What a Hotel Dreams When No One Is Watching

For years, I have been fascinated by the invisible dimension of hospitality. What happens when employees are no longer on stage, when the corridors empty out and silence takes hold of the spaces. In those moments, the hotel itself seems to become a living being, breathing in whispers the emotions of everyone who has passed through it. I have always believed that there is a collective unconscious running through our teams—one that often goes unnamed, yet profoundly affects the internal culture, decision-making and the way we treat our guests.

It was precisely this intuition that led me to discover the concept of Social Dreaming, an approach that transcends the classic view of dreams as individual manifestations. This idea, whose roots date back to the Second World War and the research of German journalist Charlotte Beradt, took on a new form thanks to British psychoanalyst Gordon Lawrence. His proposition was clear and revolutionary: dreams can also be a collective expression of what an organisation or society is experiencing in its unconscious. In the context of hospitality, this idea becomes powerfully revealing. A hotel is not merely a building or a business: it is a social microcosm made up of multiple subjectivities coexisting within a shared structure. General managers, receptionists, room attendants, chefs and technicians all dream. And if we pay attention, we discover that we dream similar things. Shared fears, tensions running across departments, desires for change, unspoken frustrations. How can we access this intangible yet fundamental level of information? Through spaces such as the Social Dreaming Matrix, a format in which a group shares its dreams and reflects collectively—not through individual interpretation, but by seeking connections and meanings that emerge for everyone. I have had the opportunity to apply this methodology in sessions with hotel teams. It is not a therapeutic session, but rather a space for cultural exploration. And the results are striking:

• Revealing hidden systemic tensions: Through dreams, patterns emerge that expose organisational blockages or resistance to change that formal discourse does not reveal.
• Fostering empathy between departments: Discovering that colleagues are dreaming about similar situations creates an unexpected sense of community and belonging.
• Preventing internal crises: Some sessions have anticipated conflicts or restructurings that the team was not yet able to articulate, but which were already present in the collective imagination.
• Unlocking innovation: Working with the symbolic language of dreams brings forward disruptive ideas that would not emerge in a conventional brainstorming session.

As Lawrence said, “A dream does not belong to the person who dreams it, but to the group that listens to it.” In our sector, where emotional labour is constant, creating spaces to listen to these shared messages becomes a tool for leadership and organisational transformation. Tips for beginning to integrate Social Dreaming in a hotel:

1. Create safe, voluntary spaces: Trust is essential. This is not about forcing participation, but about extending an invitation.
2. Develop group facilitation skills: There is no need to be a psychoanalyst, but it is important to have someone trained in group dynamics.
3. Do not interpret; associate: The aim is not to analyse the dreamer, but to explore what the dream says about what the system is experiencing.
4. Connect dreams with their context: Dreams always occur at a particular historical moment. The environment has an influence, and we must bear this in mind.
5. Document symbolic findings: Gathering patterns, recurring images and recurring atmospheres makes it possible to work with them later.

By opening ourselves to this approach, we are not abandoning reason or strategy. On the contrary, we are expanding our toolkit for understanding and managing something as complex as the emotional life of a hotel organisation. And who knows, perhaps the future of hospitality lies not only in occupancy figures, but also in the dream narratives we share when we stop talking and begin listening to what we dream together.