The experience inventory is a tally. For five shifts, every time a guest thanks the team or mentions something they will remember, you note it and mark it as one of two things: something given (a room, a plate, an amenity, a gift) or something arranged for them to do or feel. At the end of the week the two columns tell you what kind of operation you are running, in the guests’ own words.
Where it comes from
Chapter 14 of the book is about the future of luxury and craft, and the hoteliers and chefs in it agree on one shift more than any other: luxury has moved from things to experiences. Nicholas Yarnell, then general manager of Six Senses Douro Valley, described the work from the inside.
“We spend a great deal of time and effort crafting experiences that will delight and surprise our guests.” Nicholas Yarnell, then general manager of Six Senses Douro Valley
Yarnell’s own example in the book is a server who, as a nervous guest left the restaurant, handed her a card with a note in Portuguese so that she need not fear going out to local restaurants. It cost nothing. It was arranged rather than given, and it is the kind of thing a guest tells people about for years. The inventory exists to find out how much of what your guests remember belongs in that column.
What is on the page
Two columns, given and arranged, with room for about twenty entries each, and a line for what the guest said. A sentence box for what the balance says about your operation. Then the second half of the exercise: one complimentary experience your team could arrange at no cost (a look inside the kitchen while the bread comes out, ten minutes with the person who knows the building’s history, a walk to the one view the brochure does not show), with three rows to record how it landed each time it was offered, and who delivered it.
How to use it for five shifts
Tally as you go, including the small moments. At the end of five shifts, count the columns and write the sentence. Then choose the experience, offer it to three guests across the week, and have a colleague deliver it on at least one occasion. Afterwards, write down the two or three conditions the offer needs in order to hold without you, and share them with the colleague who delivered it.
What to look for
Look at how much of what guests remember was arranged rather than given. Most operations find the arranged column shorter than they expected and the entries in it more vivid. Then look at the third delivery of the complimentary experience, the one someone else gave. If it still landed, you have found an experience your operation can keep. If it fell flat, the conditions you wrote down are where the work is.