Humans of Hospitality

Set in 58 acres of parkland at the end of a magnificent sea loch, The Torridon has one of the most spectacular and idyllic locations in the country.

What Dan, his wife Rohaise and the team have created in the Torridon is awesome. So remote with the challenges of staffing and weather and access and much more, yet they have an incredible reputation. As treasurer of the Master Innholders, Chairman of Pride of Britain Hotels and Director of Luxury Scotland Consortium Dan’s also got a pretty broad perspective and some great nuggets of wisdom for all in hospitality. Not bad for a city trader with no desire to work anywhere near hospitality when he first set off on his career.

Dan and I touch on creative thinking when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff in such remote locations, sustainability and kitchen gardens, diversifying styles of accommodation, rapidly switching target markets, the visit from the BBC team and the subsequent incredible exposure, as well as setting up an outdoor pursuits business in a beautiful and remote part of the countryside.

I loved chatting with Dan and have a huge amount of respect for his business acumen and generally just being a great example of another awesome Human of Hospitality. As so many of us do, Dan is working in the industry for the right reasons. Yes, absolutely a good businessmen, but more than that a good human, with a desire to serve not only his guests, but the industry at large, whilst developing a team that can go off out into the broader world of hospitality.

Check out the Torridon on the BBC show via the Iplayer

Learn more via the Torridon website, follow Dan himself on Twitter or see some beautiful photos via their instagram page. And don't forget to sign up for the weekly newsletter via the podcast website.

Zoe is from the 'ecological land cooperative' (ELC) - a 'Not For Profit' trying to solve some of the problems of excessively large farms, often mono-culture dominated and using too many chemicals, having a very detrimental impact on the land and ecosystem.

I speak to many people being inspired to enter the world of hospitality, not only to sell better quality more ethical food to the consumer, but also interested in how to grow this food and actually produce it in the first place. If you're interested in how to have a positive impact on the food you buy, or how it is grown, you will enjoy this weeks conversation.

The ELC want to see a living, working countryside where land is valued as a way to enhance the good of community, countryside and the natural world. Revitalising rural economies.

They want to see low-impact, land-based livelihoods flourish. The stewardship of land to create healthful, wholesome and ecologically sound food and land-based products that benefit people and the biosphere.

And they do this in a number of ways, that starts with buying land and finding stewards who want to set up their own business. They help spread the cost of this land over a number of years and help the new stewards with planning to actually be allowed to live on the land whilst they regenerate and farm it.

I think ELC is great NFP. Not only does it have great aspirations, but it already has a number of successful farms up and running and actually making a difference. But it is early days and so much more can be done. I hope some of you listening to this conversation will be inspired to want to set up your own small scale business on a piece of land. But many of you will want to support the incredible work this charity does. And even more of you will think about where you are buying your food and where you can support a local veg box scheme.

For further inspiration check out the movie 'the biggest little farm' or 'kiss the ground'.

Read more about the ELC on the web. And here are a couple of other great sources of info that crops up in our chat:

Rocco Bova is living quite the hospitality adventure. I wanted to catch up with him for a few reasons.

Firstly he’s running a health resort in Mexico, a fascinating country. Sometimes a reputation for drug cartels, kidnapping and more recently a catastrophic impact of COVID-19. But Rocco loves Mexico, and he’s lived in enough countries to be able to make an objective decision.

Secondly, with people maybe questioning why they work in hospitality and wondering what the future might hold, Rocco demonstrates just what an exciting and varied career it can provide. He’s worked in all the corners of the globe, really getting to know local cultures and people as he lives in, rather than travels through, so many different countries. It’s one of the great opportunities a career in hospitality can provide. But I wanted to chat realistically about the pros and cons. Is a family life still possible, is managing different cultures a challenge, does he miss the comforts of a regular home life. I won’t spoil the conversation, but safe to say Rocco absolutely LOVES hospitality and all the adventurous opportunities it has created for him.

Finally Rocco runs a wellness resort, and has some strong views on the vortex of negative thinking and what we should all be doing, both mentally and physically to maintain a positive outlook and make the most of our limited time on earth.

We also chat through some practical tips on social media management, how to make guests feel like they are staying with their mother for their vacations, how excited he is that his kids are following in his footsteps and studying hospitality and the global human values of respect love and trust and so much more.

Find out more about Chable resorts on the website or follow Rocco himself on instagram or linkedIn

Exclusive is a superb example of what can be achieved in the genuine world of hospitality when not dominated by venture capitalists or short term city demands. Exclusive is family owned. They take a long term view, are not hugely leveraged and as you’ll hear in this conversation Danny is a genuine human with a sincere love of the hospitality sector.

Danny has also been very helpful in helping England win the Rugby Wold cup, but I’ll let him tell that story.

We touch on Danny’s role as the Chair of Master Innholders and what that has meant to him, UK Hospitality comes up again and we get into the details of the operational changes Exclusive have made in re-opening after Pandemic lockdown. The customer and team response to those changes has been positive, but Danny and I also chew the fat on our expectations of trade as we flip from leisure to business in autumn. Even Christmas comes up in this wide ranging and enjoyable conversation with one of the good eggs.

Follow Danny on Instagram or Twitter

Find out more about Exclusive Collection here

This is the first post pandemic episode I’ve done representing what is such a vibrant, energised, important and all too neglected part of the incredible hospitality sector - the street food traders. And when I say neglected I mean that so many of them are small, independent operators with no premises and no staff, so generally don’t qualify for grants or furloughing cash. It’s heart breaking to imagine the hardship that some of these incredible hospitality humans are facing during this crisis.

As well as their members we touch on some of the Kerb challenges such as rents and the #nationaltimeout campaign and what that would mean for their Seven Dials site, as well as the rest of the industry. Simon and kerb were heavily in negotiations over rents and their CBILS application literally pre and post this recording.

Despite the chaos of our sector, there was plenty of positivity to chat about too, such as the opportunities for street food to be one of the first sectors to rebound with its natural al fresco credentials.

It was also great to hear about some of the initiatives simon and his team are working on to support their members along with your chance to check out some free resources via the spinout onto YouTube of some of their inkerbator information.