There is a diagnostic we use on every site visit. Before we walk the lobby, before we tour the rooms, before we sit with the GM — we ask to see the housekeeping closet. Or the back office. Or the loading dock.
The back of house tells the truth. It shows you whether the operation is designed or improvised. Whether standards are lived or laminated. Whether the team is trusted or supervised.
The properties we admire most treat their back of house with the same care as their front. Not because the guest will see it — the guest never will — but because the team who works there will. And the team's experience of the space becomes the guest's experience of the service.
This is the deepest principle of design in hospitality: the unseen defines the seen. Design accordingly.
Written by
Angelieque Pelle
Founder of InOrder. Writes on the craft of running things well.