Greetings from Scotland!

I’m here on a very special trip featuring a bunch of bagpipes and kilts and steak pies.

Today’s letter is something I wrote a while back, and maybe something a bit more frivolous than what you’ve gotten used to here at tPH.

Without further ado…

Welcome to Turndown Service, where we immerse ourselves in an experiential detail or sentiment.

In this letter: why hotel uniforms are sexy and important, the tPH formula for building a signature uniform, and brands that do it right.

A couple of months ago I was approached by a designer whom I admire regarding my thoughts and feelings on hotel uniforms.

Prior to him reaching out, I did not even realize that this was a subject I have an opinion on (but turns out, I sure do).

I whipped out my archives and pulled out some of my favorite examples of well-executed signature styles that go beyond basic scrubs or what you immediately think of when thinking of hospitality workwear.

Because you are here and I really like you, here’s my curation and some véry important tips, as well as the tPH signature uniform formula™.

Why should I care about hotel uniforms?

I’m glad you asked!

Seriously, staff uniforms are an extremely pressing matter that is too often overlooked. I promise I’m not exaggerating. The comfort and aesthetics of hotel uniforms impact not only how easily guests are able to buy into the particular fantasy that a hotel (or restaurant or any service-inclined establishment) is selling, but also the confidence and pride employees take in their role.

Don’t worry, I have sources. Nelson & Bowen (2000)1 found that employees are more self-confident when their uniforms look the part, and furthermore, exude more credibility.

Also, I went to EHL (the number one hospitality school on the planet), and if there’s one thing that is instilled into us from day one, it is that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Research confirms this, as customers form lasting impressions within 7 seconds of interaction, and visual cues account for 55% of that initial judgement.

TLDR; there is a real business case for investing in hotel uniforms and guests will find you sloppy if you don’t.

Now that we have the concrete stuff out of the way, let’s dive into the vibes.

The signature hotel uniform formula

(Ah now we’re in the vibes section. I love it here.)

I love fashion and visually interesting things, and I always find it a let-down when hospitality does not lean into this. Global chain brands naturally have their brand standards with more run-of-the-mill outfits, but in my humble opinion, boutique and independent hotels (or any property in the luxury segment) have no excuse to slack in this department.

And there is no need to! The process of creating a signature hotel uniform is at the end of the day rather simple, and consists of combining three features:

The signature uniform™ combines the following:

1. Local elements: a nod to the where the hotel is located creates a sense of place and bumps up the authenticity score

2. High-quality materials: fabric must be breathable and made from natural fibers. Polyester is unforgivable.

3. Functionality: uniforms should work with the employees and make their job easier

There are many great examples that hit all of these areas in a fantastic way, and I have handpicked a few of them for you below.

Polo shirt, jeans, and Gucci sneakers

Casa Maria Luigia, Modena

A while back I wrote about the incredible experience I had staying at Casa Maria Luigia. This hotel does world-building like no other, and every detail is thought out, down to the staff shoes which are just quintessential Italian luxury.

The simple but fresh combo of a white polo with quality denim creates a casual but still chic atmosphere.

Monochrome

Kempinski

A signature uniform can create an aura or even a character. Kempinski’s Lady in Red is a good example of when a uniform becomes something more. The brand’s hostesses are dressed in red, signifying ambassadorship.

While the red is always red, the silhouette of the dress varies based on where the property is located (✔local elements).

High-end fabrics in locally-rooted silhouettes

Mandarin Oriental, London Mayfair

Speaking of local elements and brand authenticity, few examples hit the spot more than Mandarin Oriental’s London uniforms.

The materials and cuts are just luxurious to look at, and the uniforms incorporate both British influences (a gesture to the London location) and Asian ones (a gesture to the brand’s Hong Kong roots).

If your employees feel sexy your hotel will be sexy

Hospitality is an act of play and the creation of a fantasy, and staff need to play their part for that bubble not to burst.

A uniform that fits well, breathes well, and looks considered tells an employee that they were considered, that their experience is important too, not just the guest’s.

An employee who feels dignified in what they’re wearing will extend that dignity to the guest. An employee stuffed into a polyester polo two sizes too big will give you microplastic-discomfort-energy. I know which one I prefer.

I firmly believe that how you dress your team is part of the hospitality you extend to the world, and no one can convince me that it isn’t a serious matter.

Send outfit pics,

🔑 Emma

A recent What the Luxe interview with design pioneer Stephen Bayley centered around the general disintegration of design, and how its sentiment of “effort and care beyond what is necessary” is now seen as frivolous.

Anant Sharma, the host, stated that:

“It has become so irrational to take the more charming path that it’s almost unjustifiable”

Yet, the converse is probably closer to the truth.

It is precisely through attention to detail and making said detail charming that we can unlock the most value and impact. This applies to both design of physical spaces and products, as well as experience design, no matter the industry.

When interacting with an offering is made as intuitive and emotionally resonant as possible, it will turn consumers into spokespeople.

Why are details so important?

How you do one thing is how you do everything.

This is a phrase often attributed to Zen Buddhism, but it is also one that Will Guidara mentions frequently in his book Unreasonable Hospitality. For Guidara, the phrase became a guiding principle in bringing his restaurant Eleven Madison Park from a great restaurant to the best in the world.

Translating this phrase into practice meant putting an unreasonable amount of effort into each detail in the restaurant; from silverware to coffee beans to placing the plate in a way where the guest has an easier time checking who manufactured it.

This purpose of this letter, however, is not to relay what Guidara has written. Instead, it is a curated list of details we find incredibly chic impactful, courtesy of two self-proclaimed hotel enthusiasts.

In this letter: a big boy list of absolutely life-changing details in hotels, curated by and , the tasteful mind behind The Other HAFH (a hospitality newsletter you do not want to miss)

Read The Other HAFH

50 details that make a hotel (or service experience) so f****** good

The following list is non-exhaustive, and includes examples from other areas than hotels, such as wellness experiences. Enjoy.

1. Handwritten notes from the hotel

2. A chic ‘do not disturb’ sign. Imagine a leather tassel hanging off the door instead of a flimsy plastic one.

3. A velvet tray where you can place your jewelry and watch during a facial, instead of having to throw them in your bag or on the table. This is the standard experience at Biologique Recherche.

4. High-quality stationery, such as a heavy-duty pen and envelopes (obviously in addition to a notepad).

5. Real, fresh flowers in the room or around the property(and preferably also strange or whimsical).

6. A signature fragrance that reminds you of the property forever and ever when you come upon it again. However, with nuance (see point 31)

7. Fresh newspapers with an intentional selection. I like to have FT Weekend at hand.

8. A REAL Finnish sauna, where you are actually allowed to throw water on the stones (Note from Emma: Yes, I’m a snob, I’m Finnish, this is my culture. I’m available for sauna consultancy).

9. When you are brought a beverage and your coat is taken for you at the very moment you set foot on the property.

10. Nice hotel slippers. I’m so over the flimsy, white, Temu-quality slippers. I’m calling it: the baseline expectation for luxury hotels from now on is high quality slippers that can be worn comfortably throughout the hotel, from the room to the spa to breakfast.

11. When they don’t ask: “Is this your first time staying with us?” (because they should already know, especially at luxury properties)

12. A Polaroid camera in the room because why not! (Bob W. has one in every room) Surprise your guests, they will tell their friends.

13. Thought-through staff uniforms, whether they are somehow unexpected or charmingly traditional. More important than the style, however, is that they are high quality and made from breathable, natural matierials.

14. Small keepsakes to take with. Belmond has a collectible sticker for each property. The Goring gifts kids a stuffed animal.

15. Little pockets of shared spaces, or a favorite, an in-hotel library.

16. Books that can be borrowed and read, that have something to do with the storytelling of the property. Rosewood Amsterdam has a shelf of books that were gifted by collaborators and friends of the hotel.

17. Quality merch. Brand extension galore when you can live your favorite hotel’s aesthetic beyond the stay.

18. A proper hair dryer. Firefly in Zermatt has a Dyson in every single room.

19. Mini bar stocked with local goods, and hot take: the mini bar should always be complimentary at luxury hotels! (Note from Sanchita: YES! Don’t give me coca cola or sprite. I want to know the regional soda that nobody outside a fifty mile radius has heard of. I also want to know the local chocolatier, the small-batch preserve. Let me in on the surrounding area, and I’ll stop resenting the upcharge.)

20. Heated bathroom floors.

21. Turndown service and a refill of the aforementioned complimentary minibar.

22. A complimentary spa treatment. Mont Cervin Palace offers a 30-minute facial for all guests (Note from Emma: it rivaled a Biologique Recherche treatment, no joke!)

23. A tea, coffee, and snack station in the common area. Bonus points for (branded) takeaway cups so you can zoom out for a coffee walk.

24. Plug points where you actually need them. That could be next to the bed, near the desk, not hidden behind the wardrobe or requiring furniture rearrangement.

25. A room with one overhead setting and no bedside dimmer is a room designed to be photographed, not slept in. A reading light that doesn’t need the overhead should be non-negotiable.

26. Blackout curtains that actually black out. The gap down the middle. Always the gap down the middle. A design failure so consistent it might as well be intentional.

27. Mirror placement. The hotel that gives you a full-length mirror somewhere with decent light has understood my psyche.

28. Enough drawer space to actually unpack. The wardrobe rail with four hangers expects you to live out of your suitcase. Many of us just accept this, but we shouldn’t.

29. Speaking of hangers, they need to detach from the rail. I don’t know when the fixed anti-theft hanger became a thing, but I would be mortified if I found them at a so-called luxury destination. The hotel is essentially saying they don’t trust you.

30. The bathroom counter. Surface area. Most boutique hotels sacrifice it for the stone slab aesthetic and leave you balancing your toiletries on the edge of the sink. Like the one below; plenty of surface area.

    

31. I don’t mind hotels with a signature scent. That’s encouraged. But I don’t want it in the room. The room should smell of nothing, and a neutral scent is surprisingly hard to achieve.

32. The shower pressure. Temperature, too. Both need to be consistent but variable.

33. Towel quantity. Rule of thumb: stock rooms with more towels than necessary.

34. Also, bath sheets, not just bath towels. The size distinction is notable.

35. The bedside table surface area. Similar to the bathroom counter, the bedside table should have room for miscellaneous objects. Phone, water glass, reading glasses, trinkets, etc. (Note from Emma: and the 5-6 journals and books I’m always carrying with me)

36. Pillow choice. Firm or soft, offered without being requested. Hotels that do this have understood that sleep is a core product.

37. Water. Always. A full carafe, refilled at turndown, without it appearing on the bill. Charging for still water in a four-star-or-more hotel is abhorrent.

38. Adequate task lighting at the desk. The number of hotels with a desk that can’t actually be used for work after dark is an indictment of who they imagined was staying.

39. More lighting woes: wardrobe lighting. A dark wardrobe in a dark room requires a phone torch to locate dark trousers. Solved by a motion sensor costing less than the soap amenities.

40. A printed neighbourhood map or city guide. I love the Orso Guides that Orso Hotels print and leave in each of their hotel guest rooms in Paris.

41. Similar to this, a note about what’s happening in the city that week. Curated and dated.

42. Portable umbrellas. I appreciate that hotels can provide those massive ones when needed, but sometimes you just want one that slides into your bag when you’re heading out.

43. A proper shoe horn. Long-handled. The detail is so small and so cheap to get right.

44. Breakfasts that can be taken at an actually reasonable hour. Not 6:30 am for early flights or 10 am as the outer limit. Give me breakfast until noon on weekends.

45. A stocked needle and thread kit. I don’t know why a lot of hotels stopped providing this, but they’re great to have just in case.

46. Learn the name of the guest and use it correctly. The recovery from mispronunciation isn’t to abandon the name and replace it with ‘ma’am’ for the remainder of the stay (Note from Sanchita: this has happened to me and is worse than the original error).

47. A bath that fits a human body comfortably. It sounds absurd to even have to say it, but so many are sculptural first and functional second.

48. The exact placement of the bedside lamp switch. If I have to lean past the lamp to find it, I’m out.

49. Tissue boxes that aren’t deeply recessed into stone or wood that you have to dig for the first tissue.

50. Curtain tracks that don’t catch halfway. The uneven glide is a mood kill.

It is simple to applaud, congratulate, and thoroughly enjoy a property that gets these details right.

And luckily, oftentimes great details are free (or cost the same) to execute, but make the world of a difference.

What did we miss? Hard agrees or disagrees? We’re dying to know!

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We hope you enjoyed your stay,

🔑 Emma and Sanchita

You know how many hotel experiences fall flat? The rooms may be beautiful, even kind of contemporary, but the experience feels hollow. You never quite forget that this is a hotel and last night there was someone else occupying this room. And tomorrow it will be someone else.

But then again, there are the hotels that could only be described as transcendent. And I have found that the common denominator in these hotels is that they are able to make you feel like home.

I’m on a mission to crack the code behind hospitality that makes you forget the outside world. Turndown Service™ is a tPH letter dedicated exactly to this endeavor of mine.

And while we will be discussing the finer, softer, experiential things, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a methodology. We are approaching hospitality in a phenomenological way, meaning that we believe we can arrive at truth through lived experience.

This means we will also take a look at what some of the most chic properties on earth are doing, and dissect what makes them so great.

So voilà, I hope you are tucked in nicely (this is turndown service, after all), and ready to dive into why I think dwelling is the secret sauce to home-like hospitality.

Welcome to Turndown Service, where we immerse ourselves in an experiential detail or sentiment.

In this letter: Heidegger on dwelling, chilling at Massimo Bottura’s summer house, and the only hotel in Stockholm

An extremely short history of the origins of the hotel

The word “hotel” comes from the French hôtel, which originally meant a large private residence; a townhouse for aristocrats and their guests. Many hotels today have omitted this part of the history of the industry from their modus operandi, and focus on offering a run-of-the-mill guest experience that’s neither memorable nor personal.

But the hotels that never did away with the private residence sentiment are some of the best in the world, and the reason is quite simple: they are able to offer guests a dwelling.

What is dwelling?

“To dwell means to belong to a given place.”

- Martin Heidegger

German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) wrote that to dwell is not simply to occupy a space, but to be at peace in it, and to be “spared” from hurry and harshness.

He distinguished between, on one hand, buildings we merely use, and on the other, places where we truly reside. Dwelling indicates lingering presence and the opposite of hurry, something that Heidegger argues to be central to the human condition.

But how often do we dwell in our day-to-day? Perhaps our busy lives keep us in a perpetual state of passing through, which is the antithesis of this desired state.

Hotels have always promised escape, but the ones that leave the strongest impressions offer a place to dwell, creating a sense of belonging.

Now if you allow me, I’ll take you on a small journey to two of my favorite hotels dwellings. (These two are so good I borderline want to gatekeep them).

Dwelling #1: Casa Maria Luigia, Modena, Italy

Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura’s summer estate slash boutique hotel, Casa Maria Luigia, is a masterclass in authentic hospitality.

There are options of rooms… or you could stay in Bottura’s literal summer house. Sure!

The house features a few bedrooms, a pool, a fridge stocked with little amuse-bouches and, my favorite, Chef Bottura’s vinyl collection. It’s like he personally invited you, and just happens to be running errands at the moment and will return at any time to discuss music and what’s for dinner.

Naturally, dinner and breakfast are à la Bottura featuring many of his world-famous dishes, such as the Parmigiano a million ways plate.

If you’re lucky (and I was!), the man himself may pop up out of the kitchen mid-dinner. This induced a mild freakout in yours truly and a major one in my sister, who proceeded to cry into her food.

I can hardly think of a more intimate hospitality experience than inviting guests into your literal home. I’m already a fan of small family-run bed and breakfasts where heart and soul are poured into every detail. Casa Maria Luigia was like that but on steroids.

Dwelling becomes simple and intuitive when you are trusted with personal collections from art to music to furniture, in a space that hints at a person’s real interests and everyday life.

Dwelling #2: Ett Hem, Stockholm, Sweden

A Scandi example is Ett Hem, a Stockholm hotel made up of three private houses, where you get to cosplay a Swede with extremely good taste.

Guests are made to feel they belong by being treated as friends and family, and the chefs create in the open kitchen right in front of you, from local produce.

Everything from linen to art pieces has been curated to the max, with full-sized products for an entire skincare regimen in your bathroom, which makes it feel like you’re sleeping over at a gallant friend’s house who just really loves the brand Mantle.

In a way, details like beauty products in the size you would find them at home and an abundance of gathering areas create opportunities to dwell. We move differently in spaces where we feel at home than in unfamiliar ones. Full-sized skincare is something that one associates with home, not with a hotel stay.

TLDR: everything simply feels purposeful and a feeling of dwelling can be induced through detail.

Why your hotel should be dwell-maxxing

We spend so much of life in transit. Passing through airports, meetings, cities, and rarely do we stop long enough to actually be somewhere.

Hotels could be yet another place we pass through, and many of them are. Check in, sleep, check out, forget, repeat.

But hotels that are crafted for dwelling and understand the deeper intimacy of hospitality offer an increasingly rare encouragement to stop, linger a little longer over breakfast, play a record, and just exist.

Casa Maria Luigia and Ett Hem are fantastic examples of how a hotel can, through intentionally creating a home-like environment, become a universe of its own where guests get to live differently (completely oblivious to the fact that there was someone before them, and there will be someone after them).

Heidegger and I would call that dwelling.

Thank you for taking the journey with me, dear guest. You are in great company here at tPH.

Yours truly,

🔑 Emma