{"id":1193,"date":"2026-08-18T17:27:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T15:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T15:27:53","slug":"the-0-03e-cookie-that-shapes-the-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/2026\/08\/18\/the-0-03e-cookie-that-shapes-the-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"The 0.03\u20ac cookie that shapes the experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I ordered a coffee at a restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing special. A long shot of black coffee. But when it arrived, something made me stop: a small wrapped cookie, placed next to the cup. The wrapper covered in the word \u201cThank You\u201d in dozens of languages \u2014 Romanian, Swahili, Japanese, Spanish. And when I unwrapped it, the cookie itself had "THANK YOU" pressed into the dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody asked for this. Nobody charged extra for it. It was a \u20ac0.03 cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, I photographed it. I'm writing about it now. And I will remember that coffee<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The details nobody notices\u2026until they do<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Will Guidara, former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park (once ranked the world's best restaurant), built his entire philosophy around what he calls Unreasonable Hospitality<\/strong>: the deliberate act of giving people more than they expected, in ways they couldn't have anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book of the same name, Guidara describes sending a runner outside to buy a hot dog from a street cart, because a table of tourists mentioned in passing that they hadn't had a New York street hot dog yet. The hot dog cost $2. The memory it created? Priceless. The loyalty it built? Measurable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The principle transfers directly to hotels. But most revenue strategies ignore it entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this matters for Ancillary Revenue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The dominant model in hotel ancillary is still transactional: push an upsell offer, convert it, count the euros. Early check-in, room upgrade, late checkout\u2026 bundled into an automated email sent 48 hours before arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It works. That's real money. But it leaves a larger opportunity untouched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the cookie wasn't an upsell. It was a signal: we see you, we appreciate you, and we thought about you (dear customer, not me Pablo, I know you get it) before you arrived<\/em>. That signal is what makes a guest say yes to the upgrade next time; not because they were offered a discount, but because they already trust the hotel's judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emotional micro-moments drive willingness to pay.<\/strong> A 2023 study by Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research found that perceived personalization (even when objectively minor) notably increases spend propensity. The cookie is personalization made tangible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three things your hotel can do this week<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Audit your \u201czero-cost touches.\u201d<\/strong> What do guests encounter that signals care without being on any P&L line? Handwritten welcome notes. The way the turn-down is done. A seasonal item on the coffee tray. Map these moments, you probably have fewer than you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Connect emotion to offer.<\/strong> The moment a guest feels something (a compliment from the front desk, a surprise treat, a view they didn't expect) is the ideal moment to introduce an upsell. Not via automation. Via human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Train your team on the sequence.<\/strong> Unreasonable Hospitality \u2192 trust \u2192 commercial conversation. Most FDU training skips step one. It goes straight to the offer. That's why conversion rates plateau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uncomfortable truth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hotels spend thousands optimizing the upsell funnel. They test subject lines, tweak offer windows, A\/B test room categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they send those emails from a no-reply address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cookie that costs \u20ac0.03 can do more for your RevPAR than a sophisticated pre-arrival campaign if it's delivered at the right moment, by the right person, with the right intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revenue opportunity in hospitality was never just about the offer. It was always about whether the guest wanted to give you more of their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make them want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to explore how emotional touchpoints can improve your hotel's ancillary revenue strategy?<\/em> Visit<\/em> <\/em>torreshospitalityconsulting.com<\/em><\/a> or connect directly on LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I ordered a coffee at a restaurant. Nothing special. A long shot of black coffee. But when it arrived, something made me stop: [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1195,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torreshospitalityconsulting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}