Former SAS Airlines CEO Jan Carlzon popularized the idea of 'moments of truth' -- every interaction, from a phone reservation to a check-out, shapes a guest's overall impression, and a single poor moment can undo many good ones. A useful way to think about service is as a cycle: pre-arrival, arrival, the stay itself, and departure, with guest expectations needing to be met or exceeded at each stage. When something goes wrong, a structured response -- listening fully, empathizing, apologizing, resolving the issue, and following up -- prevents a complaint from turning into a lost customer, which matters because it is consistently cheaper to retain an existing guest than to attract a new one.