Will Guidara

Restaurateur, author, and business consultant specializing in hospitality as a core strategy.

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

Advocates for the "Rule of 95/5," a financial model where 95% of a budget is managed with extreme frugality to fund transformational customer experiences with the remaining 5%.

Believes the greatest competitive advantage is customer loyalty built through relentless investment in relationships, which is more critical than product performance, especially during difficult economic years.

Argues that companies using AI solely for efficiency are wasting its potential; savings from automation should be reinvested to enhance and fund more meaningful human-to-human interactions.

Contends that most companies "recklessly under-invest" in customer recovery, missing a crucial opportunity to build loyalty by turning negative experiences into positive ones.

Advises businesses to minimize prior experience requirements when hiring, arguing that companies over-index on past accomplishments and filter out high-potential candidates who could be trained for the role.

Podcast consensus on Guidara

Points of consensus

▶Will Guidara's core business philosophy, "Unreasonable Hospitality," is presented as a highly effective and adaptable strategy, successfully implemented not only in his restaurant but also in diverse fields like prison systems, Navy SEALs, and NFL teams.Apr 2026

▶Guidara consistently advocates for a financial strategy known as the "Rule of 95/5," which involves strict frugality on 95% of a budget to enable lavish spending on the remaining 5% for transformational customer experiences.Apr 2026

▶A central tenet of Guidara's viewpoint is that true competitive advantage lies in customer loyalty built through relentless investment in relationships, rather than solely on product performance or traditional marketing.Apr 2026

▶Guidara's ideas, including the "Dreamweaver" role and his book "Unreasonable Hospitality," are portrayed as widely influential, having been adopted by numerous companies globally and becoming a key business text.Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶Guidara's advocacy for spending 5% of a budget on discretionary, high-impact gestures is a point of debate against conventional business models that demand measurable ROI for all expenditures.Apr 2026

▶His position that companies should minimize required prior experience in hiring contrasts sharply with standard HR practices that often use experience as a primary filter for candidate selection.Apr 2026

▶Guidara's assertion that 95% of companies "recklessly under-invest" in customer recovery presents a challenge to businesses that prioritize new customer acquisition and marketing, such as Super Bowl ads, over support for existing customers.Apr 2026

▶The philosophy's origin in a world-class, high-margin restaurant (Eleven Madison Park) raises questions about its scalability and applicability to high-volume, low-margin industries, a point not directly addressed in the claims.Apr 2026

Key themes

▶Unreasonable Hospitality as a Core Business StrategyApr 2026

This theme encapsulates Guidara's central thesis that going above and beyond for customers is not just a service tactic but a primary competitive strategy. Developed at Eleven Madison Park to achieve a #1 world ranking, the principles have proven adaptable across diverse sectors, including NFL teams, hospital systems, and even Navy SEALs, demonstrating a focus on human-centric excellence.

The broad adoption of this framework suggests that 'hospitality' is being redefined as a universal system for optimizing human experience and building loyalty within any organization, making it a key intangible asset for investors to evaluate.

▶The 95/5 Rule: A Counter-Intuitive Financial FrameworkApr 2026

Guidara proposes a specific financial model where 95% of a budget is managed with extreme discipline and frugality. This creates the necessary slack to invest the final 5% in extraordinary, relationship-building gestures that generate long-term loyalty, which he argues is a more responsible use of capital than short-term savings.

This model challenges traditional budgeting by treating discretionary customer experience spending as a non-negotiable strategic investment, suggesting analysts should look for a dedicated 'hospitality' line item as a leading indicator of a company's commitment to long-term customer value.

▶Humanizing Technology and AIApr 2026

Guidara argues that using AI purely for efficiency and cost-cutting is a wasted opportunity. He predicts that the most successful companies will leverage AI-driven savings to double down on human-to-human interactions, making those moments feel more personal and meaningful, thereby creating a sustainable competitive advantage.

This perspective positions human interaction as a premium, value-added service in an increasingly automated world, implying that companies investing in employee training for soft skills alongside AI implementation will likely outperform those focused solely on automation.

▶Customer Loyalty Through Recovery and RelationshipsApr 2026

According to Guidara, most companies massively under-invest in customer recovery, a critical touchpoint for building loyalty. He highlights examples like Chewy and a small UPS store to show how turning a negative experience into a positive one through genuine care creates fiercely loyal customers, which he views as the ultimate business asset.

This focus on 'service recovery' as a profit center, rather than a cost center, suggests that companies with sophisticated and empowered customer support teams may have a hidden moat that traditional financial analysis overlooks.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

Early Career

Co-owned Eleven Madison Park with Danny Meyer. During this period, the restaurant initially placed last at the 50 Best Awards, sparking a strategic shift.

Strategy Development

In response to the low ranking, Guidara and his team developed the concept of "Unreasonable Hospitality" as a competitive strategy to differentiate the restaurant. This included creating the dedicated "Dreamweaver" role to execute special customer experiences.

Peak Recognition

The implementation of "Unreasonable Hospitality" culminated in Eleven Madison Park being ranked the number one restaurant in the world.

Codification

Authored the book "Unreasonable Hospitality," which became a New York Times bestseller and is now regarded as a key business text for elevating customer experience.

Current Focus

Now serves as a consultant and advisor to a wide range of industries—including sports, finance, and tech—on implementing hospitality as a core business strategy. He also hosts the Welcome Conference, described as the world's largest hospitality symposium.

Suggested prompts

How can the ROI of the '5% investment' in unreasonable hospitality be measured against traditional marketing expenditures? &nearr;What organizational structures and cultural shifts are necessary to successfully implement the 'Dreamweaver' concept outside of the high-end service industry? &nearr;To what extent is Guidara's philosophy, developed in a luxury restaurant, scalable to high-volume, low-margin businesses? &nearr;How does Guidara's hiring philosophy of de-emphasizing prior experience align with the need for specialized skills in technical industries? &nearr;

Key concepts

Unreasonable Hospitality 5 ep Rule of 95/5 3 ep Customer Loyalty 3 ep Customer Recovery 3 ep Dreamweaver Role 1 ep AI and Technology 2 ep Business Consulting 3 ep Hiring Philosophy 1 ep Case Studies 4 ep

Notable quotes

“Will Guidara advocates for a financial management strategy called the "Rule of 95/5," where businesses manage 95% of their budget with extreme frugality to spend the remaining 5% on transformational, relationship-building investments.”

Will Guidara · Will Guidara – Unreasonable Hospitality (EP.492)

“in my view, that the companies that make those moments feel as human as humanly possible are going to win in the long term.”

Will Guidara · Will Guidara – Unreasonable Hospitality (EP.492)

“The number of Dreamweavers, that position that I had in my restaurant that exists in the most random of companies all over the world now is mind blowing.”

Will Guidara · Will Guidara – Unreasonable Hospitality (EP.492)

“Will Guidara estimates that 95% of companies "recklessly under-invest" in customer recovery, often spending heavily on marketing like Super Bowl ads while providing poor support for negative customer experiences.”

Will Guidara · Will Guidara – Unreasonable Hospitality (EP.492)

Report last updated: May 21, 2026

Get started free

Back to Entities Intelligence Report