Pre-arrival design opportunities

What could a destination aiming to become transformational arrange in advance?

Intention-setting: Prompts that invite us to think about what we would like to gain and what we want to let go of during our stay. These would guide us towards the transformative side of our journey.

Preparation practices: Activities we could do the days before arrival, such as meditation, reflection, or perhaps starting the first pages of a journal.

Story and context: Information about the place, about the owners and why our visit is meaningful to them. It’s about providing the place's history, its foundation and philosophy, and stories of other people who stayed.

Preparation with meaning: This is less about what we should pack and more about a different kind of preparation: letting go, and preparing in a ritual way. It suggests f.i. leaving the iPads at home because of ‘noise’, and packing for creative journaling to enter another world.

Human connection: Meeting with people who work at the hotel, who will greet us not as customers, but as ‘family’.

All of this gives us a chance to prepare for the forthcoming experience. Set intention, and get the ‘vibe’ of the destination. I’m pretty sure my fam and I would love to get into the mood this way. Others perhaps not, but the host’s gesture alone will tell us that they have something special to offer.