The Strange Thing Hotels Do To Keep Customers
For the past two years, I’ve traveled for about 100-150 days per year.
This means I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels.
There’s this one thing that I’ve noticed about nearly all hotels:
It’s the indoor pool.
Here’s what’s weird about it:
Almost no one uses it.
It’s smelly, loud, and there’s always a risk of someone else getting into that tiny hot tub with you, too.
So why does this still exist?
It’s a serious cost for hotels to install and maintain.
Yet, basically, all hotels continue to offer this as a feature.
The feature isn’t the pool. It’s the feeling you get when you know you could use the pool. It feels like a luxury to have access to a pool with fresh towels.
How is an indoor pool related to anything?
Whether you’re building software, teaching students, taking care of patients, or growing an audience, you are developing and revising your “features.”
As you look at user behavior, you have to decide what features to keep, which ones to remove, and which ones to build from scratch.
I’m not saying the indoor pool is a great idea.
What I’m saying is that you have to find out what’s really valuable about what you’re doing and make sure you’re focused on that.
It’s up to you to decide whether the ends justify the means.
Just think what would happen if the hotel removed the pool. Pools are so ubiquitous that customers could look at this and feel that they’re being ripped off of a standard feature!
By having the pool, you’re now on par with the guest’s expectations for what features a hotel should have. You’re not adding anything. You’re just keeping up.
This is just the unique context that will help inform decisions.
And honestly, that’s the easy part.
The hard part is identifying that it’s not the pool that’s valuable, it’s the feeling of having access to a luxury that’s valuable.
2 Minute Action
What’s something you do that is valuable?
It can be as small as the holiday card you send to clients or the tissue box you put in the grieving room for the families of patients.
Now ask: how do you know what’s valuable about that?
Don’t make this hard. You only have 2 minutes.
Just ask the user. Write an email asking for feedback. Monitor website clicks to see behavior.
Your action can be small and still have a big impact.
How To Get To Your Dream
Step 1 - Define the dream.
Examples of good definitions:
- Save 500 lives by donating blood.
- Fully fund a non-profit in my area for the year.
- Reach $x in revenue by 2025.
Examples of bad definitions:
- Change education.
- Start a non-profit.
- Disrupt the industry.
Hint: If you can't "check the box," then it's bad definition. You can't check the box on "learning Spanish," because you can always improve. You CAN check the box that reads "have a 30-minute conversation in Spanish with a native speaker."
Step 2 - Validate the dream's feasibility.
Example of good sources of validation:
- Experts in the field.
Example of bad sources of validation:
- Friends and family.
Step 3 - Start.
Examples of bad starts:
- Designing a logo.
- Filing for an LLC.
- Building software.
Examples of good starts:
- Making a sales call.
- Emailing your list with an offer.
- Any work you are currently avoiding.
Other tips:
- You have to start before you can see the ending.
- Gather the tools you need as you need them, or you might get caught up by how fun it is to buy all the gear instead of spending your energy on your mission.
- Be clear about WHY you have this dream, and whose dream it actually is.
2 Minute Action:
What's a goal you've had? When would you be able to check the box?Have you talked to any experts about how possible it is?Take a look at who you know in the industry (LinkedIn is great for this), and reach out to them, right now.