Blog

Big week ahead politically, and if we’re honest, most people in business don’t fully realise just how much politics actually touches what we do day to day. It’s easy to switch off from it. It feels distant. Complicated. Not really our lane. But the reality is, a lot of what we’re all dealing with right now in hospitality isn’t just “how the industry is”, it’s the result of decisions that have been building for years. You could go back decades and pick apart where it’s all gon

Propel daily newsletter this week literately stopped me in my tracks with the collective number of negative news coming through in and around this governments’ decisions affecting our industry, as I was at the same time, looking at ways to navigate our businesses through these endless bills coming through… Seeing it all in black and white, it just hit so hard this week. More than 300 licensed venues have shut in the first three months of 2026. That’s over three closures a day

On Thursday night, we got to head to the opening night of The Ivy Chester Brasserie, and what a fantastic night it was. There has been a lot of talk around this opening, and after seeing it properly for ourselves, it is easy to understand why. The building has been completely transformed from its previous All Bar One days into something that feels elegant, polished and full of personality. We arrived to a rolled out green carpet with a photographer to take every guest’s pictu

After 30+ years in the accommodation business, and now over a decade of running our own hotels, we see SAVVY Hotel Group evolving within the marketplace and believe it offers a real solution to the very real and current challenges many small to medium-sized hoteliers are facing. Officially launching this month, SAVVY Collective has been a year in development and sees unbridled opportunity to support wider independent, non-branded hotels in numerous ways, with very much a “bl

There is something slightly unhinged about taking on a festival that has been happening for 25 years (which wasn’t renewing for year 26 due to the current climate) - and then pulling it all together in 10 weeks! That was basically my life for the last few weeks. Last weekend, we organised our first Food and Drink Festival: the Cheshire and North Wales Food and Drink Festival. And not just any event, but one with history behind it, a loyal audience, traders depending on it,

This week I went to Gail’s for a hot cross bun, heard they were the best so I had to go and try them. I went around 2:30pm for my lunch as I saw they were open until 6pm online . However arrived and asked for my hot cross bun and was told the kitchen had closed at 2pm. I was gutted. And yes, I know in the grand scheme of life this is not exactly a crisis. But it did get me thinking about something hospitality does all the time, often without even realising it: places are tec