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Recent changes in ownership and consumption patterns have brought many pub operators to follow strategies that are more concerned with a retailing orientation.• Many of the companies operating pubs are aiming to grow sales and respond quickly to changes in consumer tastes and fashions. They no longer own brewing facilities and frequently control whole estates of pubs that are marginal and where the actions, skills and motivations of local unit managers are crucial for the success or failure of the property. • The exploration of different forms of indirect control via lease arrangementsis recognition of the need to provide more entrepreneurial incentives for those managing these more marginal properties. In many ways, it is possible to view pubs owned by chains operated through both tenancies and leasing as a form of franchising.• The literature and research on franchising hospitality services can help inform a study of leasehold and tenanted relationships in licensed retailing. Franchising in licensed retailing is almost wholly based on the tenanted/leased agreements.• This paper argues that in this more retailing and service quality competitive environment, pub operating companies will need to use more traditional franchising approaches than have been practised in the past.

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The research reported on in this paper suggests that people who buy hotels in Blackpool are doing so for a cluster of lifestyle reasons. Few have classic entrepreneurial ambitions to make a lot of money and own a chain of hotels. Many have a lifelong ambition to own a hotel, or some business that gives them greater control of their lives, or because they think they will enjoy the life of hotel ownership. The vast majority of these interviewees had sold a domestic property to buy the hotel, and few had any work experience of hotel work, or even the hospitality sector. This lack of experience of the operational requirements of the business was further compounded by a lack of management skills, or small business experience. As a consequence, the professional skills of hotel management are often below par and hotel ownership changes hands at an unacceptable rate. Sometimes this results in outright business failure, but more often, is the result of individuals feeling that the reality of hotel ownership has not matched their dreams. The low skill base of the almost permanent cadre of new owners creates problems for tourism authorities keen to develop the quality profile of visitor experiences. There is limited development of the hotel stock as individual properties change hands on a regular basis and no one owner stays long enough to refurbish the property. The low skill base of owners can also limit the quality tourism experiences of services provided.

Pub-operating companies have undergone major changes in their business organization over recent years. One of the effects of the 'Beer Orders' has been to break up the large estates of pubs directly tied to a beer producer.• In many cases, the larger brewers have directly managed their estate of large highvolume pubs and bars. More typically, however, companies control pubs in indirectly managed forms. Tenancies and leases offer the pub operator strategies that allow them to operate on a larger scale with less risk because the smaller firm takes the risk and also has the entrepreneurial motives to build the business.• In many ways, this limited form of franchising appears to offer many benefits as a business strategy because it enables the pub operator to trade at a higher scale and at lower risk. The problem is that many companies have a limited understanding of the motives of the small-firm operators who are running their pubs as tenants or lessees.• Whilst the key motive for indirect forms of pub control was to maintain outlets for the beer product, these strategies are flawed when properties need to be run as retail outlets, intent on maximizing sales and business growth.• This paper explores some of the motives of the small firms who operate pubs via tenancy and lessee arrangements and the difficulties that exist between the pub-operating companies and their small-firm partners.