Boozr, a social network for pub regulars

An App call Boozr, developed while the pubs were shut in 2020, has been designed to get customers back to hospitality venues as soon they safely reopen, highlighting those with beer gardens set to welcome back customers on 12th April.

With a directory of over 700,000 pubs, bars and clubs worldwide, Boozr provides both locals and visitors an easy way to discover events in their area, and where their friends are going out. It enables quizzers to organise their team; sports fans to watch the match together and mates to meet for a casual drink. Boozr is a social network for people who’d rather do their socialising in real life.

The free App was written by Pete Shaw, an independent developer from London during the months of lockdown the UK experienced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. With hospitality making plans to get back to normal, Boozr offers a way for venues to welcome back customers and engage in their local again.

“I had the idea of Boozr about three years ago,” explains Shaw, “but it wasn’t until the pubs were shut did I have time to write it!”

“My friends and I tend to drink in about half a dozen pubs in the area, but the problem was you could never be quite sure which pub everyone was going to on any given night, or if there were any events we were missing out on in one of the pubs we didn’t visit as often. Boozr was designed to bring us all together without the need for a WhatsApp group or creating a Facebook event every time you wanted to go for a pint.”

Unlike traditional social networks, Boozr revolves around the places friends meet in person. A check-in on Boozr is not lost amongst pictures of cats on Facebook, but shared just with those friends who are also regulars at the same pub. Plans to head to the pub tonight – or next week – are targeted at friends for whom that info is useful.

Boozr’s global directory makes it useful as an App for visitors too. Finding somewhere to grab a pint or watch the footy near your hotel becomes as simple as scanning the home screen, and an interactive map will even show you the bars nearby in the direction you point your phone. And with the partial reopening of pubs to just those with outside spaces from 12th April, Boozr makes it easy to find those too.

Publicans love Boozr because it’s a way to communicate with both regulars and potential new customers alike – and a set of administrative tools provided for business owners allows them not only to easily manage their events, but analyse their effectiveness too.

Lisa Riddiough, General Manager of The Ferry House in East London was part of the trial of Boozr and commented “Our regulars really got the concept of the App quickly and are very enthusiastic about it. It’s so simple, it’s one of those ideas you wonder why someone hadn’t thought of before. I love it!”

Ollie Coulombeau, Manager of The Turk's Head in Twickenham said “We're planning to reopen our beer garden on the 12th April and Boozr is a great way to find us. I can see a lot of our regulars using the App, especially given the pent up demand for socialising.”

Boozr is available now for iPhone and Android, free to download in the iOS App Store or Google Play.