The Sutro Baths on a San Francisco corporate retreat.
As you know, the chameleon is a creature that can change color. Amazingly, if a predator, such as a snake, is near, the chameleon can hide in plain sight, blending in with the environment. It’s an amazing feat.
Would you like your San Francisco host to be able to accomplish the same trick? Not in a negative way, as in hiding, but in a good way, becoming one with your private group, whether it’s alumni, a corporate retreat or family reunion.
Have you ever been on a tour and the guide is just a speaker? You know the type; they say the same thing over and over and even the jokes are canned. You can tell the guide is saying the same thing he or she said to the last group and will say to the next group. To us, that is not a chameleon, not a professional who adapts to the group but someone plodding along in their job, being competent but not inspiring.
On the other hand, have you enjoyed a guide who really understands the audience and knows how to adapt to them? Let’s say your group is tired or jet lagged. Does your guide know how to handle it? Or instead of budget travel with a school group, your guide is running a luxury tour with VIPs. Does he/she know how to adjust to appeal to the new clients? Is that important to you when reserve your corporate retreat?
Adapting to your clients is key.
Do You Want Your San Francisco Host To Be One Of The Gang?
It’s a fine line. Your tour guide needs to be intelligent and clever enough to be part of your crew and be accepted, to show clients what they wish to see in San Francisco, but polite enough to step away and not get too comfortable with your group — to be professional at all times and know how to not cross the line between being a polite host and being too familiar. Sadly, many guides forget this. When they get too comfortable is when job duties fall through the cracks. And when this happens, the group experience suffers.
This is why we began our corporate retreats. Instead of getting some run of the mill, color-by-the-numbers host, you can hire someone who can adjust and adapt to your group, to provide the type of retreat you will most enjoy. And if we cannot provide what you need, we’ll do our best to link you up with a tour operator who can.
A good private tour guide is like a professional friend on the microphone or in person, there to show you their hometown with flair, someone your group can relate to, trust and understand, so they feel good about their experience in San Francisco, perhaps before their convention or road trip along the California coast. Every group is different. And being relatable is like being a chameleon.
Choose the host who will be right for you.
