Steven Hesketh and Natalie Reeves Billing launch new children’s book

Bee Our Guest book launches to cross sector Industry support and hits #2 Best Seller on Amazon Children’s Listing.

Bee Our Guest, the new children’s book championing hospitality careers for ages 7–10, launched on Thursday 18 September at The Clubhouse, Parr Street, and it blew past expectations. 

The room was packed with leaders from hospitality and education, the Q&A session with Steven Hesketh and Natalie Reeves Billing was inspirational, and by the end of launch day the book had climbed to #2 on Amazon’s bestseller rankings, sitting alongside the likes of David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny book.

Created by hospitality leader Steven Hesketh, Liverpool author Natalie Reeves Billing, and illustrator Hannah Jesse, Bee Our Guest is a full-colour story that sneaks real hospitality roles, standards, and teamwork into a fun narrative kids actually want to read. The mission is simple: get hospitality on children’s radars early, show pride and skill behind the scenes, and rebuild the pipeline of talent our industry needs.

Steven Hesketh, founder of Hospitality Hero and the Savvy Hotels Group said:

“We set ourselves a ridiculous target, but our industry showed up. Hitting #2 on launch day wasn’t luck, it was people buying and supporting us because they know we need to fix the perception of hospitality at the source: primary school. We’re not waiting for someone else to do it.”

“We’re aiming to take Bee Our Guest into classrooms nationwide.”

The plan: build teacher-friendly lesson packs, run assemblies/author visits, and line up partnerships with colleges and employers so early curiosity can lead to real experience. 

Steven Hesketh through his Hospitality Hero agenda, was so concerned that the Hospitality Industry talent pipeline is drying up, so he decided to stop moaning about it and take action!

Too many kids don’t even see hospitality as a “real” career or even understand its existence; and by the time they hit secondary school, the door’s already half-shut, with little vision or understanding of what Hospitality is.

Steven wanted to change this story, tackle the knowledge of kids at primary school age, so he teamed up with a fantastic Liverpool Children’s author Natalie Reeves Billing and illustrator Hannah Jesse to build a story that simply shows and educates on the real jobs, opportunities and teamwork within Hospitality. The goal is simple: Put the Hospitality Industry on children’s radar, give teachers something to plug-and-play, and start rebuilding pride in an industry that keeps our towns and cities alive. That’s the mission. No gloss. Just action.

Steven Hesketh has spent 30+ years in Hospitality running Hotels, Restaurants, Bars, Events and building teams to deliver Experiential Hospitality. He’s the founder of Hospitality Hero and the Savvy Hotel Group, operating independent, community-rooted venues across the North West and North Wales, including The Chester Townhouse and Hotel Wrexham plus he is the Co-Owner of the fabulous 3 & ½ Day Family Music Festival – Devafest attracting 30,000 people to Cholmondeley Castle every August. 

He spends as much time outside hotel walls as inside them, supporting local hospitality associations in Liverpool, Chester and Cheshire East, and creates hospitality ecosystems, by pulling the sector together around practical stuff that moves the needle in workforce, training, guest experience, and profitability. 

Through the Hospitality Hero brand, he delivers:

“The Art of Hospitality” Conference series – educating those in Industry

“Hospitality Connect” Programs, he brings secondary school students into his hotels and works with wider hotel partners to join the program and partner with High Schools to share and deliver real life and live training within their hotels for students to undertake physical skills training across Hotel Departments.

“Hospitality Edge” Initiatives, picks up all those outside of Education, Employment & Training and delivers numerous training opportunities within practical lessons upskilling & training within live environment training opportunities.

Finally focusing on young school kids, he delivers the first dedicated children’s book “Bee Our Guest” to simply introduce their first understanding of Hospitality though a great story and pictures.

Where there’s a chance to link producers, educators, and operators, festivals, mini-festivals, colleges, skills partners, Steven’s usually in the middle of making it happen if Hospitality is at the forefront.

Find out more about Bee Our Guest here.

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