One Year Later, the Golden Egg Still Happens (This Time in New York)

Last year I wrote about a golden Easter egg hidden in a grocery delivery. A fifty-cent candy and a handwritten note from a Giant Direct employee named Imani, and how it became a core memory for my whole family.

I've wondered since then whether that was a one-off. A lucky draw, one employee with a big heart on the right day.

Then last month happened.

The Trip

I took my daughter, three of her friends, and one of my mom's friends to New York, a girls' trip, staying at the Kimpton Theta Hotel. I dropped everyone at the entrance to park the car, so by the time I walked in to check in, the girls were waiting in the lobby, chatting with the bellman, until I came over with the keys.

At the front desk, before I'd said more than my name, the person checking me in mentioned they'd noticed the girls waiting. Then she told me she was adding a $30 credit to the room, an "Enjoy NY" token, for the girls to use at the mini bar.

Nobody asked me to spend more. Nobody was upselling anything. Someone simply noticed there were kids in the group and decided that mattered.

It didn't stop there. Amenities showed up in all three rooms. Late checkout, no questions asked. Someone made sure our rooms were near each other without me having to request it. And before we left, the general manager came out personally to say hello.

Why This Isn't Luck

I've stayed at Kimpton properties for years, more than 500 nights at this point, and this is exactly why I keep coming back. Not because every stay is flawless. Because the culture is consistent enough that this kind of noticing isn't the exception. It's the expectation.

Someone at that front desk had the authority, and the training, to make a $30 decision on the spot because it was the right thing to do for a family traveling with kids. Nobody needed to escalate it. Nobody needed permission.

That's not an accident. That's a company that trusts its people enough to let them create moments without a script.

What This Means for Every Leader Reading This

The golden egg wasn't a fluke last year, and the Kimpton credit wasn't a fluke last month. What connects them is the same thing: an organization that has decided noticing people is part of the job, not an exception to it.

If your team needs your sign-off to do something thoughtful for a customer, you don't have an empowered culture. You have a bottleneck.

The real test isn't whether your best employee can create a great moment. It's whether an average day, an average employee, an average interaction can too, without anyone having to ask permission first.