Polle de Maagt 
Polle de Maagt
Story.
At one of the citizenM hotels in the UK, every ambassador who works with guests got a bingo card. Instead of telling people to “be autonomous” and leaving them to guess what that meant, it made possible actions concrete.
The card has 25 squares. Some are small gestures: make coffee art for a guest, give a colleague a specific compliment, or prepare a random act of kindness. Others are about service and operations: help a guest check in through the app, call a taxi, gather guest feedback, log an incident, or pass a product idea to another team. There are commercial prompts too, like offering breakfast or a late check-out.
The ambassadors crossed squares off on the card itself. Behind the scenes the team kept track, and there were internal prizes to win.
What they did.
They turned an abstract expectation (notice what a guest or colleague might need) into a menu of examples. The bingo format made the actions visible and gave ambassadors a light reason to try them. It was not only about being nice: the card also included feedback, service, operational and commercial actions.
Why it works.
Autonomy is more than permission. People also need ideas they can recognise and adapt in the moment. A prompt can lower the “what could I do?” barrier without scripting the interaction.
The mix matters. Hospitality is built from small acts of care, but also from noticing friction, helping a colleague and feeding useful information back into the business.
There is a risk, of course: once every gesture becomes a square to tick, hospitality can feel like a target. The card should invite judgement, not replace it.
Try it yourself.
Ask your team for small actions that have made a guest’s day, or made a colleague better able to help. Turn the best examples into a short challenge card. Include care, service recovery, teamwork and learning. Run it for a limited time, then discuss what felt useful and what should stay spontaneous. Reward thoughtfulness, not just completed squares.
Write down five small things anyone on your team could do for a guest today. Put them in a grid and hand it out tomorrow morning.
Related: Thoughtfulness needs a system, citizenM: free coffee for the first guest and A plea for scripted authenticity.
What I heard from someone at citizenM, and the photographed card. Staff names on the card scribbled out.
