Quote of Note

Aloha Kakou:

Sometimes, the particular words that are used to make a point really make that point hit home. Perhaps it's the combination of the actual words. Or maybe it's the rhythm of the sentence. Or maybe it's just the combination of words that spark a particular jolt of electricity that turns on that light bulb over your head.

"People are purchasing a fixed experience rather than travelling for travel's sake" said Thomas Kahnstamm.

Think about that for a minute. It's not the adventure of travel that's important, it's the experience. And it's not just any experience, it's a "fixed experience" - the guest insists on knowing ahead of time exactly all of the details of what he is buying.

It's not transportation from point A to point B that the traveller is buying from the airline, it's the meal, the movie, the flight attendant's attitude, the seat pitch and the lack of turbulence that the flyer believes they have purchased; they've purchased the whole flying experience.

It's not a comfortable bed, four walls and air conditioning that the guest is buying from us. They're buying a particular decor, a certain size bed, that unit in the building they stayed in last year, those smiling employee faces, the immediate transportation to the cabana; the whole Outrigger Maui Eldorado experience.

Do you think that we as a property meet the guests' expectations of the fixed experience they believe they are buying?