#242 - Hospitality Meets Caitlin Owens - Regenerative Hospitality

Building a Regenerative Farm StayThis week on Hospitality Meets, Phil sits down with Caitlin Owens, Managing Director and co-owner of Fowlescombe Farm, a luxury farm stay in Devon built on regenerative farming principles.What started as a family meat farm became a pubWhat started as a consulting career became a hospitality adventure.What started as “how hard can it be?” became… chlorine spraying out of beer lines.This episode is about naivety, chaos, regenerative farming, and why hospitality might just be the most beautifully human industry of them all.In This EpisodeQuitting consultancy during lockdown to learn hospitality in SwitzerlandRunning a pub during the wild summer of 2021The science (and danger) of cleaning beer linesWhy hospitality operates permanently on the edge of chaosWhat consulting really taught her (hint: it’s not insurance maths)Bringing regenerative farming into luxury hospitalityWhy “low choice, high quality” beats endless optionsThe rise of the farm stay experienceDescribing humanity to a Martian (yes, really)From Farm to Fork, For RealFowlscombe isn’t just “farm to table” as a marketing lineThe farm is regenerativeThe soil health is measuredAnimals fertilise the land naturallyMonoculture is avoidedThe hospitality exists because of the land, not the other way aroundChaos, Sheep & Beer ShowersRunning the family pub (The Millbrook) during post-lockdown mania meant:Chlorine explosions in the cellarSmelling permanently of aleA sheep on a lead turning up for the village nativityA horse tied to the drainpipe while the chef fed it carrotsSkills from “Outside” HospitalityCaitlin didn’t climb the traditional hospitality ladder.Her background in consultancy gave her:Structured thinkingClear communicationConfidence with tech providersThe ability to not be messed around by suppliersA reminder that hospitality doesn’t need to be a closed shop.Different backgrounds make stronger teams.Regenerative HospitalityFor Caitlin, sustainability isn’t just environmental.It’s about:Less wasteFewer food milesLower choice, higher qualityDoing less, but doing it exceptionally wellYou won’t find 24-hour room service and 200 menu options.You’ll find five carefully chosen cocktails.One menu per day.Ingredients picked from the garden.Intentional. Grounded. Memorable.Standout Line“Hospitality operates on the edge of chaos. The critical success factor is staying on the right side of it”This is an episode about:Taking risks.Backing instinct.Building something rooted in the land.And discovering that sometimes, the best leadership inspiration comes from Ted Lasso.Show PartnersA 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/philThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy