Five stages of the guest journey,
one continuous voice
I work across the full guest journey, the way an in-house team has to. The five stages below describe how I think about the work, with examples from the projects that have shaped each one.
Stage 01 - Brand & Positioning
Stage Description:
The strategic groundwork. Tone of voice guides, brand books, naming, and the positioning that defines a new property before it opens or repositioning it as it moves further upmarket. This is the essential foundation upon which every other piece of rests.
What I write at this stage:
Tone of voice guides and brand books that the in-house team can easily use. Naming for new properties, restaurants, activations and loyalty programmes. Positioning for pre-opening and repositioning briefs.
Featured project - Culinary Icons at Puente Romano Marbella:
Naming, positioning and full editorial framework for the property’s landmark chef-led activation series. Now in its second edition, with five chefs and 240 guests, including Albert Adrià as special guest. The work covers the activation’s identity, its language across every channel, and the brand of the series itself.
Featured project — Rosewood Villa Magna, Madrid:
Five years of work with the property, including the website page copy at rosewoodhotels.com/en/villa-magna. Sales materials, summer campaigns, social and partner-facing newsletters. Rosewood is a brand built on destination and sense of place.
Stage 02 — Pre-Arrival & Digital
Stage Description:
The anticipation a guest builds before they pack a bag, and the search visibility that brings them to you in the first place. So that’s websites, SEO content, Paid Social, booking flows, pre-stay emails.
What I write at this stage:
Property websites, including page-level copy on individual restaurants, suites, spas and signature experiences. SEO-aware destination content that earns search rankings with AI without sacrificing voice. Booking-flow copy and SevenRooms headlines. Pre-arrival emails that set expectation and tone. Campaign landing pages.
Stage 03 - Arrival
Stage Description:
The first impression once a guest is through the door, written and spoken. The vocabulary a property uses for its team members and roles. The greeting at the front desk. The way check-in feels and the words used. The welcome cards, in-room communications that meet the guest.
What I write at this stage:
The spoken brand and the written brand, in the same voice. This encompasses the collateral guests don’t notice when it’s done well, but certainly too when they are off point.
Featured project - Arrival programmes for luxury and boutique properties:
Across multiple clients I’ve worked on the full arrival experience. This encompasses the vocabulary a team uses for itself and its roles, the greeting that meets the guest, the guideline script of the check-in, alongside the welcome cards and in-room collateral that make the brand legible from the first minute. The spoken brand and the written brand have to be in the same voice.
Featured project - Nobu Hotel Marbella & Nobu Hotel Marrakech social storytelling:
Ongoing content writing for the main Instagram accounts of two Nobu properties. Captions, story arcs, brand-voice storytelling that moves from a chefs in the kitchen to the late-afternoon light on a sun-splashed terrace.
Stage 04 - The Stay
Stage Description:
The day-to-day texture of a property. F&B menu introductory storytelling, activation copy, guest newsletters, internal comms, social storytelling.
What I write at this stage:
Restaurant menus narratives. Cultural and culinary programming copy. WhatsApp pieces for current guests. Guest newsletters and weekly pieces. Internal comms that make the team the hero. Activation copy across every channel. Ongoing social storytelling that holds a recognisable voice across hundreds of small posts.
Stage 05 - Beyond
Stage Description:
The work that travels beyond the website and collateral. Press releases, partner newsletters, and loyalty communications.
What I write at this stage:
Press releases, with the hook that entices an editor to open the email and the concise style that serves the journalist. Partner-facing newsletters for trade and travel-advisor networks. Loyalty programme communications. Founder bylines and ownership communications, ghostwritten where appropriate. Editorial features attributed to in-house leadership.
Featured project - Hermitage Bay, Antigua trade and partner communications:
Newsletters and partner-facing materials rewritten for Virtuoso-level travel advisors, sitting alongside the brand voice work for the resort’s website. The challenge of the trade newsletter is the same as the press release, getting the busy reader to the commercial news that matters in two paragraphs.
A simple process, creativity with business discipline
01
Immersion
Time spent inside the brand. Walking the property, meeting the people, identifying and understanding the essence.
02
Voice
The brand’s tone of voice, captured in a concise guide the team can actually use, including when working with AI. A working reference that stops the tone drifting.
03
Writing
The work itself. Web pages, brand books, campaigns, editorial features, whatever the brief calls for. Drafted, sense-checked against the brand voice, and delivered on time.
04
Refinement
Excellent is good enough. Chasing perfect delays the launch, the release and the print run, and business is lost while everyone polishes. I have run a business. The writing is for the bottom line, not for art