Will Guidara’s book Unreasonable Hospitality was one of the key sources of inspiration for the latest project I led: the creation of new Michelin site in Montreal. Human experience is at the heart of the concept we developed.
- The book shows that hospitality isn’t a “nice-to-have” — it’s a central pillar of the customer experience. We translated that idea into the workplace: personalized welcome, comfort, attention to detail… We’re not just offering a place to work, but a place to live.
- It emphasizes the importance of creating unique moments, even through simple gestures. Our shared office approach — where everyone chooses the space that suits their needs — turns the everyday into a personalized experience. It’s a subtle yet powerful way of saying: “We see you. We understand you.”
- It proves that exceeding expectations doesn’t necessarily cost more, but creates lasting emotional value. Our balance between essential investments and thoughtful touches shows that caring for people can be economically smart. Sustainability, reuse, and local sourcing all bring coherence to the project.
- And it broadens the notion of hospitality to all stakeholders. We designed the space with every profile in mind: the nervous job candidate, the visiting client, the employee seeking comfort or focus. Everyone finds their place.
The concept of this office: Shared Office
Shared office, we have all in mind what people are losing or will perceive as a loss. In my career, I did manage multiple moves for my former teams, and all the time I had to manage people complaining about being to far away of the Windows or to close, not to be as close as their friend of the year than in previous layout, that they do not have a comfortable chair, that they don’t have an adjustable tablet for their keyboard… in fact, when you do a move not everyone will get the spot they desire
And if we reverse the question, what will they gain? And with this in mind what can we do to make it enjoyable? Make each daily experience unique.
Let’s start with the why!
Why? Because people create the value in a business
- As employees they are your creative and productive assets
- As customers they are the one making possible your business
- As suppliers and partners without them you cannot offer products, services and prepare the future
Thus, people experience on this site is pivotal to make it attractive.
On the employee side
What can we do to make the office appealing? Why would people invest time in commuting every day to the office? A lot of personal time is invested into it. How can we make it profitable? Get their daily experience great with office carefully designed.
Select the spot you need for this moment of the day
In our office we have decided that it’s not the employee who has to accommodate himself with his desk, it is the choice of the employee to select the most convenient spot for him.
We are all different with different desire and needs. Thus, we have multiplied the type of desk, chair and equipment, to ensure that you will get the one you prefer. Our furniture selection is as diverses as our population is.
We understand that during your day you may have tedious task to complete and thus area with low noise level have been created with large screens and plants around you to allow to dive into your inner space and be able to have no disturbance around.
You want a more cocooning experience? We have the spots, comfortable Sofa with small table to work with your laptops.
You want to take call? Multiple options, room with comfortable chair to look outside.
And when you are done, you can go to high table to have more collaborative approaches.
Facilitate daily move, to make it effortless
When you work during your day, you need to carry on only your laptop. Each spot is equipped with USB-C cable to power your laptop, because when you must bring your charger, plug and unplug you are not motivated to change spot during the day, not too much willing to crawl underneath the desk.
Multiple meeting rooms are accessible, with tablet displaying room availability. You book the room as you walk-in a matter of 5 seconds. In the good old days, you go on outlook, you see with room is available, you create a meeting, and you book it. About 2 minutes and after you walk to it.
For people, we have selected state of the art chair, that adapt to any morphology with only one adjustment command (seat height). By doing so we ensure that they have the perfect rigging in a matter of few seconds with natural command. In shared office, it is essential to get each spot configuration done by the person in few seconds.
Meeting rooms with two options
By design we have created connected rooms to enable virtual collaboration. And we have room with round table and 4 chairs with White board reenergize the approach of face-to-face collaboration.
Small breakout room, phone booth and large room. Everything is design to remove stress and make it easy to use.
Common areas
After the physical space and to increase site hospitality,
People caring, creating a sense of community
- Each employee is welcome each day by ou receptionnist,
- Fresh fruits are offerts
- Coffee, teas, sparkling water, free of charge.
- Showers with specific lockers are available for all the people doing some sports or ridding the morning.
Cafeteria has large seat accommodation, featuring confortable booth with Sofa, different table layout Hostings small or large group. High table in front of Windows are also available if your préférence is to have a time with yourself
Plant are present everywhere to bring peaceful atmosphère
Artwork and picture frame showcasing products, people in the field or in our plants are used to help showcasing Michelin Culture.
For our visitors
For job applicants. It could be stressful this time of interviews, so we carefully crafted a calm and relax lounge with comfortable chair, to make them relax. The interview will be conducted in a comfortable room with Sofa. Taking the time to discover each other and thus enabling the two parties to determine if there is a fit between them, a bi-directional one.
To welcome our customer, they will enjoy a private lounge if during the day they need to take call, we have incorporated a show room to present our products (physical, service).
Amenities,
- we have selected three hotels nearby, at maximum 2 block walking distance from our office.
- Plenty of restaurants are available nearby, our visitors will enjoy the richness of Montreal multicultural gastronomy.
And by 2027, the REM (local train) will directly bring them from the Airport to our site with no downtime, traffic jam and in full respect of environment.
The site must reflect your value
We had designed an environmentally friendly site:
How:
- By minimizing waste during construction, ensuring that the waste are recycled, Floor covering 50% kept, partition wall85% were kept
- All the doors have been reused on the site, the ones with scratches we had a contractor who repairs and repaint the wood, almost impossible to see where touch-up were made
- Maximizing reuse: pre-owned furniture from the site we are closing and buying second hand furniture.
- Most of the new furniture are from Quebec, for same cost we selected a local-to-local option.
- Electrical system and ventilation: we replaced only what was required
- We change all the lighting to be in LED (minimize energy consumption)
- We select an office located downtown just on a subway station to encourage public transportation usage, bicycle or walking – we offset a significant amount of the public transportation to encourage alternative options to the car.
- Site is just located on a subway station and had a garage for the bikes.
Business case
If we take the perspective of a finance controller on this project:
In keeping 50% of floor covers and 85% of the partition wall, we drastically reduce the number of working days, ecology = economy
For people thinking we are generous in offering a plug-in option at each workstation: a charger station for 2 laptop costs only 100 CAD, a docking station, we found one for less than 80 CAD. And this equipment lasts at least 5 years (we have been using such equipment on another site for years).
Quick finance analysis: people having to carry their charger, plug and unplug twice a day is 5 minutes of work. Time 200 working days = 1,000 minutes per year * 66% (3 days a week at the office) = 660 minutes =11 hours per year. So, the return on investment in an office is reach in a 4-month time period.
One simple example demonstrating that people caring and finance cautiousness can be fully aligned.
The measure of the success?
Last Friday, one of our employees shared something that really stuck with me: ‘I prefer coming into the office over working from home. With the setup we have, I always find the spot I need, I’m more productive, and I genuinely enjoy my day.’
Honestly, one of the best compliments we could receive.
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I’m Franck Dervault, drawing on years of professional experience and now advancing toward certification as a coach. I offer two distinct paths:
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