Why do we fall in love with hospitality?

I have been thinking about bringing the podcast back properly. There are around forty episodes already, and every one of them is a conversation with a real person from hospitality telling the story of how they found their way into the industry. Not a polished career story. Not a neat CV. Their actual story. The bit where something happened and hospitality got under their skin.

I always started with the same question: What made you fall in love with hospitality? I think it is still one of the most interesting questions you can ask someone in this industry, because almost all of us have an answer. We might have forgotten it. We might have buried it under rotas, margins, reviews, staffing, repairs, bills and the constant pressure of running the business, but somewhere there is usually a moment. A place. A person. A first shift. A feeling.

For me, it started when I was a child watching my parents in pubs with their friends. At home, like many busy families, life could be tired and strained. There was always something that needed doing. But at the weekend, when my parents were with their friends, something changed. They laughed, argued, relaxed, told stories and became more fully themselves. The pub was where their tribe came together. Even as a child, often tucked away in the skittle alley with crisps and a fizzy drink, I could feel that something important was happening.

That was the magic for me. Not the food or the drink on its own, but what the place made possible. Hospitality gave people somewhere to gather, to belong, to be seen, to feel part of something. It gave adults a place to put down the weight of responsibility for a while and remember who they were beyond work, home and obligation. I did not have the language for it then, but I knew I wanted to be part of it.

What has struck me through years of conversations is how often people have some version of this story. Sometimes it starts as a customer: a childhood pub, a restaurant they were allowed to stay up late in, a café where they felt welcome, a hotel that seemed magical, a person hosting with such care that it made the whole room feel different. Sometimes the moment comes later, when they step into the work itself and realise, perhaps for the first time, that they are useful.

That second version matters just as much. So many people arrive in hospitality not quite knowing where they fit. Some have not thrived at school. Some have been told they are too much, too restless, too distracted, too sensitive, too difficult, or not academic enough. Then they get put on a shift, even in the pot wash, and suddenly they matter. The work is immediate. The team needs them. The plates need to be clean, the glasses need to be ready, the room needs to keep moving. They are part of something, and that can be life-changing.

I think that is one of the reasons hospitality loyalty runs so deep, even among people who know exactly how hard the industry can be. We do not stay because it is easy. We stay because at some point it gave us something. Confidence. Belonging. Purpose. A tribe. A way to contribute. A way to make other people feel something.

Most conversations about running a hospitality business quite rightly come back to the numbers. The money has to work. Margins matter. Payroll matters. Pricing matters. Systems matter. Without commercial discipline, the business will not survive. But if we only talk about that, we miss the thing that made most people start in the first place.

That is where I think operators can get lost. You begin with a feeling, a purpose, a clear sense of what kind of place you want to create, even if you never write it down in a formal mission statement. Then the business starts asking more and more from you.

You listen to advice. You try to improve. You chase the things you are told you should be chasing. And slowly, if you are not careful, the business can drift away from the thing that made it matter.

That is why I keep coming back to this question. Not as nostalgia. Not as a soft exercise. But because remembering why you fell in love with hospitality can tell you a lot about the business you are really trying to build. It can remind you what you care about, what kind of experience you want to create, what sort of team you want to lead, and what you are not willing to lose in the name of being more efficient, more professional or more grown-up.

Hospitality is not only where our customers' stories happen. It is where our stories begin too. The first shift that changed how we saw ourselves. The manager who trusted us. The room we wanted to recreate. The pub, café, restaurant or hotel that made us feel something before we knew what to call it.

Perhaps that is why I want to ask that question again.

What made you fall in love with hospitality?

Because before we talk about strategy, growth, systems, technology, marketing or margins, it is worth remembering the thing that got us hooked in the first place.

Hospitality has always been more than food and drink.

It gives humans somewhere to be human.