I've worked front office in hotels across Boston for close to a decade. The same questions come up every shift — Wi-Fi, checkout, parking, restaurants, transportation. That part isn't new. What the pandemic did was take a manageable problem and stretch it past the breaking point. Stretched thin became the mindset: do the most with the bare minimum. For long stretches it was just me at the desk — phones ringing, a guest at the counter, an airline crew walking in on a contractual clock. Everything happening at once, and it was just me.
I didn't need a different job. I needed another set of hands. So I built the first version of what is now Compass GXP — a branded digital guide guests pull up on their own phone. It started as a simple digital list of restaurants, then turned into a full directory of the property and the area around it. Everything a guest would normally walk up or call to ask for, already there. I was looking for support on the repetitive stuff so I could actually take care of the guest in front of me — the one true thing in hospitality.
It started as a tool for myself, then for my team. It's still in use. My goal now is to bring that same support to other hotels because I know this isn't just my problem. I've worked at enough properties to see the same picture in all of them: one or two people at the desk, four things happening at once and no concierge to absorb any of it.
See your own property in a Compass GXP guide on a 15-minute demo. No long setup, no commitment — just a real walk-through with the founder, built around your operational reality.