What is HoReCa?
HoReCa (also Horeca or HORECA) is the food service sector made up of hotels, restaurants and cafes, and by extension bars, pubs and other places where food and drink are prepared and consumed away from home; Dashmote counts 77,000+ horeca outlets in the Netherlands alone, as of October 2026. The term is most common in continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia; UK and US teams usually say hospitality, foodservice or the on-trade. The opportunity is seeing the whole channel, not just the outlets already in your CRM.
Share of open on-premise outlets per channel, floors; the grey remainder is hotels and other venues.
The trusted intelligence layer for teams selling to Hospitality & Retail
What counts as HoReCa
The letters give the core: Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes, with some sources reading the last part as catering. In practice the term covers:
- Hotels, with their bars, restaurants and room service
- Full-service and casual dining restaurants
- Cafes, coffee bars and tea rooms
- Bars, pubs and night venues
- Quick service, takeaway and snack bars
- In some definitions, contract and institutional catering: canteens, hospitals, schools
How to size it
HoReCa universe = hotels + restaurants + cafes + bars and pubs + quick service in the defined area, counted once per physical outlet.
Two rules keep the number usable. Count each outlet once even when it appears in several sources (a hotel with a public bar is one outlet). And split it by channel, because a single horeca count hides whether a market is restaurant-heavy or bar-heavy. The chart above shows how different the mix is: restaurants are about half of open outlets in Germany and the Netherlands, while bars and pubs are 27% in Spain and 23% in Italy. Usage varies at the edges, too: some teams include institutional catering, some exclude takeaway, and delivery-only kitchens are usually left out. Write the definition next to any count; see outlet universe.
Worked example
A coffee brand sizes the HoReCa channel in one city.
| Channel | Outlets | Serve coffee | Share serving coffee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 1,000 | 700 | 70% |
| Cafes and coffee bars | 400 | 400 | 100% |
| Bars and pubs | 500 | 250 | 50% |
| Hotels | 150 | 150 | 100% |
| Quick service | 450 | 200 | 44% |
| Total | 2,500 | 1,700 | 68% |
The HoReCa universe is 2,500 outlets; the addressable part for coffee is 1,700. Cafes are the obvious target, but there are only 400 of them. Restaurants hold 700 coffee-serving outlets where coffee is a secondary line, which makes them the larger prospect pool.
HoReCa vs on-trade vs foodservice
HoReCa names the outlets by type. On-trade names them by where the product is consumed: on the premises. Foodservice usually means the wider out-of-home food market, including the distributors and caterers that supply it and institutional catering; the businesses that run the outlets are foodservice operators. In most sales conversations the three describe nearly the same outlets; the differences sit at the edges (canteens, takeaway, delivery-only kitchens), so define the edge before you count.
HoReCa outlets in one list
Dashmote holds one record per HoReCa outlet with its channel, menu, delivery presence and ownership, so a rep can start from the full market and spend the time with owners. See the outlet database for counts by country and on-premise prospecting for finding the outlets that fit your brand.
Frequently asked questions
What does HoReCa stand for?
HoReCa stands for hotels, restaurants and cafes; some sources read the last part as catering. It is used as a name for the whole out-of-home food and drink sector.
Is HoReCa the same as the on-trade?
Nearly. Both describe outlets where food and drink are consumed on the premises; HoReCa names the outlet types, on-trade names the channel. Takeaway and catering sit at the edges of both.
Does HoReCa include quick service restaurants?
In most current usage yes, as part of restaurants, though some definitions keep quick service and takeaway separate. State your definition next to the count.
Where is the term HoReCa used?
It is common across continental and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia, including in the names of trade fairs and wholesaler divisions. UK and US teams more often say hospitality, foodservice or on-premise.
How many HoReCa outlets are there in a country?
Tens or hundreds of thousands in a mid-sized European country, depending on the definition: as of October 2026, Dashmote counts 77,000+ open on-premise outlets in the Netherlands, 320,000+ in Germany and 290,000+ in the UK, hotels included.