Stand Out Hospitality
How to Have a Business You Love That Loves You Back
Highly Commended, Business Book Awards 2026
A book for the founders running independent hospitality businesses: pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, small hotels and venues. Written by someone who built and ran her own for 25 years.
Answer a few quick questions about you, then read it straight away or have a signed copy posted to you.
Watch the launch of Stand Out Hospitality
A book for people building independent hospitality businesses
Running a hospitality business is personal. It carries your standards, your reputation and often a big part of who you are. The busier it gets, the easier it is to lose sight of why you started.
Stand Out Hospitality gives you a way to step back. It helps you see your business more clearly and reconnect with what makes it distinctive and worth building.
It was written for the founders behind pubs, cafés, restaurants, bars, small hotels, venues and other hospitality SMEs, who are carrying the weight of the business while trying to protect what made it matter in the first place.
The Five Pillars of Stand Out Hospitality
The book is built on five pillars. Together they give you a simple structure for making decisions about the business as a whole.
Set High Standards
Pride rather than perfection. Know what matters, model it yourself and protect it consistently.
Stand Out
Stop trying to appeal to everyone. Understand what makes you different and become unforgettable to the right people.
Define Your Identity
Know who you are, what you stand for and who you serve, so decisions get easier.
Build Belonging
Create real connection with your team and your customers, so people feel seen and part of something.
Tell a Great Story
Turn experiences into memories, and memories into stories people pass on.
What you'll learn
Why founders lose their sense of direction as the business gets busier
How to reconnect your strategy with what the business stands for
What real customer loyalty looks like
Why identity matters more than another marketing tactic
How standards build confidence without demanding perfection
Why belonging is commercially powerful
What it takes for a hospitality SME to stand out
How to make decisions without losing what made the business valuable
What the judges said
"Highly commended for its warmth, practicality, and clear understanding of the hospitality sector. The judges particularly valued the lived experience and the credibility it brings to the advice."
Business Book Awards judges, 2026
What readers say
About the author, Cassie Davison
Cassie Davison has spent more than 30 years in hospitality, including 25 years building and leading her own founder-led pubs, cafés, restaurants and festival concepts. Her businesses earned 3 AA Rosettes and more than 25 hospitality and business awards. She also holds an MBA.
Today she helps hospitality SMEs think, decide and grow, and helps the organisations that serve them do the same.
Questions about the book
Who is Stand Out Hospitality for?
It's for founders and owners of independent hospitality businesses: pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, small hotels, venues, street food businesses and small groups. Anyone who works with or supports those businesses will find it useful too.
How do I get a copy?
Use the Get your copy button on this page. Answer a few quick questions about you, then read the book straight away or have a signed copy posted to you.
Is it a good book for pub and restaurant owners?
It was written for them. It was Highly Commended at the Business Book Awards 2026, where the judges praised its warmth, its practicality, its clear understanding of the hospitality sector, and the credibility that comes from lived experience.
What are the Five Pillars?
Set High Standards, Stand Out, Define Your Identity, Build Belonging and Tell a Great Story. Together they give founders a simple structure for stepping back from individual tactics and making decisions about the business as a whole.
Who is Cassie Davison?
Cassie is an author, speaker and hospitality SME expert with more than 30 years in the industry, including 25 years building and leading her own founder-led pubs, cafés, restaurants and festival concepts.
Can I order it on Amazon?
Yes. You can also order it on Amazon.
Can my organisation use the book with its customers?
Yes. The thinking in the book is also available as a licensed programme for organisations that want to give their hospitality SME customers practical business support. Work with Cassie
Ready to read Stand Out Hospitality?