Belonging is independent hospitality’s competitive advantage.
A different way to think about building a business that works for you, not just because of you.
The Reality
99.6% of hospitality is made up of independent businesses.
But you wouldn’t think that if you looked at the industry from the outside.
What we see on our high streets, and what gets talked about most, suggests something very different. Chains, repetition, and a sense that the industry is being shaped somewhere else, by people far removed from the reality of running a place.
But step just slightly off that path, and you see it clearly.
Independent places. Each one different. Each built by someone who has made a series of decisions, often against the odds, to create something that matters to them.
That is the real hospitality industry.
The Gap
And yet, much of the conversation doesn’t reflect that reality.
It comes from businesses structured in a completely different way. Departments, head offices, separation between thinking and doing.
For independent operators, it doesn’t work like that.
The thinking and the doing sit in the same place. The responsibility sits in the same place. You’re not stepping into a role, you’re holding something.
That changes everything.
It’s why advice doesn’t always translate. Why ideas that sound right in theory are harder to apply in practice. And why so many operators quietly feel like they should be further ahead than they are.
Why It Matters
Independent hospitality asks a lot.
But it also holds something that is becoming increasingly rare.
In a world that is faster, noisier, more digital and more disconnected, hospitality creates places where people get to feel human again. Places where people can arrive as they are, connect, and belong.
Every one of us has a place like that.
And if you run one, you’ve created that for someone else.
That’s not a small thing. And it’s not just business.
What Kith & Kin Is
Kith & Kin exists to hold a different perspective on this industry.
Not to tell you how to do it.
Not to reduce it down to a formula.
But to offer a space that reflects the reality of what this is.
A place to step back, think more clearly, and reconnect with what you’re building and why it matters.
Because you are not the only one carrying this.
How This Shows Up
This work takes different forms, depending on where you’re coming from.
The Book
The thinking everything here is built on.
Inside Kith & Kin
A quieter space for independent operators to step back, think clearly, and reconnect with what they’re building.
In Conversation
A live monthly conversation exploring the realities, challenges and opportunities facing independent hospitality.
Speaking & Workshops
Commissioned by organisations and partners to support independent hospitality through real-world leadership and decision-making, grounded in lived experience.
The Collective
A way for suppliers and partners to contribute to, and align with, independent hospitality.
There are thousands of independent businesses, all built differently.
But many are carrying the same weight.
Kith & Kin exists to make that visible, to change how we think about it, and to create a space where it makes sense.
About Cassie Davison
Cassie has spent more than thirty years in independent hospitality, setting up, running and growing her own multi award-winning venues. She knows the highs, the pressures and the invisible emotional weight that operators carry, because she has lived every part of it.
Her work is rooted in real experience, not theory. Cassie has navigated growth, burnout, rebuilding, reinvention and the constant challenge of leading teams while keeping a business alive. She also holds a master's degree in business and has built a reputation for insight, clarity and deep empathy for the people who keep this industry moving.
Kith & Kin is the result of everything she has learned. It is the movement she wished had existed when she was running venues — a place of belonging, honest support and meaningful leadership for independent operators and the partners who champion them.
Cassie now speaks nationally about hospitality leadership, belonging and the Five Pillars at the heart of Stand Out Hospitality.
Founder of Kith & Kin and author of Stand Out Hospitality.
Kith & Kin Podcast
Conversations from across independent hospitality.
The Kith & Kin Podcast is a collection of thoughtful conversations with operators, suppliers and leaders from across the sector, exploring the lived realities of running and supporting independent hospitality businesses.
Hosted by Cassie Davison, the podcast focuses on the human side of the industry. The experiences, challenges and reflections that often sit beneath the surface, and the shared belief that hospitality is at its best when people feel understood and supported.
Cassie’s Writing
Honest reflections on hospitality, leadership, belonging and finding purpose in the work.
Stand Out Hospitality
The book and philosophy behind the Kith & Kin movement.
Stand Out Hospitality is Cassie’s debut book and the foundation of the Kith & Kin philosophy. It explores what makes independent hospitality remarkable, sustainable and meaningful, and offers a practical path for operators who want to run a business that works for them, not just because of them.
The book brings together Cassie’s thirty years of lived operator experience and her belief that belonging is independent hospitality’s greatest competitive advantage.
Stand Out Hospitality is now available and is a number one Amazon bestseller.
Why Kith & Kin
Kith & Kin is more than a platform or a programme. It is a movement built on experience, empathy and ambition for the sector. It is a home for people who believe that independent hospitality deserves better, better support, better leadership and a stronger sense of community.
This is a space for clarity and for courage. A space for people who want to build something meaningful. A space for people who love hospitality, and the people who make it happen.