Do you remember what I wrote a while ago? That evening at the pier, here at Kolsnaren in western Sörmland, when Jenny and I sat and talked about nothing in particular and everything felt slow in the best way?
Now we are in the middle of summer. And I am sitting here thinking about the exact same thing, but from the other direction, but now on the lawnmower. That robot is not really keeping up, so we have to help each other.
You are free, or many of you are anyway. We are working. And we are happy to do it, because that is kind of the whole point. That you should be able to fill up that energy depot properly now, so that you have the strength to harvest in the fall.
Private guest or conference guest, same person, different needs.
In the hospitality industry, we divide guests into segments. It sounds colder than it is. It's really just a matter of needs being different depending on why you're coming.
Right now we are thinking a lot about you as a private guest. Maybe you are traveling here with someone you love and want to eat really good food in our restaurant where we cook the food with ingredients from the pantry we actually live in and don't have too much running around. Maybe you are a group of friends who want to play golf at Vingåker golf course which is a hundred meters from our hotel, hang out in the garden and have a nice drink at dusk, or take a sauna down by Lake Kolsnaren. Maybe you just want to be left alone and not have to explain why.
It's a different thing than when the same person is sitting in a conference room with their team and going through two days of strategy. The delivery is different, the feel is different, but the person is the same. That's something I find quite fascinating, actually.
These three days without an agenda, what does that really do to us?
I don't know what the answer is for you. It might not even be us. Maybe it's the campervan life, standing on your nose somewhere in your own country, just being at home without having to perform anything at all. That's totally okay.
But what I know, partly because I feel it myself and because guests tell me so, is that something happens when you really leave your everyday life behind. Not just close the computer and have a beer on the balcony. But actually go away.
Your shoulders slump when you get out of the car at our parking lot here in Sörmland, just under two hours from Stockholm. There's nothing dramatic about it, it's simply what happens when your body realizes it's somewhere else now.
And then I always wonder: what happens then? What do those three days really do to us?
I've thought about that quite a bit. And I think the answer is simpler than you might think.
It takes about a day. It's rare for anything dramatic to happen on day one, people are still a little connected, a little restless, a little in their own rhythm from home. But on day two they look different. Calmer around the eyes. More likely to stay at the table after dinner. More likely to say what they're actually thinking.
It's not rest in the passive sense. It's more like the brain finally gets to change tracks. We're so used to being on the go, not just at work, but all the time. The inbox, the flow, deciding what to eat for lunch. You stop hearing that noise because you always have it in your ears.
When it settles down, something happens. The conversations become different. More personal, more real. We know this because we are involved in them in a way that might not be obvious at a larger hotel. Båsenberga is run by us as a family, mother, father, children and grandchildren. You come as guests and become something else quite quickly. You feel it. You notice it. And it is hard to put into words, but easy to recognize when you are in the middle of it.
What do we have to offer you right now then?
Food made from what is around us – pike-perch from Hjälmaren, vegetables from Sörmland soil, flavours that tell the story of the place we live in. A dinner in our restaurant that has no natural end time. Vingåker golf course a hundred metres away for those who want to play golf and get some exercise and silence in their legs. The sauna down by Kolsnaren and mornings without an agenda.
And for those who just want to sit in the garden with a glass in hand and watch as nothing happens, it also works great.
Book at short notice, summer is not over.
There are still weekends left and we are happy to welcome you at short notice, regardless of whether you are a couple who wants to eat well and play golf near Stockholm, a group looking for an experience together, or a single guest who just needs a few days of nothing.
Sometimes it's enough to make up your mind on a Tuesday night. You alone with your thoughts, or someone you share life with next to you on the couch. You look at each other and ask: what is it that really makes us unwind?
The answer to that question is different for everyone. But sometimes it's worth going out and finding out.
Magnus Danielsson,
CEO, Båsenberga Hotel
