#249 - Hospitality Meets Paul Hunter - No Plan Survives Real Life

This week, I sat down with the brilliant Paul Hunter, and after nearly a year of trying to make it happen, we finally got the conversation in the can.

And it was worth the wait.

From early days in hospitality (and admittedly being a “bit of a mischievous lad”) to launching hotels across London, navigating redundancy during COVID with twin new borns, and now stepping into a brand new luxury estate role back in Yorkshire… Paul’s journey is packed with honesty, resilience, and a proper appreciation for the twists life throws your way.

We talk about growth, mistakes, leadership, and why sometimes the plan you had isn’t the one you end up living, and that’s exactly where the magic happens.

In this episode, Paul and I get into…

• His early entry into hospitality through weekend jobs and how it quietly became a career
• The “cheeky chappy” phase… and the moment his brother told him to go to London and grow up
• Learning the craft of hotels with Premier Inn, and why fundamentals matter more than flash
• Launching multiple hotels across London and what that teaches you about scale and standards
• Winning an Acorn Award and how that opened his eyes to a bigger world beyond his role
• Managing three different hotel brands in Leicester Square (and juggling three ways of working at once)
• The brutal reality of COVID redundancy with a young family, and navigating uncertainty
• Relocating back to Yorkshire and rebuilding from the ground up
• Launching GuestHouse Hotels’ No.1 York and building something from scratch
• The power of giving people second chances, including working with prison rehabilitation programmes
• Why mistakes aren’t failures, they’re proof you’re actually pushing yourself

Some cracking quoteables from Paul

“You can have a plan… and then something comes along and completely changes it”

“I think that’s where I learned hotels”

“Mistakes aren’t bad things, they just mean you tried something different”

“If you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably playing it too safe”

“Life’s about making mistakes… as long as you learn from them”

“You don’t get that level of success without being great at what you do”

Why this episode is worth your ears

If you’ve ever felt like your career hasn’t gone in a straight line… good. That’s exactly the point.

Paul’s story is a brilliant reminder that growth often comes from the unexpected, whether that’s a tough boss, a redundancy, a relocation, or just saying yes to a conversation you didn’t see coming.

There’s loads in here about leadership, resilience, and the importance of early opportunities in shaping careers, especially in hospitality.

Whether you’re just starting out or leading teams of your own, this one will give you a fresh perspective on what progress actually looks like.

Show Partners

A big shout out to the first of today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform for shift-based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from a single, web-based app.

It makes work simple for your team, too, allowing them to check their rotas, request holiday, and even pick up extra shifts straight from their phones.

Try RotaCloud’s time-saving tools today by heading to https://rotacloud.com/phil

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