Why belonging is the new hotel amenity

When Guido Lips, Co-Founder and Head of Guest Experience and Culture at The July, says that "people need to find a belonging... to belong in the hotel," he isn't talking about soft furnishings or loyalty points. He's talking about something far harder to manufacture – and far more valuable. 

Matt Welle, Mews CEO, sat down with Guido on the latest episode of Matt Talks Hospitality to explore what it really means to build a hotel brand around culture rather than product. The July operates aparthotels in Amsterdam and London, blending full-kitchen apartments with genuine hotel service – with Dublin and Lisbon already in the pipeline. But what makes them interesting isn't the floor plan. It's the philosophy underneath it.

The amenity arms race is over 

Hotels used to compete on features: the flat-screen TV, the in-room movie selection, the thread count. "The amenities that hotels used to have, we now have at home," Guido said. That race is done. Guests arrive with a device in their pocket more powerful than anything in the room. You can't win on hardware anymore. 

So what do hotels win on? Belonging. Not belonging in a fuzzy, brand-manifesto sense – but belonging as in: I walked through that door and felt expected. Like someone had actually thought about them before they arrived. That shift has real implications for how hotels hire and how to think about the role technology plays in a stay. 

Culture first, experience second 

Guido's title isn’t a typical hotelier title: Head of Guest Experience and Culture. But he was quick to correct the implied order. "Maybe the job description should actually be the other way around," he said. "Culture first, guest experience second." 

The argument is this: you can't deliver a great guest experience from a hollow culture. The guest experience is a symptom. Culture is the cause. 

And culture, as Guido defines it, isn't written down. It's built in moments – small decisions made by real people in situations no training manual anticipated.  

At The July's Amsterdam property, guests traveling from the Caribbean for long-stay medical treatment would arrive scared, far from home and far outside the typical guest profile. Without being asked, the team drove guests to hospital when they couldn't wait for an ambulance. They bought extra blankets and organized afternoon games to give them a sense of community. Nobody told them to; they did it because that's who they are. 

That is culture expressed as guest experience – and no algorithm wrote that script. 

Scaling something you can't script 

The obvious challenge is how do you take something so human and replicate it across cities, teams and time zones? 

When The July opened in London Victoria, Guido didn't send a handbook. He put thirty people on a train to Amsterdam. The whole team experienced the hotels, the neighborhood and the culture before they'd welcomed a single London guest. This ‘cultural transmission’ works precisely because it's experiential rather than instructional. 

The same logic applies to hiring. The July hires for personality first, skills second. "We can learn skills," Guido said. What you can't teach is the ability to genuinely connect with another human being. That's what matters most – and it’s the one thing technology cannot replace. 

Technology that enables, not substitutes 

Guido is openly pro-technology. The July uses AI-driven revenue management, digital check-in, CRM tools and personalization across every stage of the guest journey. But his framing is important: technology should enable human potential, not stand in for it. 

"If it's intruding into somebody's journey, then it's not good." The ideal is seamlessness – technology so well-integrated that guests don't notice it unless they want to. A room-ready notification sent at 11am. A heads-up about road closures for a guest arriving by car. A personalized message that makes someone feel considered before they've even walked through the door. 

What technology clears, humans fill. Remove the admin from check-in and suddenly your host has time to actually look at the person in front of them. To find out how their journey was. To ask about the dog. That moment – unscripted, unhurried, genuinely human – is where belonging happens. 

What the rest of the industry needs to hear 

The July's story is instructive for any hotelier trying to figure out what differentiation looks like right now. It's not the kitchen equipment or the spa. It's not even the design. 

It's the decision to build culture first, and trust that the guest experience will follow. To hire slowly, onboard experientially and give your team a framework rather than a script. To understand that belonging isn't a feature you bolt on – it's something you either build into the fabric of your organization, or you don't. 

Guido said it plainly: "A company cannot thrive without a very good company culture." 

In hospitality, that culture doesn't stop at the staff room door. It walks out onto the front desk, through the lobby and out through the front of the building. Guests feel it – even when they can't name it. 

The best hotels right now aren't selling rooms. They're selling the certainty that you chose the right place. 

Watch the full Matt Talks Hospitality episode with Guido Lips to hear more on apart-hotel pricing challenges, how AI fits into the guest journey, and what The July's growth pipeline looks like in practice. 

Watch the episode