A Word From Our Founder and Principal Consultant
Why Incrementalist?
Most people do not set out to deliver a mediocre experience.
Hotels do not.
Brands do not.
Teams do not.
And yet, over time, the work can become somewhat mechanical. Instead of iteration, we get repetition. The original intent gets buried under habits, handovers, policies, and well-meaning “best practice” processes that were built for a version of the business that no longer exists.
Incrementalist exists to help solve that kind of operational ‘stuckness’.
Not to disrupt for the sake of it. Not to recommend expensive reinvention or chase trends. Our work is quieter than that.
We help hotels refine what already works. We find the small points of friction that guests feel and teams tolerate. Then we turn those into practical refinements that compound into better reviews, higher spend per stay, and a more consistent sense of care.
That is the job. The more interesting question is why I am doing it.
A media and marketing career taught me the part most people miss
My background is largely in media and marketing. At first glance, that can sound like a different universe to hospitality.
In practice, it forced a discipline around customer perception that translates directly to hospitality.
Media is where you learn, quickly, that intention is not impact.
A brand can spend millions saying the right things and still land poorly if it shows up in the wrong way, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It can also earn trust quickly, even with a small budget, if it understands what people care about, how they speak, and the cultural context they are living in.
That is what I mean by customer‑first journey design. Not slogans. Not superficial personalisation. A real obsession with the lived experience, from the outside in.
“Culturally connected” was not a tagline. It was an operating system.
While working in Australia at OMD, the agency ethos was “culturally connected”. In simple terms, culture was treated as a legitimate lever. A bridge to consumers. A way to show up with relevance and authenticity, rather than volume.
That mindset really resonated with me, and it is why it sits at the core of Incrementalist.
Because hospitality, at its best, is also culturally connected. The strongest hotels do not just deliver comfort. They deliver a sense of place. They understand what feels thoughtful in that context, for that guest, on that day.
And when hotels miss, it is rarely because they do not care. It is more often because they are too busy getting through their stock list of day-to-day operations to pause and ask what that experience feels like from the guest’s side.
What McDonald’s taught me about systems, love, and consistency
I spent a meaningful portion of my career working on the McDonald’s business across the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Granted, Maccy D’s is not a luxury outfit! It is instead a well‑oiled leviathan of a big corporation, known and (mostly) loved the world over.
McDonald’s has systematised almost everything, not only for efficiency but to deliver a uniquely recognisable experience. The same familiarity, the same cues, the same predictable comfort. That consistency is not accidental. It is designed.
In the UK, a major focus was pushing metrics around “brand affinity” and “brand love”. Those concepts can sound soft. They are not.
They are retention economics with a human face.
Brand love is what makes someone return without a discount. It is what makes them forgive minor issues. It is what turns a functional transaction into a habit.
Hotels need their own version of that, suited to their scale and context.
Not as a gimmick, but as a practical philosophy.
McDonald’s’ digital presence is more relevant to hotels than it looks
I worked closely on the UK app launch and the launch of the rewards programme. Two lessons translate directly into hospitality.
First, knowing when to prompt people to action. Timing matters. Context matters. Tone matters.
Second, the best prompts do not feel like prompts. They feel like gifts.
When done well, loyalty is not manipulation.
When done poorly, it can unsettle customers and feel like a minor violation.
This is one of the areas where hotels can earn significant uplift with surprisingly little change, as long as the design is thoughtful.
Luxury taught me restraint and taste
Alongside that, I have worked in the luxury segment, including campaigns for Burberry in the UK, Hilton Hotels (supporting their loyalty programme globally), and most recently Mercedes‑Benz.
At Mercedes Benz, my role sat in global governance, helping ensure compliance and best practice across 16 countries, spanning five continents.
That kind of work teaches you two things very quickly.
First, details matter. Not in an obsessive, fussy way. In a “small inconsistencies undermine trust” way.
Second, “premium” is rarely about doing more. It is about doing the right things with restraint and consistency.
Hotels that feel luxurious usually share one trait.
They make you feel cared for without making a performance of it. This is what we mean when we talk about a frictionless experience.
Hospitality has been in the background the whole time
Before, and alongside, my media and marketing career, I had smaller, more hands-on experiences in hospitality and teaching.
They were not grand roles, but they quietly planted ideas about what good, human service actually looks like.
From cocktail bartending to coaching and teaching in different settings, the common thread was simple. The work only functioned if you paid attention to people.
Those early experiences taught me durable lessons about tone, judgement, and the emotional arc of an experience.
People remember how you made them feel.
What we bring to hotels
Incrementalist brings together pattern recognition, taste, and operational pragmatism.
We focus on:
• The guest journey, end to end, including the digital pre‑stay experience
• The emotional arc of arrival, settling in, and departure
• The small frictions that quietly erode trust
• The small moments that create disproportionate delight
• Commercial levers that feel guest‑friendly, not transactional
We care about revenue, but never at the cost of guest comfort or trust.
The goal is the same as it always was in my agency career: maximum impact, delivered in the right way, in the right place, at the right time.
The difference is that hospitality is the most honest environment for it.
There is no separation between brand and experience. The experience is the brand.
Why this work matters to me
I am excited to bring my skillset to hotel owners and operators who care deeply about what they are building.
Hospitality sits at a rare intersection. It is commercial, operational, emotional, and deeply human. When it works well, it creates moments of genuine ease and joy. When it works exceptionally well, it leaves people better than it found them.
Travel and holidays matter because they are rare. For many guests, they represent the few moments in a year when routine loosens, attention softens, and there is space to feel restored. Even on business trips, the quiet moments — a smooth arrival, a thoughtful gesture, a sense that everything is just about right — can make an outsized difference.
I care about those moments. I care about the difference between an experience that is just ‘fine’ and one that feels properly considered.
Incrementalist exists to help hotels move along that path, through subtle refinements that snowball into meaningful impact for guests and sustainable uplift for the businesses behind them.
As this work grows, I know I have as much to learn as I do to offer. I intend to enjoy that process fully, continuing to deepen my own understanding while helping others pursue excellence with clarity, care, and ambition.
That journey, for me, is the point.
Looking ahead to 2026
Incrementalist is quietly and steadily building towards a serious year in 2026.
Fewer assumptions. Better questions. Clearer decisions.
More evidence that small, well‑chosen refinements can compound into meaningful results.
If you run a hotel and you suspect there is untapped performance hiding in plain sight, that is exactly the type of problem we like.
We are glad you are here.
