The Stay Inn: 'We founded a virtual pub in lockdown and now we've celebrated our fifth anniversary with 17,000 members'

But Whyte soon found himself with another project on his hands, a virtual pub – The Stay Inn. It opened its doors as a group on Facebook on April 5, 2020, overseen from Ossett and Gawthorpe by Whyte, with friends Howard Lawton and Robert Ingham.

"You couldn’t go out to the pub, so we thought right let’s bring the pub to the people,” Whyte recalls.

Within a matter of days, hundreds of people across the country had joined the group, with many sharing ‘cheers’ photos of them enjoying a drink at home or in their gardens.

“Nobody knew what was happening or how long we’d be at home for,” says Whyte, who now works as operations manager for a company looking after 30 pubs. “We thought once everybody returned back to normal, it would die off. There’d be no need for it.

"But people went back to work for a while and then there was another lockdown and it grew again. It went from strength to strength. It went from nought to 60 in a matter of months."

Today, The Stay Inn has 17,000 members, from 105 countries across the globe. Much chatter still takes place virtually, but groups of members have also enjoyed in-person get togethers too.

The latest meet-up took place earlier this month, five years to the day since the virtual pub was launched. Inn Mates, as members call themselves, travelled to the Ossett Central Social Club from all over the country to attend.

The tagline, Whyte says, rings as true half a decade on as it ever did – there are no strangers at The Stay Inn, just friends you haven’t met yet.

"I have had a lot of messages saying if it wasn’t for The Stay Inn, people wouldn’t have got through (lockdown), because a lot of people didn’t see anyone during that time. You couldn’t go out and visit people and a lot of people stuck to those rules.

"So we (the group) were the only ones sometimes that people would have any contact with. Even though you didn’t see people, you were online chatting and messaging all the time and I think that’s how it grew and got so special.

"People were forming friendships with total strangers and opening up to them, and looking out for each other.”

"it’s unique,” he continues, “and I don’t think anybody could ever replicate it because of how it was all set up. It’s a safe haven for a lot of people...Friendships have been formed from all walks of life….It’s not just the biggest virtual pub online, it’s more than that. It’s a caring community, it really is.”