This is not another book about service standards. It’s a practical, science-backed playbook for the human engine of our industry, built for leaders who are tired of treating symptoms and are ready to fix the system.
Inside, you will discover a new way of seeing your business:
This book is the answer to those that cry 'but they are just not our customer' when corporations knee-jerk react to changing everything for the sake of one bad review out of 1000 guests; a thought for me that started it all. It’s for every leader who knows there's a deeper truth to our business. It's the guide to building a business that is more resilient, more profitable, and profoundly more human.
Available on Kindle
The Art and Science of Hospitality
What makes one hotel feel magical while another falls flat? Hospitalicology blends psychology, sociology, and anthropology to decode the human dynamics that create unforgettable guest experiences—from the first digital handshake to the last farewell.
From Hospitalicology by M. Jones
Apply Jobs‑to‑Be‑Done, Self‑Determination Theory, and Flow to your website and booking journey. Reduce friction, increase conversion, and set accurate expectations from the first click.
Use dramaturgy and identity theory to design status signals, rituals, and scripts. Help guests be the person they want to be in your spaces—without excluding others.
Turn your servicescape into an active co-host. Learn how cues—light, sound, layout, and crowd dynamics—influence stress, belonging, and behaviour.
Engineer positive endings and memory anchors. Harness peak‑end effects, meaning‑making, and follow‑up rituals that transform good stays into loyal relationships.
Move beyond apology theatre. Diagnose the psychology of failure and rebuild trust through narrative repair, fair process, and emotionally intelligent ritual.
Protect the people who create the magic. Explore emotional labour, culture, conflict, and coaching frameworks that build resilient, high-agency teams.
A teaser guide to the journey. Each chapter shows you what to look for, how to design with intent, and how to measure progress
Turn browsing into belief. Design first contact so guests feel informed, in control and excited to continue — and so the expectations you set match the experience you can deliver.
Make arrival feel effortless. Shape first impressions through cues, choreography and pace so relief replaces anxiety and the stay starts on a high.
Your spaces are a stage and your guests are the lead. Craft signals, scripts and status moments that help people step into the identity they want for this trip.
Holidays are more than rest; they are self-upgrades. Give people small wins and meaningful moments that change how they feel about themselves.
Hospitality is social. Navigate queues, privileges and policies in a way that feels fair, dignified and transparent for every guest.
Design your servicescape as a co-host. Use light, sound, layout and crowd energy to guide mood, reduce friction and support wayfinding.
Endings colour everything. Engineer parting moments that compress the best of the stay into a clear, positive memory.
Keep the story alive. Follow up with meaning, not spam; help guests relive highlights and return by choice, not discount.
What delights today becomes tomorrow’s standard. Build a cadence for improvement that keeps teams energised without burning them out.
Treat complaints as data and drama. De-escalate, diagnose root causes and turn a bad moment into a trust-building act.
After a failure, feelings matter most. Acknowledge harm properly, set a fair process and rebuild confidence step by step.
When you make it right, make it memorable. Use symbolic gestures and clear restitution that feel proportionate and sincere.
Reviews are storytelling in public. Shape the narrative by being transparent, human and quick — and by fixing the issues reviews reveal.
Care for the people who care for guests. Recognise emotional labour, prevent silent load, and create systems that protect wellbeing.
Motivation is designed, not demanded. Build autonomy, mastery and purpose into roles so performance and pride rise together.
Teams succeed on trust and clarity. Reduce drama, surface tensions early and align everyone on the next visible win.
Culture is a practice. Train with stories, rituals and feedback loops so standards spread and stick across shifts and sites.
Blend human skill with augmented tools. Make ethical choices about data and design so technology amplifies care, not replaces it.
Bring it all together. Use the book’s integrated models to align brand promises, guest journeys and team systems in one view.
I have worked almost all my life in Hospitality; its always been a business that has drawn me back in to it's clutches, because nothing compares to it. Starting as a weekend porter whilst at school, I fell in love with the trade and worked my way up through the ranks to eventually launch a new hotel brand to the UK, and am currently residing in Scotland where I am a Hospitality Consultant. My experience has all been founded 'on the floor' and I have seen the birth of computerised systems in hotels (yes, I remember when Rack Rate was determined from an actual rack of cards on the wall), through to the tech advancements we have now with AI and automation pushing the industry ever forward. But the human aspect has always intrigued me, and that is what led to me working on this project:
Hospitalicology: The Science of Great Hospitality began with one simple, if slightly rebellious, thought during a corporate meeting where we were once again reacting to a negative review and ignoring the multiple positive reviews we had: “It’s okay. They’re just not our customer.” It wasn’t an excuse for poor service — it was a moment of clarity. I realised that if we could truly understand why we connect with some guests and not others, we could stop reacting to noise and start creating meaning.
That thought turned into a six-year journey through both professional and personal upheaval: launching a new brand, navigating the pandemic, going through divorce, surviving a coma, and receiving an AuDHD diagnosis that finally made sense of how my brain works. What once felt like chaos became a kind of clarity. My way of thinking — connecting systems, emotions and human behaviour — became the perfect foundation for this project.
The result is a book that blends psychology, sociology and anthropology into a single framework for understanding why hospitality works when it really works. It explores the factors that win or lose a guest before they arrive, the human engine behind the scenes, and the rituals that can turn failure into loyalty. It is the first book in the world to blend psychological disciplines of human psychology, marketing psychology and consumer psychology with sociology and anthropology through the journeys of 4 guests and 4 employees, giving a variety of lenses in to how hospitality actually can, and cannot, work.
This isn’t just another business book; it’s a love letter to our industry, written from the perspective of someone who’s lived every side of it.
Connect on LinkedIn: mattjones81
Great hospitality isn’t luck — it’s human science. When you understand the hidden forces shaping decisions, emotions, and team behaviour, you can design repeatable, ethical experiences that guests love and staff are proud to deliver.
Our industry often explains the what and the how of service, but struggles with the deeper why. Marketing over-indexes on demographics. Checklists replace judgment. Teams burn out trying to “delight” without understanding the psychology of expectations.
Hospitalicology reframes hospitality through robust social science. It connects guest motivations, cultural nuance, and on-property design so leaders can align brand promises with operational reality—without manipulation or gimmicks.
The book follows the full guest arc—pre-arrival, arrival, in-stay, farewell, and echo—alongside the “human engine” backstage. Each chapter offers critical perspectives, practical KPIs, and team prompts you can use in tomorrow’s stand-up.
Who it’s for: hotel owners, GMs, educators, and ambitious teams who want a common language for designing experiences that are emotionally intelligent and commercially sound.
Email: contact@hospitalicology.com
Guests do not buy rooms; they hire venues to make progress in a situation. Define the job, discover your true competitors, and design propositions that “win the hire”.
Support autonomy, competence, and relatedness across digital and physical touchpoints. The payoff is higher conversion, reduced anxiety, and greater loyalty.
Match challenge to skill with clear goals and instant feedback. From booking engines to check‑in, create journeys that feel effortless—and honest.
People buy predicted feelings. Market ethically: align imagery and language with what operations can deliver to avoid expectation‑reality gaps.
For interviews, review copies, or speaking enquiries, email contact@hospitalicology.com.
Includes cover artwork, author bio, book synopsis, topic angles, and approved images. (Coming soon)
Digital Handshake • Ethical Persuasion vs Dark Patterns • Designing Flow in Real Hotels • Emotional Labour & Team Resilience • Teaching hospitality with social science.
We welcome collaboration with hospitality schools and industry events. Guest lectures, workshops, and curriculum integration available on request.