# #253 - Hospitality Meets Guy Freedman - Fun, Fudge & Floodwater

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/hospitality-meets-with-phil-street-122320/253-hospitality-meets-guy-freedman-fun-fudge-floodwater
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/hospitality-meets-with-phil-street-122320/253-hospitality-meets-guy-freedman-fun-fudge-floodwater.md
Podcast: [Hospitality Meets... with Phil Street](https://stenobird.com/podcast/hospitality-meets-with-phil-street-122320)
Published: 2026-04-29T19:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.hospitalitymeets.co.uk/
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/episodes.captivate.fm/episode/070ae9aa-84fe-4e65-9b8e-a375d72402bb.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hospitality-meets-with-phil-street-122320/episodes/253-hospitality-meets-guy-freedman-fun-fudge-floodwater
Duration seconds: 3164

## Resource

This week, I sat down with the brilliant Guy Freedman, Hotel Director at The Pig & The Pig in the Wall, and honestly, this one felt like a giant exhale. A conversation about leadership, yes. Culture, absolutely. But also… naked guests, rogue deer, flood rescues in a Land Rover, student days in a fudge kitchen, and why maybe fun has been unfairly underestimated as a serious business strategy. Guy’s journey, from a self-confessed chatty teenager being redirected out of the kitchen and into front of house, to Hotel Director at The Pig - is packed with warmth, mischief, humility and some beautifully simple thinking about what makes hospitality…well... hospitality. In this episode, Guy and I get into… How a careers adviser effectively turned “I like eating and drinking” into a career path 😅 Why his kitchen career lasted roughly three weeks Student jobs in fudge kitchens, pot washing and night cleaning, and why every odd job teaches you something Falling for The Pig over a hungover lunch… then resigning before he even had the job Why great hospitality businesses recruit personality first, train skill second Growing through the ranks at The Pig and opening a hotel just in time for COVID (timing 👀) Why fun at work isn’t fluff, it’s culture Turning staffing shortages into team challenges, not team stress The now-legendary flood day Why adversity often creates the best guest experiences Working nights in London and the surprisingly frequent issue of naked guests locking themselves out of rooms Rogue animals, escaped deer, wandering bullocks… and the operational realities no hotel school prepares you for Some cracking quote-ables from Guy “We’ve always recruited personality.” “I got to play at those hotels” “If we can make it fun, people want to come to work” “Don’t take a st…

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## Transcript

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