Field
Notes

Written on the road, mostly on the way to somewhere else.

Shorter pieces than the consulting work and considerably less polished, which is rather the point. Sometimes an industry observation, sometimes a family trip that went sideways, sometimes just something I ate that I am still thinking about.

Theme
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IndustryVietnam

No turning back

Hospitality Rides takes thirty industry leaders 400km across mountainous terrain for two charities that sit at the heart of the sector. More than £1m raised so far, with hundreds of thousands more on this ride alone, going to the Licensed Trade Charity and Only A Pavement Away. We were meant to be in Cuba until geopolitics intervened and Katy Moses rerouted the whole operation to Vietnam in a matter of days. I am no fitness fanatic and my natural habitat is near the back of the pack, within polite conversation distance of the doctor. But I started washing pots at thirteen and I know how exposed people in this industry can be. This is hospitality looking after its own.

Hospitality Rides, Vietnam
Food & DrinkEngland

The children's menu has grown up

Ten days, several hundred miles and two children in the back seat at 30-plus degrees. Less a holiday than a live stress test of British family hospitality. The encouraging news is the tide has risen: broader menus, better quality, far less reliance on the deep fryer. Blockhouse at The Sheet Anchor stretched to a children's steak. Adam Handling's Loch & The Tyne went shorter but more considered. The answer was never to remove the safe choices. It was to stop making safety the only choice available. Full thoughts in Propel Premium Opinion this week.

The Loch & The Tyne
FamilyIsle of Arran, Scotland

Be fast or be fabulous

Fifteen countries with the children so far. The pattern is clear: mainstream hotels still treat families as a logistical complication rather than a guest segment. Auchrannie on Arran was the opposite, anticipating the ferry check-in peak with extra lobby stations and a text when the room was ready early. If families are not your strategic focus, at least be frictionless. If you want to win the category, commit properly. The middle ground pleases nobody. Children remember the marshmallow moment far longer than the thread count.

Auchrannie, Isle of Arran
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