How Creating an Environment of Hospitality Can Shape the Summer Camp Experience

In todays competitive youth development landscape, hospitality is far more than a customer-service buzzword is a powerful strategy that can elevate every aspect of the camp experience. As presenters, Henry Skier and Marc Honigfeld will emphasize, service is what people expect, hospitality is going above and beyond. This session will explore how that distinction can profoundly shape how camps serve their communities.
Participants will dive into what hospitality truly means in the camp context and discover practical ways to infuse it into daily operations. The discussion will highlight how staff, campers, and parents all serve as recipients of your hospitality efforts, and how empathy-driven practices, what the presenters call creating a “Product of Empathy”can transform routine interactions into meaningful moments of care. The session will also uncover how well-handled mistakes can become opportunities to build stronger relationships, deepen loyalty, and create memorable moments of hospitality.
This session aims to offer fresh perspectives, real-world examples, and actionable strategies for making hospitality a core cultural value that drives connection, satisfaction, and long-term camp success for campers, their families, and staff alike.