Belonging is independent hospitality’s competitive advantage.
Helping independent hospitality be better understood, better supported and more clearly valued.
Kith & Kin Hospitality is the work of Cassie Davison: hospitality entrepreneur, author of Stand Out Hospitality, speaker and operator insight advisor.
Cassie helps organisations understand independent hospitality more clearly through speaking, operator insight, workshops and strategic partnerships, while Kith & Kin gives independent operators a protected place to connect with the work.
This is for the people who run independent hospitality businesses, and for the organisations that want to support, serve, fund or understand them better.
Independent hospitality matters
Independent hospitality is not just a sector.
It is the pub at the heart of a village. The café that knows your order. The restaurant built around someone’s standards and story. The street food business that brings life to a corner of a city. The small hotel that makes somewhere feel like itself.
These are not just places to eat, drink or stay.
They are places where people gather, connect, celebrate, recover, work, talk and belong.
That is why independent hospitality matters.
And it is why understanding it properly matters too.
The reality
Small and medium-sized businesses make up 99.6% of the UK hospitality sector, yet much of the conversation around hospitality is still shaped by the larger, corporate end of the market.
That creates a gap.
Independent hospitality does not work like corporate hospitality in miniature. The thinking and the doing often sit in the same place. The owner is close to every decision, every standard, every problem, every team member, every customer and every risk.
You are not just stepping into a role. You are holding something. That changes everything.
The gap
For independent operators, advice does not always translate. Support does not always land. Products are not always adopted. Opportunities are not always acted on.
Not because operators do not care.
Because they are filtering everything through the reality of the business they are already carrying.
The hours. The margins. The team. The customers. The standards. The decisions. The emotional weight of being the person everyone looks to.
From the outside, that can be hard to understand.
From the inside, it makes perfect sense.
Why this work exists
Kith & Kin Hospitality exists to bring that reality into focus.
For operators, this work creates space to step back, reconnect and remember why the business matters.
For suppliers, funders, business associations, Growth Hubs, trade bodies, corporate partners and sector organisations, it offers a clearer understanding of how independent operators think, decide, respond and prioritise.
The aim is simple: to help independent hospitality be better understood, better supported and more clearly valued.
How this work connects
Cassie Davison
Cassie is the authority behind the work: an award-winning hospitality entrepreneur, author, speaker and advisor with more than 30 years in the industry and 25 years as an independent owner-operator.
[Learn more about Cassie]
Kith & Kin
Kith & Kin is a quieter place for independent hospitality operators to access resources, connect with the ideas in Stand Out Hospitality, join the private operator group by invitation and feel part of something that understands the reality of the work.
Operators will not be sold to inside Kith & Kin.
[Explore Kith & Kin]
Work With Cassie
Cassie works with organisations that want to understand, support, reach or serve independent hospitality operators more effectively.
This includes operator insight diagnostics, Step Back workshops, strategic partnerships, sponsorship, retainers, advisory work and support for organisations that want to engage independent hospitality with more relevance and trust.
[Work with Cassie]
Speaking
Cassie speaks at conferences, trade shows, business events, partner sessions and leadership conversations.
Her keynote explores why independent hospitality matters, what operators are really carrying, and why belonging, standards, story and identity are commercial advantages.
[Book Cassie to speak]
The Book
Stand Out Hospitality is the thinking everything else is built on.
It explores why belonging is independent hospitality’s competitive advantage, and how operators can build businesses people love without losing themselves in the process.
[Read the book]
Kith & Kin Live
Kith & Kin Live events are coming soon.
These will be in-person events for independent hospitality operators, built around the themes of Stand Out Hospitality and the reality of running businesses that matter.
They are designed to create a room that feels useful, human and worth stepping away from the business for.
[Find out more]
About Cassie
Cassie Davison has spent more than 30 years in hospitality, including 25 years as an independent owner-operator.
She has built and led multi-award-winning hospitality businesses, from pubs and cafés to fine dining restaurants and festivals. Her work has been recognised across hospitality, business, food, media and entrepreneurship.
Cassie is the author of Stand Out Hospitality, founder of Kith & Kin, Ambassador for the British Institute of Innkeeping, Strategic Advisor to De Montfort University Business School, and has been a judge for the Licensee of the Year Awards.
Her work is rooted in lived experience, not theory.
She knows what it feels like to build businesses people love while carrying the risk, pressure, standards, team, customers and constant decision-making that come with running them.
She also knows how to translate that reality for the organisations trying to support, fund, serve or engage independent operators.
[Learn more about Cassie]
Start here
If you are an independent hospitality operator, start with Kith & Kin or the book.
If you are planning an event, conference or leadership conversation, explore Cassie’s speaking.
If you are a supplier, funder, business association, Growth Hub, corporate partner or sector organisation trying to understand independent hospitality more clearly, visit Work With Cassie.
[Explore Kith & Kin]
[Work with Cassie]
[Book Cassie to speak]
[Read the book]
Stay in the loop
For updates on Kith & Kin, Stand Out Hospitality, future live events, operator insight and Cassie’s latest work, join the mailing list.
[Sign up]