Stubborn Hospitality

 


You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in,
knowing tomorrow they might forget you ever sang.
Sing it anyway.

There was a time when Martina McBride’s Sing It Anyway became a personal mantra - muttered under my breath on agency shifts, whispered in the back corridors of venues where standards rose and fell depending on who was on the rota. Working as an agency waiter and a freelance manager, alongside building the Wedding Butler means stepping into rooms with wildly different levels of service, competence, and care. Many of you will know the feeling: doing your best while others around you…aren’t.

Hospitality is one of the few industries where you can technically “do your job” by doing the bare minimum — put plates on tables, clear them again, repeat. Or you can do your job well and deliver genuine guest service. The difference is night and day, and yet both are called “hospitality.”

Throughout my career, I’ve sworn I will only work at one level - my level.
My standards. My consistency. My craft.

It’s that stance that’s carried me forward: team member of the day, team member of the year, and the kind of guest feedback that actually means something.

Every event, every guest, deserves the same level of respect and service.
The ticket price shouldn’t matter.
The room shouldn’t matter.
“Premium” should be a price point, not an attitude.
If a venue has multiple hospitality settings — sports hospitality is the perfect example — then every guest should receive the same attention and the same baseline experience. Yes, one room may have better food or more expensive wine, but the way we treat people should never depend on status.

And if the people around you don’t buy into that?
Do it anyway.
Sing it anyway.

Last year in my room at Aston Villa, we set out to deliver “£1000 service” - to match the premium rooms. We didn’t just match them. We exceeded them.

That’s what hospitality should be.

And that’s what I’ll deliver - regardless of what you’ve paid or where you’re sitting.

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