and deadlines when we call.
Sources and limitations
This page provides general information for hospitality premises in England. It is not legal advice, a site-specific assessment or a guarantee of compliance. The detailed premises guides explain their scope and limitations in context.