An Unexpected Amenity
/Sometimes even the best attempts to achieve excellent customer service go wrong.
Florida is blessed with an abundance of insects. Because of this, most innkeepers stay vigilant with their pest control services. The goal is generally to make sure that no insects are found inside your hotel property.
The absence of experience IS the desired experience
A Florida B&B had its regular pest control treatment. Some new guests checked in before the innkeeper had the chance to verify that no insect wildlife had crawled out and died in the rooms in plain sight. Luckily, the guests were at a meeting, so the innkeeper, dressed in comfy flannel pajamas went upstairs to check.
Right as the innkeeper got up the stairs, she heard "beep beep beep" of the front door key entry. She thought about hiding in a spare room, but had no phone with her to call her partner for a rescue. Since it sounded like the guests were having trouble remembering their codes, she made a run for it down the stairs.
Then disaster struck - the guests got in the door - just in time to find the innkeeper dressed in PJ’s mid descent on the stairs. She then heard
"Dang - we heard this place had awesome amenities, but we had no idea it came with women".
Mortified, she had nothing else to do but say, "You caught me"
While this experience was certainly memorable to the guests, it did not meet the absence of experience requirement. How could this situation have been avoided to create a different guest experience ?
It’s Simple:
Mark rooms out of service until all verification has been done, or
Dress in something other than Pajamas when guests are in the house
