Series: Recruitment, AI & HR in the hospitality industry · Post #27 of 90
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The guest experience doesn’t start under the bed
Or: Why we shouldn’t optimise experiences, but rather make them possible
A few days ago, I came across a post on LinkedIn.
It showed a small stand-up display designed to be placed under the bed. If a guest spots it, they receive a voucher for a drink at the hotel bar.
A charming idea, a gesture designed to bring a smile to someone’s face. With a touch of humour. And certainly well-intentioned.
I had to smile.
Not because of the monster under the bed.
But because I immediately thought of the housekeeping team.
Yes, I know. That doesn’t sound very romantic.
But that’s precisely where the problem lies.
Whilst the marketing team is thinking about memorable guest experiences, the housekeeping team is already wondering how this display stand will survive the next few weeks. Because reality often looks very different from the presentation on LinkedIn.
If the area under the bed isn’t cleaned thoroughly, the display stand gathers dust. If it is cleaned thoroughly, sooner or later a hoover will go over it. Afterwards, the witty marketing display stand is put back in place, more haphazardly than properly. A little more crooked. A little more crumpled. Eventually, what started as a lovingly conceived idea with excellent copy turns into an overlooked advertising medium – or the exact opposite: a source of irritation, because for the guest who finds it, it’s a sign of how little care and consideration has gone into preparing the room for them.
Take my word for it, take the word of someone with over 30 years’ experience as a hotel inspector and auditor. I’ve come across plenty of such displays.
This is precisely where, for me, a much broader discussion begins.
Guest experience isn’t created in marketing. It’s created within the system.
In my career, I’ve seen enough concept presentations where a single department had a very good idea. And I’ve experienced enough housekeeping shifts where that very same idea became just another item on an already overlong to-do list. Both are true. Both happen in the same hotel, often on the same day.
Far too often, we develop measures from the perspective of a single department.
Marketing wants to surprise guests. Housekeeping wants to work efficiently. Reception wants check-in to run as smoothly as possible. The restaurant wants to generate additional sales.
Each idea makes sense in its own right.
The problem arises when nobody asks: what does this idea actually mean for everyone else?
That is precisely where it is decided whether a good idea will turn into a good experience or simply create extra work.
We optimise touchpoints. But we forget about the journey.
For years, we’ve been talking about the customer journey, the guest journey, the candidate journey and the employee journey.
Each journey is considered in isolation. Each is given its own processes, its own KPIs, its own optimisation measures.
And at some point, the company consists solely of perfectly optimised individual parts. Yet this does not automatically make the overall system work better. This is one of the biggest fallacies of modern organisations, which I encounter in businesses of all sizes, from owner-managed boutique hotels to chains with headquarters far removed from the front desk.
We view people in terms of their roles: guest, applicant, employee, customer.
Yet it is always the same person. With the same needs. They want to be able to find their way around. They want to be understood. They want to be surprised. Above all, however, they want to feel that someone has put some thought into it.
Not into a process. But into them.
The best memories cannot be planned
Many hotels invest a great deal of time in welcome cards, giveaways or standardised gifts. Some of these are a success. Others end up unnoticed in the bin.
If you ask guests years later about their fondest hotel experience, they rarely mention a door hanger or a drink voucher.
They talk about the receptionist who remembered their name and even recalled a funny incident from their stay back then. About the barman who still remembered their favourite drink. About the chambermaid who noticed that their child had lost their cuddly toy and, in a few simple steps, turned it into a little story. They talk about the ritual of washing their hands and choosing their very own personal bar of soap on arrival, even before the formal check-in. They recall how, on just the second day of their 14-day holiday, the breakfast waiter already knew that they needed two cappuccinos to wake up. They remember the head chef who had falafel specially prepared because it wasn’t on offer at the buffet that day, but it’s their son’s favourite dish. And the chambermaid with whom you had such a lovely chat in the corridor, and who gave you tips on things to do with the children travelling with you. To the ‘Happy Honeymoon’ cake for Mum and her adult son, because the reservations department had entered VIP1 (the wedding couple) instead of VIP2 (regular guest) in the guest register, and this typo became a running joke throughout their entire stay.
It’s rarely the planned surprises. It’s the unplanned ones. The human ones. The genuine ones.
And that’s precisely why they can’t be ticked off a checklist. But they can be made possible if the team member who recognises the moment also has the time, the support and the freedom to act on it. That’s not a matter of service training. It’s a question of organisation.
Candidate Experience is currently making the very same mistake
For years, we’ve been optimising application processes. Yet another form. Yet another automation. Yet another email. Yet another status update. Yet another dashboard.
Ever more efficient. Ever more digital.
I’m currently actively looking for a new role myself, and in my own day-to-day job applications, I’m noticing exactly what I used to observe from the other perspective – as a manager who helped shape recruitment processes: on the other end of that automated confirmation of receipt, it’s not a data record that’s applying. It’s a person who wants to know whether their application has been read.
Perhaps we should stop viewing the candidate experience solely as a process. And start shaping it as an interactive candidate journey. Not with more touchpoints. But with better ones.
Why not welcome candidates even before the interview in a way that doesn’t feel formulaic?
Why not send small, personal signals that show: ‘We’ve really read your application’?
Why not have managers send short video messages themselves, rather than relying solely on automated status emails?
Why not ask a candidate after the interview: ‘Was there a moment today that you’ll still remember tomorrow?’
Or, at the end, deliberately give them a little glimpse behind the scenes – not as glossy marketing, but as a genuine moment. Perhaps it is precisely this one moment that builds more trust than any careers page.
Processes must not replace people. They should give them space.
Perhaps that is why we focus so intensely on optimising individual processes – because they are measurable. Humanity isn’t. Empathy is hard to express in KPIs. Attention and mindfulness don’t appear on any dashboard.
And yet it is precisely these things that are often the reason why people come back. As guests. As employees. Or as job applicants.
Perhaps we need less process optimisation. And more systems thinking.
Because the guest experience doesn’t begin with a display stand under the bed.
It begins where marketing engages with housekeeping. Where service understands the technical side of things. Where HR and line management work together to shape recruitment. Where organisations recognise that every idea has an impact on the entire system.
And perhaps that is precisely where the candidate experience begins, too.
Not with a new ATS. Not with yet another automated email.
But with a simple question: What kind of memory do we want to leave with a person, and what must we do together as an organisation to make that happen?
Because memories are rarely created by measures.
They are created by people. And by systems that allow them to be human.
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