How to retain a guest for LIFE? Meet this exceptional leader!

ibooked.online the easy way to increase bookings

Do you want more
Direct Bookings?

How do we make a guest’s experience, exceptional? 

As business owners, we put a lot of thought into making our guest’s experience the absolute best possible. We may think that we are doing everything we can do. But sometimes it’s worth taking a step back and asking ourselves, what really defines a guest experience, and how do we make it even better?

The truth is, an exceptional experience can make or break a stay or a loyal customer for life. Today’s traveler is deal-seeking, tech-savvy, has more buying power than ever and wants a memorable experience. Going above and beyond to provide an exceptional experience is critical to standing out from the competition and increasing those all-important repeat bookings. 

And who better to talk to about guest experience than the award-winning concierge Sarah Dandashy? 

Sarah is full of sunshine, southern hospitality, and a crazy passion for the hospitality industry (Her book, Hospitality From Within). A known subject matter expert and consultant, she shares with us ideas, tried and tested strategies, and things we can do to improve our guest’s experience, and guest satisfaction and simultaneously increase our bottom line.

Sarah Dandashy is a verified travel expert, best-selling author, and TV personality with over 18 years of luxury hotel experience. Sought out for her travel tips, advice, and knowledge of trends from the “frontlines of travel,” Sarah pivoted her career from being an award-winning concierge to traveling the globe working with some of the leading brands in the travel industry. Follow her on social media under her brand, “Ask A Concierge,” or catch her on the news breaking down the latest in the travel on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, or Chedder News. Sarah has been featured in numerous publications from the New York Times, Nerdwallet, Business Insider, USNews, Reader’s Digest, and Thrillist, and she is the author of the # 1 Best Selling Book on Amazon, Hospitality From Within.

We got a lot of valuable takeaways from this episode and I am excited to share it with you!

Topics we cover in this week’s episode:

– The fundamentals of creating a great guest experience.
– The role of technology in creating a great guest experience.
– How to empower your employees to deliver a great experience.
– How to engage with your guests pre-arrival and post-departure.

📣   Listen to the episode here
👓   Watch the episode here

Transcription:

Bart: Hello and welcome back to The Accommodation Show. We help accommodation owners like you get the knowledge and skills that you need to grow your business, to grow your business, improve your guest experience and increase your profitability. 

Okay everybody, welcome back to The Accommodation Show. I have a wonderful guest on the show this week. She has a host of experiences in the accommodation space and in travel space. She’s released a new book, which is Hospitality From Within. Welcome to the show Sarah Dandashy.

Sarah: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It’s exciting to be here.

Bart: My absolute pleasure. I’m excited for today. We’ve been trying to hook up for a little while to get you onto the show and to start recording this episode. So really, really pumped for our conversation. Look, what I always love to do with our guests is first to let them introduce themselves. Because you’re gonna see a better than I would anyway, tell us who you are, where you’re from, what are your experiences, and how you fit into the accommodation/ travel space.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So for those that might not know me, my name is Sarah Dandashy. She and I have worked in the luxury hospitality space for over 18 years. 15 of those years as a concierge. Actually, if you ever have been to a higher-end property that has a concierge and maybe has gold keys on their lapels. It is an international organization called Lakely door, the gold keys and French I was actually part of that organization and won Best Young concierge in the world from them several years ago. So my background has been very much heavily in the luxury hospitality space and then certainly on as I like to call it the frontlines of travel because on a daily basis, I was interacting with guests, knowing what people were looking for and what the trends were that were happening it literally as they were happening as far as consumer trends as well. 

And then over the years, I have built my brand called Ask a concierge where I get to cover travel destinations, really all around the world, and also covered travel trends on TV as well too. So it’s been exciting. I was born in Pennsylvania but lived all over. I lived in Saudi Arabia, London, Atlanta, Georgia, and went to college in DC. I lived in New York a bit and now I’m in Los Angeles. So I kinda like to say that travel is in my DNA because I’m half Lebanese, so that kind of just meant that I was already going to be traveling. And I’ve continued to do that. And certainly, a career in hospitality has blended nicely with that background. So that’s a little bit about me.

Bart: Yeah, look, what a great story. And what I love about the guests that I get to interview is that everyone’s got a different angle on the industry. And I like that. You’re one of the workhorses of the industry, one of the people that have to be on the ground floor and understands the guests and sort of a lot of the things that we talk about hypothetically, you’re the actual living, breathing person that actually has to deal with them on a daily basis. So when I feel bad guests experience a lot of what we do is managers we go hey, we should do that. And then we get someone to help us with it and we might drive the director.

Sarah: This is a good idea and then in actuality and hopefully, it is you know, sometimes again, well that’s right.

Bart: And that’s where you come in especially now with all your experience where you can go hey, that’s not going to work or that’s not on trend or the guests don’t really have that expectation that they have an experience that you’ve you’ve set for them. So let’s start off because the book I’ve been I’ve been looking at senior posts all over the place about the book and I’d love to know a little bit more about it and what the thinking was behind it.

Sarah: Absolutely. So I get so excited, just kind of talking about this book. Hospitality From Within is so exciting because it launched on Amazon earlier this year. We got Amazon Best Seller in the service industry as well as hospitality travel and tourism. So in those categories, so amazing isolation. Yeah, thank you to just like have everybody you know, around not only get excited about it, but when they read it, they end up being like oh, I want to get a copy for somebody else. And that’s so heartwarming, because for me when I was kind of looking back and over the time of the pandemic, I was already transitioning. Prior to 2020, I was already transitioning out of being in a hotel as I was when I traveled to 35 destinations in a year. That I was still working full time out of the hotel. So you could just imagine for those that actually know what that’s like. I mean, it’s talking about getting off a plane dropping off a bag slapping on a nametag, and being like, sure happy to tell you the best way is to get to the Hollywood sign as you’re like eyes are crossed because they’re like oh my gosh, I just flew back from Asia. 

Okay. So, that’s kind of like how things were going with my career, then with the pandemic. I took that as a time to be like, Okay, well, we were the training wheels needs to come off. Like this is not going to end anytime soon. Let’s go ahead and do that. And so since then have just continued the work that I was doing prior to that, and what’s been really interesting is that, for those that know me and know my schedule, I really like to stay strong with those 18-hour days and they’re like there’s no way you could ever write a book where you’re working so much. Goodbye, we have the pandemic as I as others, you know, had this moment to sort of reflect and was able to put together and kind of gather my thoughts on the industry and look back and see you know, different stories and lessons that I learned over the years and not only necessarily from myself and my experiences but maybe from those who were mentors to me in the industry. 

And so that’s kind of what shaped hospitality from within and it’s all about delivering that helpful venue in service and what is that and what does that mean and talking about things like the tipping point between four and five-star service like what is that? And then also includes stories from concierges from around the world. Because for me, and I’m sure that many of your viewers on here will agree. Hospitality is universal. And it doesn’t matter what language you speak. You don’t you might not even be speaking the same language as the people that you might be staying in their property or their home or whatever that is, but you can still feel it. So there is a universal aspect of hospitality that was really wonderful to be able to pull together from other colleagues because as we all know, it’s not just one person’s story. It’s not just the way one person delivers service. It’s how we all work together to create an entire experience for guests be it on a smaller scale, you know in a b&b, or be it on a larger scale in you know, a 2000-person room or hotel so whatever that might be. It’s a wonderful process. So that’s kind of where Hospitality From Within came from, and a lot of good lessons and nuggets in there. And it’s been exciting to see people take something away from it.

Bart: Yeah, this is such an exciting journey for you to take right is that you’ve got all this experience and then you have to put it onto paper and give with such a breadth of experience, what do you actually put into the book, what are those stories going to be which are going to be the most relevant and thinking about your audience in your avatar? Can you tell me about that actually, like who’s the who would be the then, by the way, I love the fact that you said that the book is good enough for someone to give it to somebody else or buy it again and give it to someone else. That’s a real measure of success. That’s when you know you’ve done well. People aren’t just buying it because oh yeah, it sounds good. But I should go through the process of reading it and think oh, this is great. And then passing it on or buying another one for someone else. I just love that, by the way. So because it’s a congratulation, right? It’s the best referral ever or the best way to sell a book. Now in terms of people that should be reading this book and who is targeted at what was, I guess two things who is the target of that, and what was your process to get there?

Sarah: Yeah, so. So the first part as far as like who it’s targeted, honestly, it’s really anybody that has a customer-facing business or customer business and it can be anybody that maybe they work in finance and they have customers or obviously the ones that will resonate the most will be ones that work in hospitality. Certainly, they’ll recognize stories that might be similar to stories or experiences that they’ve had. So on one hand, it’s for experienced professionals that might be burnt out and are just looking for a breath of fresh air. Or a way to sort of re-look at things to just be reinspired because you know, as, as those of us in hospitality, it is, it is emotional labor. And that’s something that shouldn’t be just glazed over. That’s something that we have to take the time to check in with ourselves so that we can continue to deliver on high standards and high levels. But the other side, as we are seeing this shift in hospitality and I’m sure we might talk about it later. 

With a lot of people that are new to the industry. Some of them are just looking for some guidance on okay, like where do I start thinking like a hospitality person? Because really, you are only as good as how you’re trained and there’s just not equal training all the way around just maybe just due to lack of resources or depending on what you know, a property might be how they might be offering their training. So all of that is just kind of up in the air. But this, you know, has, has, you know, the goal was also kind of be helpful for those that are new to the industry. And then I can’t tell you the number of people that don’t work in the industry at all that are like, I’ve had writers say, oh my gosh, I’ve learned so many nuggets from this that I’m going to use for my clients, and they don’t even see their clients necessarily. 

They might be interacting with people just by email, but they were able to take things away from that. So you know, for me, it was more of like, okay, what resonated most with me, and this kind of comes back to the process. It is like what I’ve found generally, and I’ve been creating content for people for quite some time is the most authentic way to sort of create content and share it via a book or be it social media is what resonates with you, because most likely if something resonates with you, it’s going to resonate with other people. So I took a moment and I definitely outlined that I the key lessons and things that may be made a difference that I noticed in my career, whether it was a conversation that happened or a response that was given, or just something that I watched in a colleague doing and then put those down and then I kind of reverse engineered it and created an outline from that. So that’s kind of how it came about. And then I also have been interviewing people along the time that I was writing it so I’m also very driven by quotes and nuggets. 

I know that we all have a very very busy schedule for me to get me to sit down and read something for more than 20 minutes is almost impossible, like I have to be totally in the mood for it. And I know again if that’s kind of how I am many other people are that way. So I’m like how I want to create something and it wasn’t the intention but it this is how it worked out. That people can kind of like open it up to a page, take a nugget and move on, you know, or something that they read all in one go depending on how they like to consume that information. So it’s been a real pleasure to be able to like have different quotes of, you know, CEOs and execs in the industry that I happen to meet along my journey and then these other stories and, and little bites so it really just all depend on how much you’re able to take in. You can kind of pick and choose as you please. So it’s been a fun journey putting it together and definitely a long one too, but worthwhile

Bart: Yeah. Oh, look a long one because it took so many years to get to the stage where you are right now. Right? That’s not just about writing a book. It’s the experience, right? And that’s what I think that a lot of people should really learn from is that you can accelerate your business and your path if you learn from people that have done it before rather than trying to figure it out yourself. And genuinely like if I’m sure that if someone was trying to get you in for a consultation and cost them 1000s of dollars whilst they can pick up a book which will be you know, under 50 bucks or 20 or 30 whatever the price is, and really pick up huge tidbits and nuggets and then they can figure out what they need. To further with you or to learn more. I think that you know you’re talking about within that and I think you kind of revealed the title a bit their hospitality from within. I take it that what you’re talking about is that when we are hospitable it’s all about how we approach hospitality how we want to be and being authentic to our guests, rather than it being company mandated. This is how you’re meant to do this is what hospitality is and then that person isn’t authentic and I think that’s the way that you come across is that you’re genuinely us This is Sarah you take it or leave it and lean into the qualities that I have being Sarah and then and then give you that and you should appreciate that it should like that. Am I going down the right path?

Sarah: Absolutely. And it’s like it’s two prongs. So part of that is is that like that self-driven hospitality and what we’re because that’s where the magic stuff happens. It doesn’t happen when it’s like oh on this checklist. I’m supposed to say the guest’s name three times and interact. Okay, for those that have worked in hotels, you might know what I might be referencing, because that was an industry-wide standard for quite some time at an elevated level. And I mean, I remember myself having interaction being like, how many times I see their name. Oh, I think yes, Mr. Smith, absolutely missed it. You know, because oh my gosh, they could be testing me and they’re sitting there counting how many times they said their name how in authentic is that? 

So that aside and being like okay, well how can we really release the reins a little bit obviously, we want to keep in mind that we are in a professional atmosphere, you know, depending on the type of hotel or property or establishment that you might be in, you know, that reflects in how professional or how relaxed you might be, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter about the marble floors or the curtains or whatever. It’s again, it’s how you’re connecting with the individuals and it all just comes from within and then the other side is also for businesses to look at themselves and to remember that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. You know, it doesn’t matter what the four walls are that are around you you can have. Hospitality is anywhere you can get it at the gas station, okay. And it’s all about how you treat your employees and empower them and how they intern then convey that hospitality to your guests and basically kind of keep it going. So there’s that side of things.

Bart: And we talk about that really quickly. And I think that I’d love to hear your thoughts on leadership. And whenever I’m out at a restaurant whenever I’m in a hotel and the experience isn’t it’s actually both ways and the experience is fantastic. Or when the experience is poor in my eyes, right. Generally, I look and I see that it’s not one staff member, it’s the whole team of them acting in the same kind of way. So they’re all either like, you know, delivering this kind of experience which is fantastic, or there’s just something wrong. Why does it why they also stress Why are they all interacting? Why are they all short with me? Why? Why don’t they really care and knives and a time, in my opinion, it’s because of that leadership of that structure if someone is coming from the top down and someone just not really leading in a way that I think creates the space for people to be who they are and that sort of thing? What is your opinion on that leadership? And I’m sure that through your experience, you’ve seen all sorts of different leaders do it in different ways. And then let’s say beyond that, the second part of the question, sorry to make it a totally long question is how do we steer that leader into getting it right? If everything that I’ve said is on point

Sarah: Yeah, first of all, what you said is exactly on point it all starts from the leadership or from leadership and how they set the tone for their employees again, that’s like, you know, how they set the tone, how they inspire them, how they give them a sense of, you know, I said this before, but that sense of ownership. If an employee feels empowered to either do something on behalf of the company, whether it’s like send out a complimentary drink or do this, you know, it gives them the sense of authority and then they feel like they represent the company or the business as well too. And so they’re approaching things in very different ways. So if you empower them, they then in turn, in turn, feel this sense of ownership, and then that’s reflected through and that’s really simplifying it. Obviously, there are a lot of different nuances to it, but I think that that’s the first way to sort of kind of tackle that. And I, by the way, I was writing down a note while you were asking me this question because it reminded me of a thought I had earlier that I want to dive into a little bit more, but we’ll, we’ll start it here is I think, and I’m sure many will agree with this is that I can tell you in all the properties I worked at, there was all too often this huge separation between the front of house and back of the house, and whether it was lack of experience or this or whatever.

And what I think if we look at upper management or leadership sort of being back of the house, because at the end of the day, are they necessarily having all of those engagements on a day-to-day basis, most of the time they’re not. And what I would urge is for those that might be in the back of the house, be it a leadership role being in finance being something completely separate. That they take a moment every so often, and stand there at the front desk or stand there at the front door and have a moment, and maybe it’s only five minutes. Maybe it’s 15 minutes.

Because I could just envision somebody coming up here like, oh, gosh, they forget, you know, and I say this because that it’s that reminder of what it takes. Because, you know, we’ve all have our different paths in our career careers and we might be good at what we’re doing and you can be great at what you’re doing and leadership. But I think it’s really important to remind yourself, what it’s like to be there greeting somebody on a regular basis what it’s like to be there. I know answering those questions or helping resolve like a crazy charge to a credit card that somebody’s insisting you know, hadn’t, they had nothing to do with whatever that might be. 

So I think this, again, with that leadership, if it’s like taking that moment, to not just walk around and see oh, look, everybody’s doing what they should be doing. That’s lovely to it. Yes, you have a presence, but to actually be there and just have a moment maybe they go to the restaurant and they help walk somebody to a table and they have a conversation. So taking it a little bit step further than the traditional ways. Obviously, you know, they can’t necessarily do that for a whole lot of time because they have other duties but something to just remind themselves, what their staff is experiencing on a regular basis and I think it will it reignite and re-inspire them. And then I think that sort of like brings everything full circle a little bit more just because it takes the separation of back in the house in front of house and makes them more interconnected.

Bart: I think that there is also an opportunity there because sometimes I think if someone’s listening, what we like to do is we like to default to go Yeah, I already do that. Yeah, yeah, I do that once a month. I do whatever. But it’s about doing things a bit differently so that she may be leaning into the team and saying hey, you know, where could I add some value? Where could I learn? Where are you having those struggles and those pains and get sort of a bit more stuck in to really see where those issues lie. So you’re I love it. It’s great advice to get out there and get on the floor and I can think of a bunch of different industries, not just accommodation, so airlines right, they’re like, so much trouble right now. And you just wish that some of those CEOs would actually just come out and have a look and just go oh, God, this is what I this is where I’m at. And this is the impact of it. 

You know, like get into with the luggage handlers right so they can see what’s going on but that’s yeah, that kind of stuff. So that goes across the industry, hospitals, and everything else. It’s so fascinating. Now, we’re gonna move away from that a tiny bit because there’s I have so many questions that I think that you could really help our audience out with and one of them is around, going from four stars to five stars also elevating that that experience and a lot of people will feel paralyzed by their circumstance. And by that I mean I’ve only got this on my rooms don’t have this I hear it all the time, especially when we do photography and they get old content nice photos because our place is in caters to budget market and my year but you can still over-deliver. 

So when we talk about elevating that level of service and providing a five there was a five-star service. The first question is can you always deliver a five-star service? And the second part of that would be how do we keep track of what kind of level of service we’re delivering in general?

Sarah: Yeah, so, so many great questions. So I mean, a couple of things. I like to look at a business kind of broken down into two parts, you have the product, which is basically everything around you this the tangibles and then you have the service component and the service component. What’s so great about it is that it doesn’t need any tools other than us showing up. And that’s what’s so great because again when it comes to service and hospitality, it is how you are making people feel. So this notion of five-star service and might be a hint or a drop for maybe the next book down the line. It’s this notion of having this five-star mindset, okay, and so what is that? Again, it doesn’t matter, you know, the thread count, it doesn’t matter. You know, you could be in what would be equivalent to a “quote unquote” three-star property but again, if it’s this thoughtful service, and it’s there. 

Whether it’s you or whether it’s your employees are very present, genuinely engaging and doing what they can, within the parameters of what makes sense. You can deliver five-star service in any environment. So you know, it’s again, it’s kind of about how you’re making them feel, whether it’s making them feel heard, or appreciated, or their return guests and you remember a little thing that they like, be it that they like to keep two water bottles on their nightstand and they sleep on the right side of the bed. That’s, that doesn’t take much, but that sends a big message. So again, these are like little things that can be done that don’t cost a lot or cost anything more than how the normal operation operating operations a business. But again, it’s how they’re being made to feel. It could even be a notecard as far as like a special like Welcome back. Whatever that might be. So that’s why for me that the notion of the task of hospitality and delivering that service is like, all we have to do is just be ourselves. And be very present, and just be genuine and thoughtful. And it’s amazing how you’re going to be able to connect with guests from whatever background their background is. Now, wait, you asked me a couple of questions.

Bart: The other part of it was around how do we know that we’ve given a five-star experience or if we give four star was a five star or is it three stars? How do we know where we’re at and where we’re at? I know that it’s obviously subjective, but no one’s gonna know the answer this question, Sarah. It’s gonna be you.

Sarah: It is gonna be read or a Forbes. I don’t know. Which I do not know. At the end of the day, it’s that is a good question. It is a bit subjective. I mean, really, at the end of the day, it’s, it’s I guess it’s like how far you take it with the guests. And, and whether I would almost say and this is kind of interesting is like, what, I don’t know if you would sit there and get caught up and being like, “Well, that was only four-star service that I delivered. I could have offered a mint.” I don’t know I’m just finishing that up. So it’s there. It’s hard to like, necessarily pinpoint that. But I feel like if you really lock in and you’re really genuine and you just do something that you kind of create these wow moments. And I think that that might be the key factor of what’s different. Wow. You do something for them. And they’re like, oh, wow, you remember the type of drink I like to always have when I get off the plane, or Wow, thank you. You remember that I always like a room that’s on a high floor. Or oh, I didn’t even think that I would need to have my clothes pressed. Thank you for offering that. 

Yes, I’d like to take advantage of that. Whatever that might be. It’s that it is actually this is what it is. It’s offering something that they didn’t even know they needed. And I think that that is that special moment because it kind of catches them off guard. They’re like, wow, yes, I do need that. That would be great. And so that really is I think the differentiating thing between really three, four or five-star service.

Bart: Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. And I couldn’t agree more and we’ve had other people on the show that actually like will concur exactly with what you’ve said just there. It’s about identifying something that someone you know that they’re not expecting that they’re not what not necessarily what to get that particular moment but it’s absolutely perfect when they do get it That’s right. And the interesting thing for me oh, well as I was in Manila on a work trip and I remember that they had done teardowns of the beds before bed or I don’t know what it’s called. But when they set up the room up nice dim the lights and all that kind of stuff. And I remember I’d been out to drinks and stuff and I remember this time around when I came back there was like shit actually an ice cold glass with like fresh with ice and eggs ready for me. I was like, How did you know? This right? So that’s, that’s what that you remember that? Right? Like I don’t remember everything else. 

But I remember those particular moments where they do something where they’re just thinking of you. And what’s interesting as well from the background that I have. So being you know, tech and marketing and that sort of thing. The one thing that we do an awful lot now even with our customers is starting to log the data. So we’ve got that many customers and that many people that we’re dealing with isn’t now it’s like well, how do we remember all of this because we’re only human beings and a lot of it we’re actually tracking into CRM systems and actually manage it so that then we can have these reminders. So if you know we’re dealing with or we’re helping a particular person, all right, that was what happened. Oh, okay, cool. And then you kind of get that reminder that you are great. What can I do to enhance the experience? What’s your experience with the tech side? And that sort of knowing your guest, especially if you haven’t seen them for a year?

Sarah: I love this question because I know I have always been heavily supportive of having more technology because that is the world that we’re living in and it’s always baffled me how there was a tug of war with the hospitality industry in technology. Mainly there was this fear that was like, “oh if we implement more technology that means we will lose employees or somebody will become obsolete.

And I don’t think that is the appropriate approach at all. I just came back from Hi–tech. Hospitality tech conference and it is exciting to see what is out there. Again if we change our approach to it and not be scared of it, which is silly.

All of this, whether its a new platform, its a new service, they’re all being designed to streamline the service that we offer and to reduce friction, take off certain things on our plate that maybe we don’t necessarily need to be tending to so that we can have more time to have those authentic and in those special moments that are only fostered from that in-person interaction, so it is if we kind of shift our mindset to it. I think that that’s where it becomes really, really exciting. And it’s also you know, it’s also a nod to what consumers want again when people are like, Does this make sense? Will this fly? Well, I always say, what do you do? 

You know, how often are you on your phone? What do you use an app for? Because most likely, however you answer that question will also be similar to however your guests would, you know, reply or how they would feel to it. So I think sometimes we take this cumbersome sort of approach to it, where it’s actually very, very simple. And it’s all about how we use technology to streamline things. And then obviously, with ai was like the big thing this year, everybody’s like how they’re able to implement it again. It’s not new. It has been implemented for years. But again, it’s it you know, every year, they’re sort of like a hot topic, and that was the hot topic of this year. Other services Exactly. So it’s pretty exciting. Digital tipping is another big thing as well, too. I know that’s more tipping is obviously very big in the United States more than in other places in the world, but it’s definitely part of the hospitality industry. So that’s exciting as well. Lots going on. 

Bart: It is fascinating, all the changes that we’re going to see in tech and how much is going to impact our industry. Moving forward and into the future. I like all the ideas around AI and also how AI will influence even smaller players and the bigger players that will make sense. The small players, how do they take advantage of it and use it to their benefit to really understand their customers. There’s also another segment which I don’t know if they talked about which is one global point of reference for people’s data. So, therefore, you can actually understand your guests before they come in. 

So you know, that they like this particular setup or this particular demographics, then you can service them way better. So it’s kind of like all this stuff, then a Google or Apple would have all that data, but actually having it as an individual operator where you’re not having like we each operator doesn’t have to go and grab the data themselves and figure out their customer. It’s like it’s a pool that they can tap into. So that’s fascinating. That will be coming up as well. Very. Yeah, look,  just going back for a second and how I have forgotten my fucking question.

Now that we have gone through the journey of the guest’s experience of the making things better for people, hopefully, people have picked up tips and they’re motivated to get themselves a bit more educated, pick up a book and have some do some reading. And that way they can start on that journey of improving their guests experience. Okay, so look, now we’ve got the tech out of the way obviously you’re all over the world and you’re going to different conferences, and different events, you’ll learn an awful lot. You talked about potentially doing another book in the future. Do you have any current plans as to what that’s gonna look like?

Sarah: I do. I wasn’t prepared to talk to you guys about that. I did hint at it. But it is all about sort of having this sort of five-star mindset. So here’s to maybe having a little bit of a lull later this year where I can make myself sit down and write it because I’m normally on the road quite a bit. But I am really, really excited to go ahead and kind of get working on that. I actually got to work backward. Like I had to come up with a title and then be like, That’s it. This is how we’re going to like, fill it out. So that’s just a little bit of a snippet about that. But in the meantime, hopefully, people are getting a bit inspired by hospitality from within, which was an exciting, exciting first entree into the whole world so yeah.

Bart: Beautiful looking. For those of you that are listening that haven’t picked up a copy of the book, I do encourage you to pick up a copy. Of course, you can grab it on Amazon there any other places where you would prefer people to buy the book or is Amazon the best way to go?

Sarah: Amazon’s gonna be the quickest fastest way for you to get it but if you are so inclined, and you do want a signed copy of the book, you can actually go to my website, which is hospitality from within.com. That comes directly to me, I will sign it for you and say I’ll send it to you and mail it out. So keep in mind that sometimes it just might take a little bit longer if I’m not home at the time because I actually do take in all of those orders and sign them very specifically for everyone and then mail them out. So but either way, Amazon or hospitalityfromwithin.com.

Bart: Okay, I suggest that everybody gets in touch with you directly and gets a booking that way. That way you make a little bit more money. It’s a little bit more thoughtful as you get hand-signed as well. It’s a momento that you can have and when Sarah is out, becoming absolutely huge megastar. You’ll be like I’ve got that original book. So you’ll have them as a keepsake. And on that note, we’re also going to even do a giveaway. So make sure you jump onto the show notes and in the links. We’re gonna give away three of these wonderful books, and then all the details of that competition will be in there. So thank you very much for that, Sarah. 

Sarah: Of course. So exciting. My whole thing is I want to get it in as many people’s hands as possible. So happy to do a giveaway and hopefully you get excited about it too.

Bart: Yeah. And now folks. Oh, sorry. So just before we close out the show, is there any way for people to keep in touch with you? Is there anything that we can do for you beyond buying the book to, I guess help you out or keep in touch?

Sarah: Oh, well I would say keep in touch. For those that might have followed my journey for some time. You are aware I’m available and everywhere online. My brand is Asked a concierge so that will be Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, you name it. But if you also want to be connected in a professional capacity, you can connect with me on LinkedIn under my name at Sarah Dan does she so anyway, I’m here. People buzzing the idle time so you could be buzzing me today. 

Bart: Are you still doing consulting you going out to see clients is sort of this journey,

Sarah: Yes. of course. I do I do a lot of consulting and also filming and marketing. Create a lot of marketing videos for different people as well,  depending on what they are looking to add to their business

Bart: Beautiful. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And folks, if you are tuned in to the podcast, make sure you give us a review. Subscribe, followed all those things, and leave a comment on some of the platforms if you can. Also if you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you give us a like and subscribe and leave a comment. Let us know how you’re going with your business in terms of the conscious service and what you picked up from this episode. 

Sarah once again, thank you so much. I sincerely appreciate you and appreciate the effort that you put in. And it’s been great to record this with you.

Bart: Thanks so much for having me. So great being here and chatting with you.

Bart: Thank you so much for listening to the show. You can find us at theaccommodationshow.com where you can find all the show notes, and links to resources we’ve talked about in transcripts from the show. I really do appreciate you listening. And if you’d like to support the show, and please subscribe, leave a comment, share it with others.

Share on

2024 PLANNER

Transform your year with our captivating 12-month wall calendar: Spacious, visually stunning, and highly practical!

*by downloading you agree to be added to our mailing list – you can unsubscribe at any time