Hospitality Meets... with Phil Street

Walk for Well being began during one of the toughest periods hospitality has ever faced.
Craig Prentice had an idea.
Sean Wheeler said yes.
Then the two of them attempted to map out a 20km walk along London’s South Bank…
…and somehow ended up in somebody’s garden.
A reassuringly professional beginning.
Seven years later, Walk for Wellbeing has grown from a small gathering into a nationwide hospitality event, with hosted walks across the UK, people taking part their own way, thousands of walkers and more than half a million pounds raised for Hospitality Action.
For this special edition of Hospitality Meets, Craig and Sean join me to tell the story behind it.
We Cover
How Walk for Well being began during the pandemic
Why walking became the obvious way to reconnect hospitality
Getting spectacularly lost while mapping the original London route
Starting with around 20 people on the South Bank
Growing from three locations to more than a dozen
Why the event was eventually gifted to Hospitality Action
The magic of bringing every level of hospitality together
Walking for your physical and mental well being
Why your dog’s name is easier to remember than its owner’s
Wearing a superhero cape for 20km
Charlie Hodson taking Walk It Your Own Way to another level
Hospitality’s remarkable ability to pull things together at the last minute
The moment the event passed £500,000 raised
Sean destroying Craig’s carefully designed logos in PowerPoint
Why they are, remarkably, still friends
And why connection matters just as much as fundraising

Quotables
“Walking is the way forward.”
“You don’t know their name, but you’ll always know their dog’s name.”
“People do show up and do what they can.”
“For me it’s connection, community and giving back.”
Final Observation
Walk for Wellbeing started with two people deciding that, during an extraordinarily difficult moment, hospitality needed something that brought people together.
Not a race.
Not something to win.
Just a reason to get outside, walk alongside somebody else, talk and perhaps feel slightly better than you did when you started.
Seven years later, the scale has changed enormously.
The principle really hasn’t.
Look after yourself.
Look after the person walking beside you.
And when you’re able to, give something back.
Which feels like a pretty good note for Hospitality Meets to head into a little break on.
Although ideally without ending up in somebody’s garden.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

At 16, Neel Radia had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.
Then somebody in a careers office suggested hospitality.
What followed was a dream job at Walt Disney World, eighteen months backpacking around Australia, a temporary return to the family food business that somehow became 15 years, nearly two decades supporting the National Association of Care Catering, national television appearances, a hospitality pantomime and, eventually, a social enterprise built around cake.
Which is quite some journey from “I’m not really sure what I want to do.”
Neel is somebody who repeatedly comes back to one deceptively simple idea:
If something matters to you, try it.
We Cover
Discovering hospitality almost accidentally at 16
Applying for exactly one gap-year job — Walt Disney World
Learning from Disney culture and wanting to be part of it
Having a five-year Disney management opportunity disappear after 9/11
Taking 18 months out to travel and rethink life
Joining the family business “for a year” — and staying for around 15
Why family businesses are rarely as easy as outsiders assume
Being effectively railroaded into his first chair role at 26
Turning a deeply painful family experience into a drive to improve food and drink in care
Helping champion safer texture-modified food
Almost turning down national leadership because he feared public speaking
Going from media training to appearing on BBC News within weeks
Getting comprehensively outside his comfort zone in a hospitality pantomime
Taking one weekend every month completely offline
Creating Cake for Kindness
Why a piece of cake can mean far more than simply something to eat

Quotables
“If you don’t try, you never know.”
“Sometimes we need to stop looking at everyone else and start looking at ourselves.”
“There’s always time. Always time.”
“It’s better to do something and get it wrong than not do it at all.”
“It’s not just about giving them a cake.”
Final Observation
There are several moments in Neel’s story where the obvious route disappeared.
Disney didn’t happen as planned. A temporary move into the family business became a major part of his career. A role he initially didn’t want ultimately gave him an opportunity to fight for something deeply personal. A fear of public speaking eventually led to national television — and, somehow, a pantomime.
The common denominator is that Neel kept participating.
Kept trying.
Kept saying yes when it mattered.
And today, through Cake for Kindness, that same instinct has become beautifully simple: bring people together, make something with care and use it to make another human being smile.
Sometimes hospitality really can be as simple as being present.
And occasionally bringing cake.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

What pairs beautifully with a £250 bottle of Californian wine?
Apparently, a proper dirty kebab at two o’clock in the morning.
For Bradley Dorrington, co-owner of The Wine Cellar in Bury St Edmunds, that particular combination perfectly captures hospitality: great drinks, questionable late night food and hours spent putting the world to rights with somebody else from the industry.
Bradley opened The Wine Cellar at just 25, after abandoning the traditional university route, turning down an apprenticeship with a space company and throwing himself into hospitality instead.
Four years and more than 50,000 guests later, the doors are still very much open (despite one Facebook critic confidently declaring that “wine bars are so eighties” and would never work)
We Cover
Why hospitality is an industry that finds you
Turning down a career in the space industry for pubs, hotels and wine
Building The Wine Cellar in just six weeks
Not sleeping for six days before opening
Launching a business at 25 and learning to ignore the noise
The customer who asked Bradley to sort out her 26-year-old son
Naming his daughter Margaux after Château Margaux - and attempting to make her tax deductible
Drinking £250 wine with a dirty kebab at 2am
Why genuine hospitality is about far more than service
Imposter syndrome and remembering that you earned your place in the room
Facebook’s Tony and his prediction that wine bars would never work
Weddings, night porters and unexplained happenings at Chilston Park
Why Bradley believes hospitality should be taken seriously as a career

Quotables
“Hospitality is an industry that finds you. You don’t necessarily find it.”
“This is hospitality. I can’t explain it any more than this.”
“I think it kind of almost makes her tax deductible as well, which is quite nice.”
“Wine bars are so eighties. Never gonna work.”
“You’re only as good as your last service. You’re only as good as your last glass of wine you poured.”
Final Observation
For all the entrepreneurial drive in Bradley’s story, the thing that comes through most strongly is how much he simply loves hospitality.
The people. The stories. The late nights. The community. The ridiculous moments that become memories years later.
Near the end of the conversation, Bradley sums it up better than we possibly could:
Hospitality makes memories, happiness, laughter, conversation and friendships.
Sometimes it also makes a £250 bottle of wine taste perfectly appropriate alongside a dirty kebab.
And frankly, we’re completely on board with that.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Christian Wiens spent his teenage years working in restaurants where, on particularly frantic days, they occasionally dealt with the constantly ringing phone by simply ripping it out of the wall.
Years later, after a career building and growing technology businesses, that particular hospitality headache came back into view.
The result is Loman.AI - voice AI built to answer restaurant calls, take orders, make reservations and generally allow the humans inside the restaurant to concentrate on the humans standing in front of them.
Today it handles millions of calls across more than 1,500 customers.
The journey there has involved manually checking restaurant orders, walking around a zoo carrying three phones, personally buying customers’ food when the AI got something wrong and discovering that even the best sales process in the world is powerless against Mercury being in retrograde.
We Cover
Growing up working in restaurants
Building startups before any of them actually worked
Why modern AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating software
The difference between an impressive AI demo and technology a restaurant can genuinely rely on
Why Loman.AI tackled the difficult problem of order taking first
Walking around a zoo monitoring restaurant orders on multiple phones
Personally paying for customer meals when the early technology got things wrong
The restaurant owner who finally got to take his children trick or treating
Why Christian still personally gets involved in customer support
Whether customers actually care if they are speaking to AI
Hospitality as an innovation frontier rather than a legacy industry
And the customer who refused to make a business decision because Mercury was in retrograde

Quotables
“We ripped the phone out of the wall so many times.”
“There’s never been an easier time to build a company.”
“I used to check all of the orders myself.”
“I haven’t been able to go take the kids trick or treating… I was able to do that this year because the phones were handled.”
“I’m definitely interested, but I’m not making any business decisions because Mercury is in retrograde.”
Final Observation
For all the conversation about AI, models, integrations and automation, the most powerful moment in this episode is surprisingly human.
A restaurant owner gets Halloween back with his children because technology took one persistent source of operational pressure away.
That feels like the interesting promise of restaurant technology when it is done properly.
Not replacing hospitality.
Not removing people.
Removing enough of the noise that those people have more time to actually provide it.
Although apparently even artificial intelligence cannot yet overcome the gravitational influence of Mercury.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Hannah Swarbrick-Done followed a boy to Thailand with dreams of an idyllic island life.
The relationship lasted approximately one weekend.
Hannah stayed for two years.
What followed included living in a house made from bottles, running one of the world’s largest pub crawls, guiding travellers around Thailand and becoming sufficiently relaxed about footwear that she once wore two left flip-flops without noticing.
Eventually, Hannah returned to Manchester with plans for her own hostel, including the uniforms, interiors and complete guest experience.
There was just one minor omission.
A business plan.
Today, she is the founder of The Yellow Group, helping hospitality businesses align their people strategy with their plans for growth - while also building AI tools, employing a virtual non-executive director called Simon and developing a highly influential golf account with nearly 400 followers.
We Cover
Following that boy to Thailand - and outlasting the relationship by nearly two years
Travel
Designing an entire hostel before learning how to operate one
The leader who asked Hannah one simple, career-changing question
Why promoting somebody is pointless unless you also build the support around them
The difference between holding a leadership title and actually leading
Why hospitality develops skills that transfer far beyond operations
Being told she was “not very good with data”
How AI removed the barrier between Hannah and the story inside the numbers
Creating Simon, her AI non-executive director
Building The Yellow Group as a collaborative people consultancy
Becoming a professional golfer and part-time influencer

Quotables
“I did follow a boy.”
“I had everything, honestly. It was everything but a business plan.”
“At one point I realised I was wearing flip-flops - the two left feet ones.”
“There are managers, and there are people who are leaders by job role. But an actual leader? They’re not common.”
“I am the funniest thing that happens to me.”
Final Observation
Hannah describes her career as a winding journey, but there is a wonderfully clear thread running through it.
Travel taught her to understand people. Hospitality taught her to support them. One excellent leader noticed what she did naturally and gave her the structure to build a career around it.
Now, Hannah is doing the same for businesses: finding the gaps between what they want to achieve and what their people actually need to succeed.
She may not believe in five-year plans, but she has built something far more useful - curiosity, adaptability and an apparently endless willingness to try the next interesting thing.
Even when that thing is golf.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy