Martyn's Law for hotels and B&Bs

A hotel is one of the uses Martyn’s Law covers, so the question is rarely whether the type of business counts — it does — but whether you reach the numbers. And the number that catches hotels out is not how many rooms you have. It is everyone on the site at the same time: residents, people in the restaurant and bar, a function in full swing, and your staff. A smallish hotel can get to 200 on a busy evening without ever feeling busy for its size.

The short version

• Hotels are a use the law covers, so being in scope comes down to the 200 count — whether 200 or more people may be present at the same time, from time to time.
• Count the whole site together: bedrooms, restaurant, bar, spa, function rooms and staff. It is the combined peak that matters, not any one room.
• Most small B&Bs and guest houses never reach 200 at once, so in practice they are out of scope — it is the number keeping them out, not a special exemption.
• A big wedding or conference can push the whole site over 200, or even over 800 — and the Enhanced Tier — “from time to time”. Hotels do not get the worship/education relief, so 800+ does mean the Enhanced Tier.
• The responsible person is normally the hotel operator, because you control the premises — even on the nights someone hires your function room.
• It is not in force yet. The duties won’t start before April 2027 — but there is no reason to wait, and getting ready is not onerous.

Does Martyn’s Law apply to my hotel?

Probably, if you are any size above a guest house — but it depends on your numbers, not your star rating. A hotel is one of the premises uses the law lists, so you do not have to argue about whether the business “counts”. What decides it is whether it is reasonable to expect 200 or more people present at the same time, from time to time. Reach that and you are in scope; stay below it and you are not.

The catch is that the 200 is counted across the whole site at once, and it includes your staff — reception, kitchen, housekeeping, bar, events team — not just paying guests. On an ordinary night that may be comfortably under 200. On a night with a full restaurant, a busy bar, a wedding in the function suite and a hotel full of residents, the combined total is what you measure, and that is where a mid-size hotel tips over. Our guide how to work out if you reach 200 walks through the count, and it is worth writing down your reasoning either way.

I run a small B&B — am I really caught by this?

Almost certainly not, but for a simple reason: the numbers. A B&B or guest house with a handful of rooms is never going to have 200 people in it at the same time, so it falls below the threshold and is out of scope. That is the honest answer — it is the headcount keeping you out, not a carve-out for small accommodation.

So the thing to watch is not the bedrooms but anything that brings a crowd. If your B&B also has a tea room open to the public, hosts the occasional wedding in a marquee on the lawn, or opens a bar for events, picture the fullest that gets and count that. If even your busiest day stays well under 200, you can set this aside with a clear conscience — just note down how you reached that figure.

Do I count the restaurant, bar, spa and function room separately, or all together?

For a hotel you run as one business, count them together. The guidance treats a hotel with its restaurant, bar, spa or gym and its grounds as one set of premises under your control, and the 200 and 800 tests apply to everyone present across the lot at the same time. So you are not looking for a single room that holds 200 — you are adding up the people spread across the building on your busiest evening.

This is the point most hotels miss. Each part on its own can feel modest — forty in the restaurant, thirty at the bar, a hundred and twenty at a function, residents coming and going, plus your team — and the site as a whole is comfortably past 200. (A concession run by a genuinely separate operator, say a franchised restaurant with its own management, can be its own premises; but where you run everything, it is one count.)

Can a wedding or a conference push us up into the Enhanced Tier?

Yes — if it is the kind of thing you do often enough to expect. The test is the peak number who may be present “from time to time”, not the quiet midweek average. If your function suite regularly hosts events that take the whole site past 800, it is fair to say 800 or more can reasonably be expected, and the hotel sits in the Enhanced Tier. A hotel that reliably tops 200 but not 800 is in the Standard Tier.

Hotels do not get the relief that keeps places of worship and schools in the Standard Tier whatever their numbers — so for a hotel, 800+ genuinely does mean the Enhanced Tier, with its heavier duties. The nuance runs the other way too: a genuinely unexpected one-off — a party that blows up at short notice and is not expected to happen again — does not change your tier. It is the pattern you can reasonably foresee that sets where you sit, so plan around the events you actually host, not the freak night.

Is a wedding or function at our hotel a “qualifying event” as well?

Usually not, and it is worth being clear why. A qualifying event is a separate category for things like a ticketed festival: 800 or more people, open to the public, with controlled entry behind a secure perimeter. A private wedding, a company conference or a club dinner is invitation only — not open to the public — so however large it is, it is not a qualifying event. It simply counts towards your premises headcount, as above.

And if your hotel is already in the Enhanced Tier as premises, an event you host there is not treated as a separate qualifying event on top — it is covered by the duties you already hold for the premises. You just make sure your plans work for that event as well as for an ordinary day. If you do host large ticketed public events, our guide what counts as a qualifying event? sets out that test in full.

Who is responsible — us, or the people who hire the function room?

Normally you, the hotel operator, because the responsible person is whoever controls the premises — possession of it and the right to make decisions about how it is run. A couple hiring your suite for their wedding, or a company booking a conference, are using your building for the day; they do not take control of it, so the duty stays with you.

It can shift where an organiser genuinely takes the place over — hires a space under a contract that hands them control of it for the duration of their event — in which case that organiser can be the responsible person for the event itself. But for the everyday pattern of a hotel letting out a function room while its own staff run the building, the hotel is the responsible person. Our guide hall hire: who is responsible? covers where that line falls.

So what does this actually ask of a hotel?

If you are in the Standard Tier, two things once the law is in force. First, notify the regulator (the SIA) that you are the responsible person for the premises — the portal for that is not open yet, so there is nothing to register today. Second, put simple public protection procedures in place, so far as is reasonably practicable: how you would get people out (evacuation), move them somewhere safer inside (invacuation), secure the building (lockdown), and tell people what is happening (communication).

There is no mandatory equipment, no building works, no certified course and no consultant — see what you do not have to buy. What matters is that the people running the floor on a busy night — duty manager, reception, bar and events staff — are aware of the procedures and ready to act. In the Enhanced Tier you also assess and, so far as is reasonably practicable, put in place public protection measures — things like monitoring, how people move through the site, physical security and keeping information safe — document your approach and provide it to the regulator, with a named senior person accountable. For a hotel with shift patterns and a changing team, the useful version of all this is agreeing in advance who takes charge and how you would reach guests spread across bedrooms, bar and a function room at once.

You have time — but no reason to wait

Martyn’s Law is not in force yet. The duties won’t start before April 2027, after a minimum 24-month implementation period — so there is no deadline bearing down on you. But there is no reason to put it off either. Working out whether you are in scope takes an afternoon, and for most hotels putting the Standard Tier in place is mostly a matter of agreeing with your team what you would do and making sure the people on shift know it. Do it calmly now rather than against the clock later.

Where the definitive answer is

For definitive information about whether your premises or event is within scope and what is required, refer to the current statutory guidance issued under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025.