What’s Wrong with this Picture?

When I was a (strange) kid in upstate New York, I became fascinated with an ad campaign that promoted — of all places — the Helmsley Hotels, then run by famous “queen of mean” Leona Helmsley. The campaign depicted a photo of a lovely hotel room, with the caption “What’s wrong with this room?” The idea was to try to find what was wrong with the housekeeping of the room that — to the untrained eye — might not be apparent, but to the exacting standards of the brand’s owner, Leona Helmsley, was simply unacceptable. They were not huge issues like an unmade bed. They were minor details that often escaped the reader’s eye. I played a game with my brothers and asked if they could see the problem. Uninterested, they would inevitably say the room looks fine, and might slap the magazine out of my hand before running outside to play.

I always could find the imperfection in the photo — always, and usually in just a few seconds. “The towels hanging in the bathroom were not level with each other,” or “one of the pillows on the bed is off center.” Not exactly the typical pastimes of a 12-year-old boy, but then again . . .

Fast forward 50 years, and I find myself running a luxury hospitality business, and that skill set of seeing details is an integral part of our success in providing exceptional glamping experiences to our guests. Our domekeepers (housekeepers for domes) are constantly improving their techniques through training to ensure consistent quality in the preparation of the domes. Just learning how we make beds takes several tries and our new employees shadow experienced staff to perfect their techniques. We sometimes miss, and we hate it when we do, but we take pride in our domekeeping, because if it’s not “glamorous” then it’s not glamping!