From Friction to Flow in Hospitality.

Why The Battle is Won at the Frontline.

Turnpike Whitepaper
Stockholm, 2026
By Thomas Berglund, Head of Hospitality at Turnpike Group

INTRODUCTION - HOSPITALITY IS NOT A PROCESS

Hospitality is not a process.
It is not a checklist.
It is not a system.

Hospitality is a feeling.

It is how a guest feels when they arrive tired.
How they feel when something goes wrong.
How they feel when someone notices - without being asked.

These moments don’t happen in systems.
They happen between people.

And yet, what most often breaks these moments is not lack of care.
It is friction.

Small delays. Missing information. Unclear responsibility.
Things that steal seconds, attention and confidence - right when presence matters most.

In hotels, restaurants and conference venues, these moments are carried almost entirely by frontline staff.
And when friction enters those moments, even the best intentions struggle.

This whitepaper is built on a simple, demanding truth:

In hospitality, the frontline is the experience.

1. MOMENTS OF TRUTH DEFINE EVERY STAY

Guests don’t remember everything.

They remember moments.

The check-in that felt warm - or cold.
The breakfast where help arrived instantly - or never.
The conference where someone took responsibility - or passed it on.

Hospitality lives in moments of truth:
unplanned, emotional, time-sensitive interactions where expectations are either met, exceeded - or broken.

These moments cannot be escalated.
They cannot be postponed.
They cannot be “handled later”.

They demand human judgment - now.

And this is where friction hurts the most.
Not loudly.
Quietly.

A guest waits slightly too long.
A colleague is hard to reach.
Information sits in a system instead of with a person.

Each moment feels small.
Together, they change the atmosphere of the entire stay.

2. THREE LEADERS WHO UNDERSTOOD HOSPITALITY BEFORE THE INDUSTRY DID

Long before “guest experience” became a KPI, three leaders across different industries understood the same thing:

Service excellence is not controlled from the top.
It is enabled at the frontline.

Jan Carlzon - Flying People, Not Planes

Leading SAS through crisis, Jan Carlzon reframed aviation with a hospitality mindset:

“We used to fly airplanes. Now we fly people.”

He recognized that every interaction between staff and passenger was a moment of truth - emotionally identical to a hotel check-in or a restaurant visit.

By decentralizing responsibility and removing friction between decision and action, service quality transformed.

The staff didn’t represent SAS.
They were SAS.

See Turnpike Talks with Turnpike's first investor Jan Carlzon >> Click here

Richard Branson – Employees First, Always

Richard Branson built travel, hospitality and experience brands on one core belief:

“If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the customers.”

Virgin’s success wasn’t built on rigid processes.
It was built on trust, personality and permission to care.

Branson understood something every hospitality leader knows:
you cannot script warmth – but you can remove what gets in its way.

Horst Schulze - Turning Trust into an Operating Model

In hospitality itself, Horst Schulze turned this belief into an operating model.

At Ritz-Carlton, trust was not a value statement.
It was a system.

3. THE RITZ-CARLTON EXAMPLE – WHAT EMPOWERMENT REALLY MEANT

At Ritz-Carlton, every single employee - housekeeping, front desk, restaurant staff, bell service – was given a clear mandate:

You are authorized to spend up to $2,000 per guest, per incident, to solve a problem or create an exceptional experience.

No manager approval.
No explanations afterwards.
No punishment for acting.

That mandate meant frontline staff could, in the moment:

• replace damaged belongings immediately

• arrange transport, meals or accommodation if something failed

• turn a disappointing situation into a personal, memorable experience

The money was rarely used in full.

But the effect was profound.

Employees stopped hesitating.
They stopped escalating.
They started owning the guest experience.

What Schulze removed was not just hesitation.
He removed friction at the moment of truth.

No waiting.
No distance between problem and solution.

Over decades, Ritz-Carlton’s empowerment approach hasn’t just created stories – it created real strategic value.

The lifetime value of a loyal Ritz-Carlton guest has often been cited as approaching $250,000, positioning the $2,000 empowerment mandate as a strategic investment rather than a cost.

Because of that mandate:

• employees resolve issues on the spot instead of escalating them, preventing small problems from becoming lasting dissatisfaction;

• staff create memorable experiences that guests talk about long after check-out;

• the consistent ability to turn potential frustrations into “wow” moments becomes a pillar of trust and loyalty that keeps guests returning.

It’s rarely the full $2,000 that’s used – but the confidence that it could be used is what changes behavior, improves morale and strengthens the emotional bond between guest and brand.

4. WHY TRUST ALONE IS NO LONGER ENOUGH

Trust is essential.

But in modern hospitality, trust without information creates pressure.

Frontline staff care deeply - yet often don’t know:

• where the guest journey is about to break

• when queues or issues are forming

• which situation needs attention right now

Trust without information creates stress.
Information without trust creates control.

Friction lives in that gap.

And in hospitality, friction doesn’t just slow things down.
It breaks presence.

5. FROM TRUST TO REAL-TIME ENABLEMENT

This is where hospitality must evolve.

From:
“We trust our people.”

To:
“We trust our people - and we enable them in real time.”

This insight is exactly where Turnpike was born.

Not from a fascination with technology,
but from frontline reality in hotels, restaurants and conference environments.

Friction doesn’t appear because people don’t care.
It appears because information arrives too late.

And in hospitality, too late is the same as never.

6. HUMAN TECH FOR HOSPITALITY

At Turnpike, we design Human Tech for hospitality environments.

Technology that:

• supports people instead of interrupting them

• delivers awareness without demanding attention

• removes friction instead of adding layers

Real-time signals from guests, systems or environments are routed directly to the right frontline person - discreetly and instantly.

No searching.
No escalation.
No delay.

At its core, Turnpike exists to remove friction from frontline hospitality work.

Not by pushing people harder.
Not by adding more systems.

But by eliminating the small barriers between intention and action - so service can flow naturally.

7. FRONTLINE FIRST – IN REAL HOSPITALITY OPERATIONS

Across hospitality environments, the same pattern emerges.

In large hotel groups such as Clarion Hotel, complexity is high and tempo is relentless.
When friction is removed and information reaches the frontline instantly, teams become calmer - even as demands increase.

In food service and conference environments such as K-Märkt, part of Sodexo, service moments are shorter but just as critical.

Presence, timing and coordination determine whether an experience feels smooth or stressful.

Different environments.
Same truth.

When frontline teams are:

• informed in real time

• trusted to act

• supported instead of controlled

Service quality rises naturally.

Not because people work harder -
but because friction disappears.

See the Turnpike Case film from Clarion Sign Stockholm >> Click nere

8. THE ECONOMICS OF FRICTIONLESS HOSPITALITY

Great hospitality feels emotional.

But its impact is measurable.

When friction is removed from frontline work:

• guest satisfaction increases

• complaints decrease

• loyalty strengthens

• staff retention improves

In hospitality, friction is the enemy of warmth.

Remove it - and people shine.
Leave it - and even the best teams struggle.

This is not a trade-off.

It is a multiplier.

9. THE QUESTION EVERY HOSPITALITY LEADER MUST ANSWER

The future of hospitality will not be decided by architecture, branding or systems alone.

It will be decided by one question:

Do you trust your frontline enough - and support them enough – to let them carry the guest experience?

Because no matter how beautiful the property,
how strong the brand,
or how advanced the technology,

Hospitality always comes down to one thing:

A human being, in a human moment.

ABOUT TURNPIKE

Turnpike helps hospitality organizations remove friction from frontline work by turning real-time signals into real-time action.

Across hotels, conference venues and restaurants, we help frontline teams act faster, calmer and with greater confidence – exactly when guests need them most.

Not by adding complexity.
But by restoring flow to hospitality.

CONTACT ME

Would you like to understand where friction appears in your hospitality operation –
and how quickly it can be removed?

I’d be happy to help.

Together, we start with a friction analysis of your hotel, conference venue or restaurant operation and show how frontline teams can be supported in real time – without complex implementations or long projects.

In most cases, it’s possible to:

• identify the biggest friction points in a short amount of time

• demonstrate how frontline work can become calmer, more confident and more present

• get started quickly and smoothly, with minimal impact on daily operations

It always starts with a conversation.

Thomas Berglund
Head of Hospitality, Turnpike Group

Reach out – and let us show you what frictionless hospitality feels like in practice.