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Hospitality 101: Actionable tips to creating meaningful guest experiences

by with No Comment HospitalityKnowledgeWorkspace

Hospitality in a business setting is more than a nice gesture—it’s the art that builds meaningful connections with people. By setting the tone for relationships, hospitality fosters positive connections with your business by driving first impressions and showcasing a culture that prioritizes human connection. 

At Fluid, we have endeavored to create a culture where the many visitors regularly welcomed into our studio feel both valued and supported. Drawing from years of experience, here are a few best practices we recommend to help ensure an exceptional experience for your guests: 

 

Our best practices for exceptional hospitality

2. Anticipate Needs and Establish Guidelines

Hospitality is a team effort, and ensuring a consistent experience for guests is key to forging a connection between positive experiences and your brand. To support your team, it’s helpful to document a set of guidelines for welcoming guests into your space or hosting events. As you prepare your guidelines, try to anticipate what guests might need and what items should be in place to successfully meet those needs. 

Your guidelines should include a high-level map of the guest experience, details about refreshments to offer, a list of preferred vendors, space requirements for different kinds of events, and anything else that helps ensure a smooth experience. For instance, if finding parking is challenging at your office location, consider sending parking directions to guests ahead of time. Within your space, details like signage for Wi-Fi access or informing front desk personnel in advance of any expected visitors are all items to consider and include. 

AI can be a great tool to help brainstorm ideas and start pulling these guidelines together, or to help revise documents to include anything you may have forgotten. 

 

2. Personalize Experiences

Hospitality thrives on attentiveness and authenticity, and allowing some flexibility for hosts to personalize interactions goes a long way toward helping guests feel accommodated. 

Personalization can range from small details to larger scale efforts. At Fluid, lunches pre-labeled with guest names are a small but impactful touch that shows visitors they were expected and planned for. On a larger scale, consider customized signage or brand swag tailored to your guests to help create a unique and memorable experience. 

 

3. Be thoughtful about food

Good food really does bring people together and create positive shared experiences. If you’re providing food for a working lunch or happy hour, try a more tailored approach that also accommodates any dietary restrictions and preferences. 

For example, allowing guests to select their meal in advance is a great way to personalize their experience and ensure they get something they enjoy. Alternatively, having a variety of options to choose from such as a selection of drinks or a tray of different snacks is a great way to ensure there is something for everyone. If you’re just getting started, using AI to help brainstorm menus or food guidelines is also a good idea, especially when accommodating dietary requirements that may be unfamiliar to you.

 

4. Let the front lines lead

Whatever guidelines you establish, being open to feedback regarding what works and what doesn’t is important to ensure continuous improvement. While consistency is important, it’s also valuable to embrace change where needed.  

If your preferred vendor always includes mortadella in their charcuterie, it’s OK to ask for an adjustment or change vendors when no one eats it. If hosts find certain guidelines impractical, consider re-evaluating and adapting them to suit the needs of people on the ground. Empowering hosts to take ownership of the guest experience will allow your team to excel – and increase feasibility to ensure your hospitality guidelines are followed consistently.  

 

Great hospitality isn’t about grand gestures, it’s about fostering human connection and creating a culture of genuine thoughtfulness. At Fluid, hospitality isn’t just something we do; it’s who we are, and this is reflected in every guest experience. By anticipating needs, personalizing experiences, and empowering teams to take ownership of guest interactions, businesses can create moments that leave a lasting impression and build stronger, more genuine connections with the people they serve. 

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You should be walking guests to the bathroom: Why hospitality matters for all businesses

by BusinessHospitalityKnowledge

In 2012, Fluid President and CEO Berk Claiborne stood to head for the restroom in a New York City restaurant when an employee asked if he needed directions. Rather than just give him directions, he walked him to the restroom door, and held it open for him. The small but thoughtful gesture left a lasting impression, driving Berk to further explore the power of hospitality through books like “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer and “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara. As an avid cook and host himself, this underlined the truth that thoughtful care can transform interactions in any setting, not just homes and restaurants.

It’s all about caring for people

At heart, every business is about people and relationships, from partners and employees to clients and potential customers. Hospitality is the art that allows you to show genuine care for people while building these relationships, creating experiences that make them feel valued and respected. Both internally and externally, hospitality sets the tone for relationships and directly reflects your company culture by driving first impressions and showcasing organizations that prioritize human connection—something that in today’s often impersonal world is impactful as ever.

The practical benefits of hospitality

A quick Google search is enough to show that experience matters for businesses. Research from PwC shows that 73% of consumers cite experience as a key factor in their purchasing decisions. A study from Deloitte suggests that customer-centric companies are up to 60% more profitable than those that are not. So, good hospitality is not only nice to have but can serve as a business driver.

Imagine you have an appointment. You arrive at the office and wait awkwardly for several minutes until someone points you to where you should go. At another appointment, you’re greeted with a smile, offered refreshments and a comfortable place to sit and then walked to where your meeting will take place. To which office are you more likely to want to go back? Ultimately, visitors to your space may or may not remember everything you said and showed them, but they will remember how they felt. If you want them to return, transforming those routine interactions into meaningful moments through great hospitality will help form lasting connections from shared, positive experiences.

Building great hospitality

The beauty of hospitality is that it doesn’t require grand gestures: It’s about preparation, thoughtfulness and consistency. Start by identifying small ways to make guest experiences more seamless and enjoyable, and from there build a consistent set of guidelines that prioritize care and connection in every interaction. At Fluid, guests are greeted with a smile at the door, offered water or great coffee and yes—they are walked to the bathroom if they ask where it is. These are examples of small but genuine ways to build more positive experiences.

Above all, the key to great hospitality is human connection. In a world where efficiency often overshadows empathy, taking the time to really see your guests as people by anticipating their needs and showing them that they are valued speaks volumes. How can your organization prioritize people in its everyday operations? Start small, stay genuine, and focus on the power of human connection.