I fell in love with a guest

This is a confession.

Every contract we sign with our team, chefs, hosts, captains, has a clause. No romance with guests or between each other.

Guests can do whatever they want, honestly, more power to them. But not with the team. If it’s true love, soulmate situation, it can wait 5 days till the end of the trip.

People ask if that’s really necessary. Trust me. Every stupid-sounding line in a company’s terms and conditions (down to “how to properly stack the dishwasher”) exists for a reason. Usually a very specific one.

Ours came from a captain. Nothing scandalous, PG-13 stuff, but he and a guest somehow skipped the honeymoon phase and went straight to divorce phase 🫢 And honestly, I’d take making out over a couple screaming at each other over breakfast for six mornings straight 💔

Some of our competitors have hot (or not-so-hot) captains hooking up with guests as basically part of the business model. Not for us. If I wanted drama, I’d watch The Bachelor, not reenact it.

And then, of course,

She was beautiful. Funny. Natural center of attention without trying to be one. The kind of person who notices your coffee is empty before you do 🫂

3am, night watch, boat at anchor. Flat water, stupid amount of stars. She came up from the cabin, sat down next to me, and asked if she could kiss me.

Like. Okay. Who would say no to this.

Look, I don’t run a luxury travel business in a recession because I’m the most rational person on Earth. If I were rational, I’d be doing B2B SaaS AI stuff like everyone else ✍️

Nothing substantial happened. Some hand-holding. Kisses in the middle of the night. And then I felt awful. I’d just written the rule. I was breaking it in real time. So I stopped there 🤚

Rules are rules. Even mine.

Kris

P.S. She got married two months later. Not to me. Apparently she wasn’t my soulmate.

Quick poll: would you have said no? Reply “yes” or “no”
I’m collecting data for my therapist.