There’s No Place Like Home

What is Experiential Hospitality with Isaac French?

This is the audio version of my weekly newsletter, Experiential Hospitality, where I share stories and insights to help you craft unforgettable spaces and experiences through design & hospitality.

A couple days ago, I stepped
off another plane and into the

balmy Texas heat scanning the
long line of slow moving cars.

I finally spotted our silver RAV4, headed
my way, and just like that, I knew I was

home, not because I was near my house,
but because I was heading toward the

one who knows and loves me completely.

After Helen and I enjoyed a rare dinner
date all by ourselves, we started the

two hour journey back to our house.

When I opened the door, Lucas
ran to me with arms outstretched.

Daddy, where were you, Ben?

I scooped him up and
smothered him with kisses.

Mommy carried Ezra in from the other room.

As soon as he saw me, he started flapping
his arms and squealing Dee DD in delight.

This year I've taken
about a dozen work trips.

Mainly speaking invitations, Helen
and I have decided I should accept for

this season of building relationships.

Each time I forget how quickly I'll
miss my family until the goodbye, each

FaceTime call becomes a countdown,
each text, a tether pulling me

back to what matters most home.

It's simply obvious and obviously simple.

I know, but it hit me again, I'm not
the only one desperate for this feeling.

What is home?

We say it so often.

Make yourself at home, home, sweet home.

There's no place like home, but
what are we really talking about?

Home isn't real estate.

It's relationship, a place of belonging,
the experience and feeling of being known

and loved, and we are all starving for it.

In too many ways, our modern world seems
to be engineered to make us feel at home

in things that are not actually our home
Social media's illusion of connection.

The endless chase for more money,
more stuff to make us happy, quote

unquote neat and tidy affiliations that
actually pit us against one another.

So much of this only distracts
us from what we really need.

I know this is big, deep stuff and I
can't pretend to have all the answers,

but I believe we can find home if we stop,
listen, and look around us, we can create

it for our families, friends, neighbors,
and strangers in giving it to others.

We'll find it ourselves.

And it multiplies moment by moment.

It inspires everyone who experiences
it to give the gift to someone else.

Someone once described
their dad like a bridge.

When you're driving in a hailstorm
outside, it's loud and chaotic, but the

moment you pass underneath everything
reorients peace, you can see clearly.

Again, last week I wrote about
building bridges across divides.

But I also want to be this kind of
bridge in the storm for someone else.

That feeling that says,
you belong right here.

People need it more than ever, not
just in the hospitality industry, but

in the checkout line of the grocery
store, in the common section on social

media, in the office, the coffee
shop, all the unexpected encounters.

I want others to feel
something they don't expect.

Acceptance, understanding.

Coming from the heart, grace
and humility, kindness and love.

Home is less about where you live and more
about how you are loved and how you love.

Every time I come home from a
trip, I know I feel this truth,

and for that I'm thankful.

That's true hospitality.

That's home.