Hospitality

Gifts, to me, are deeply meaningful, which is why I get so mad when a business gives me a cheap tote with a branded USB drive. Try harder! Do better! Gifts are a way to tell people you saw, heard, and recognized them—that you cared enough to listen, and to do something with what you heard. A gift transforms an interaction, taking it from... See more

This is a hospitality solution: a problem that we solved not by sneakily chipping away at the service we were offering but by blowing it out in the opposite direction—by giving more, not less.

Tom’s swing for the fences may have turned out to be a great business move, but his focus was always on her, and that’s a good thing for all of us to remember when we’re giving a gift — whether to win someone over, win them back, or simply to show them how much we care. Don’t give them the gift you want them to want; give them the gift they... See more

the qualities required of hosts: confidence, joviality, risk tolerance. It takes a lot of self-possession to put yourself in charge of other people’s time for a while