Hospitality Isn’t a Vibe. It’s a System
It was 2009 when Danny Meyer, celebrated restaurateur and author of *Setting the Table*, shared a simple yet radical idea: 'Hospitality is the foundation of any successful business—not service, not efficiency, not even quality.' That statement changed how I understood customer experience forever. It reframed hospitality as more than a feeling; it became a system, a process, and most importantly, a culture.
When I started my first coworking café in Toronto, I thought warm smiles, latte art, and cozy couches would be enough to create a welcoming vibe. It worked—until we scaled. With every new team member and customer, the cracks in our 'vibe-based' model began to show. One barista might offer a hug and free cookie to regulars; another was all business. Inconsistency bred confusion—and ultimately, customer churn.
Hospitality Is Predictable Kindness
Simon Sinek, in his book *Leaders Eat Last*, explains that safety and consistency are the bedrocks of trust. In hospitality, that means systems—not just sentiments. At Ritz-Carlton, every employee is empowered with a daily discretionary budget to surprise guests. It’s not just a nice perk—it’s a process. It’s engineered empathy.
Ritz-Carlton empowers employees to deliver consistent, personalized hospitality through systematized freedom.
We took that lesson and implemented our own playbook: a 5-step customer welcome process, a shared empathy journal for staff, and a morning huddle where we read real customer stories aloud. It wasn't rigid; it was ritual. And our Net Promoter Score jumped by 22 points in six months.
Emotions Can Be Engineered
Renowned behavioral economist Dan Ariely once said, 'We’re predictably irrational.' Hospitality systems recognize this by building around human behavior, not against it. From the scent piped into hotel lobbies to the script a barista follows when handing you your coffee, these systems create emotional continuity.
At Airbnb, hosts with a hospitality mindset outperform those who treat it like a side hustle. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, says, 'Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works—and hospitality is the same.' That’s why top-performing hosts use checklists, templated messages, and mood lighting—all systems that create intentional warmth.
Building Your Own Hospitality System
Whether you run a café, a SaaS company, or a freelance portfolio, your customers are walking into your world. How will you make them feel seen, safe, and special—reliably? That’s what a hospitality system answers. Start by identifying your non-negotiables. For us, it was remembering names, delivering under-promised timelines, and handwritten thank-you notes after every project launch.
Hospitality isn’t a random act of kindness. It’s a planned sequence of intentional experiences. It’s onboarding emails that feel like welcome mats. It’s follow-ups that feel like friendship. It’s turning good intentions into institutional memory.
Systematize the Soul of Your Brand
In the words of Maya Angelou, 'People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.' The trick? Ensuring every person on your team can deliver that feeling on repeat—even on their worst day. That’s the power of a system.
Hospitality is not a vibe. It’s a discipline. It’s a commitment. And in today’s world of automation and speed, those who master it—consistently—will build the most human brands of all.