The Most Dangerous Answer in Hospitality: “Because That’s How We’ve Always Done It”
“When you ask, ‘Why do we do it this way?’ and the only answer is ‘Because that’s how it’s always been done,’ that rule deserves another look.”
This single idea captures the heart of Will Guidara’s approach to hospitality, and it also captures the core ethos of Incrementalist.
Great hospitality is rarely broken. More often, it is cluttered. Buried beneath habits, inherited rules, legacy systems, and well‑intentioned processes that were once useful but are no longer questioned.
The work, then, is not disruption for its own sake. It is careful interrogation. Understanding which rules still serve the guest, the team, and the experience, and which ones quietly get in the way.
This article uses that question as its organising principle, exploring how independent hotels can rethink leadership, systems, and service without losing their identity.
When Leadership Habits Deserve Another Look
Leadership shows up first as atmosphere, not authority. Guests and staff feel clarity, calm, or chaos long before they notice strategy.
In practice, this comes from intention in small decisions: how problems are handled, how standards are explained, how pressure is absorbed.
When leaders default to habit instead of intention, service becomes procedural rather than personal.
When Rules Exist Because They Always Have
Tradition is not the problem; unexamined tradition is. Rules that once protected quality can quietly start blocking connection.
Guidara treats inexperience as useful when it allows leaders to ask naïve but necessary questions about why systems exist.
In hotels, this often appears in rigid policies that frustrate both guests and staff, even though no one remembers why they exist.
When Control Is Mistaken for Quality
Tight control often feels like quality assurance, but it frequently suppresses judgement and learning.
Hospitality requires subjectivity; there is rarely a single correct response to a human situation.
The strongest hotels create structure that supports good decisions, rather than rules that replace them.
When Feedback Becomes a Rule Instead of a Conversation
Guidara’s feedback philosophy is simple but demanding: address behaviour, not character; praise publicly, correct privately.
This approach raises standards while preserving dignity, which is essential in high-pressure service environments.
Hotels that struggle with consistency often lack psychological safety, not procedures.
When the Purpose of Hospitality Gets Blurred
Hospitality is not just a delivery mechanism; it is a responsibility to care well.
When hotels focus exclusively on efficiency or margin, guests feel processed rather than welcomed.
True luxury is not excess, but intention, empathy, and presence delivered consistently.
Closing Reflection
The lesson for independent hotels is not to copy Will Guidara’s restaurant or exact gestures. It is to adopt his way of thinking.
Design experiences deliberately. Question rules respectfully. Trust people thoughtfully. And remember that hospitality, at its best, is about making human beings feel seen.
None of this works without discipline in the fundamentals. Warmth is built on rigour, and empowerment only works when the basics are ruthlessly clear.
In a follow-up article, we will explore this side of Unreasonable Hospitality in more depth, looking at how operational discipline enables extraordinary service, supported by further examples and direct evidence from the book.
This is not louder hospitality. It is quieter, more disciplined, and more powerful.
Selected Quotations that resonated with us, from Unreasonable Hospitality (Illustrative Excerpts)
“Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you.”
“Knowing less is often an opportunity to do more.”
“When you ask, ‘Why do we do it this way?’ and the only answer is ‘Because that’s how it’s always been done,’ that rule deserves another look.”
“A leader’s responsibility is to identify the strengths of the people on their team, no matter how buried those strengths might be.”
“Criticize the behavior, not the person. Praise in public; criticize in private.”
“Intention means every decision, from the most obvious to the seemingly mundane, matters.”
“No matter what you do, it’s hard to excel if you don’t love it.”
