Custom Hospitality

The services

The stay you promise.
The support to deliver it.

Six ways I can help, from a fresh pair of eyes to a full opening. Each one starts with the guest and ends with a team that can carry it on without me.

Six practicesOn board or on site
From the guest’s perspective. With the operator’s understanding.

Where to start

It usually starts
with a symptom.

Reviews that have slipped. A team that is stretched thin. An opening date that suddenly looks close. We start from what the guest should feel and work back to what needs attention. Take one service on its own or combine a few; the scope follows the problem, not the menu.

01

The practice

Guest experience design

Make the whole stay feel considered.

Discuss this service ↗

A guest doesn’t experience your departments. They experience one stay, from the first email to the taxi home, and they notice when the pieces don’t quite join up.

How we get there

We walk the journey the way a guest does, from booking to departure, and decide what each moment should feel like. Then we design those moments around the people, spaces and budget you actually have.

What you take forward

  • A guest journey map with clear priorities
  • Service sequences and signature moments your team can deliver
  • Food, beverage and public-space recommendations
02

The practice

Hotel & onboard operations

Give good service a dependable structure.

Discuss this service ↗

Most service problems are not people problems. They are a missing handover, a late delivery or a standard nobody wrote down. Fix those and your team gets its time back for guests.

How we get there

I spend time in the operation first. Then I go through staffing, handovers, supplies and standards with your managers, and we fix what slows them down.

What you take forward

  • Staffing, rotation and departmental responsibility review
  • Practical service standards and operating procedures
  • Supplier, provisioning and reporting recommendations
03

The practice

Pre-opening & launch

Give the operation a voice before it exists.

Discuss this service ↗

By the time the first guest walks up the gangway, most of the important decisions were made months ago, often by people who have never worked a service. Someone has to speak for the operation while there is still time to change things.

How we get there

I sit between your project partners and your hotel team: the designer, the yard, the suppliers and the people who will actually run it. Together we plan recruitment, equipment, training and the trial runs that find the problems before the guests do.

What you take forward

  • A pre-opening plan with owners and key milestones
  • Recruitment, equipment and operational readiness support
  • Training, dry runs and a prioritised opening snag list
04

The practice

Teams & leadership

Help people feel ready to take responsibility.

Discuss this service ↗

A crew far from head office cannot check every decision. They need to know what good looks like and feel trusted to deliver it, especially in week ten when everyone is tired.

How we get there

I work with your managers on how they hire, how they welcome new people and how they lead day to day, so the team feels supported for the whole season and not just the first week.

What you take forward

  • Hiring profiles and practical interview guidance
  • Onboarding and management development
  • Team retention review and recommendations
05

The practice

Mystery guest

See your promise from the other side.

Discuss this service ↗

You can’t see your own operation the way a guest does. You know too much. An unannounced stay shows you what they actually experience, not what the standard says they should.

How we get there

I book and travel like any other guest, then assess the stay against your own standards rather than a generic checklist. You get an honest, practical report with priorities your management team can act on.

What you take forward

  • An independent assessment from booking to departure
  • Observations across rooms, dining and guest service
  • A written report with photographs and prioritised recommendations
06

The practice

Training

Make the standard something people can use.

Discuss this service ↗

Training only sticks when people understand why, not just what, and when it happens close enough to service to be tried the same day.

How we get there

We practise on board or on site, with material written for your operation rather than lifted from a textbook. Your supervisors learn to run it themselves, so the training doesn’t leave when I do.

What you take forward

  • A training needs review against your service standard
  • Tailored material and practical on-site delivery
  • A train-the-trainer handover for your supervisors
The work behind the welcome

Good service starts
before the guest arrives.

How I work

First, understand.
Then, make it work.

I don’t arrive with a ready-made manual. I start in the operation, with your team, and we work out together what needs to change and how to make it hold.

01

Look and listen

I spend time in the operation before I say anything: watching service, talking to the crew, eating in the restaurant, checking a cabin. Three days on board tell you more than thirty pages of reports.

02

Agree what good looks like

Then we decide together what needs attention now and what can wait. Priorities, responsibilities and standards that fit the concept, the budget and the people you actually have.

03

Make it stick

I stay while the changes bed in. Your managers try them in real service, we adjust, and I step back once the team can carry it without me. That is the point.

Working together

The right amount
of support.

Every engagement is scoped around the problem.
These are the shapes it usually takes.

Carmen Mladenovic
Independent hospitality consultant

Let’s talk about your operation

What would you like
to do better?

A clear brief or a half-formed idea. Both are a good place to start.

Start a conversation

No pitch, no obligation.
Just an honest conversation.