Sense of Place conducts structured on-site assessments for independent hotels — pairing a commercial strategist's lens with a seasoned travel journalist's eye. The result is a clear, prioritized view of your property and a concrete path forward.
Most independent hotel owners know when something isn't quite working before they can name it. Reviews plateau. The property photographs beautifully and still underperforms. Repeat guests thin out without explanation. The issue is rarely one thing — it's a pattern that only becomes visible when the full guest journey is examined with fresh, trained eyes.
Sense of Place conducts structured on-site assessments and delivers written reports with prioritized, actionable recommendations. We cover everything from online discovery to checkout — and we connect every finding to its commercial implication.
Most hotel feedback — whether from internal teams, OTA reviews, or occasional guest surveys — is fragmented. It covers moments, not the full arc. It notes symptoms, not causes. And it rarely connects what a guest experienced to what it costs the business.
Every Sense of Place engagement produces a structured written report with specific, prioritized findings. Not a checklist. Not a slide deck. A document you can act on.
Sense of Place is an independent hotel consultancy founded by Sarah Long and Lauren Harano. We are not a management company, a marketing agency, or a mystery shopping service. We are a focused advisory practice that helps independent hotel owners see their property clearly — and make better decisions as a result.
What makes our perspective distinctive is the pairing: Sarah brings the operator's commercial lens — strategy, analytics, and a rigorous eye for where experience gaps become revenue problems. Lauren brings firsthand exposure to more than 50 properties across market categories and price points, with bylines in Hotels Above Par, The Quality Edit, Fodor's, and National Geographic.
Together, we offer something most consultancies can't — the trained traveler's instinct alongside the business strategist's discipline. Sense of Place operates under The Elite Editorial LLC.
Sarah brings the commercial operator's perspective to every Sense of Place engagement. With a background in business strategy and analytics, she translates guest experience observations into quantified business implications — the kind of framing that helps owners prioritize decisions rather than just acknowledge problems.
Her role at Sense of Place is to ensure that every finding in a report is anchored to a business outcome: occupancy, rate, review score, or repeat guest behavior. She also leads client relationships, scoping, and the firm's methodology.
Lauren is a travel journalist whose work has taken her through more than 50 hotel properties across categories and price points — from design-forward boutiques to remote wilderness lodges. She has written for Hotels Above Par, The Quality Edit, Fodor's Travel, National Geographic, InStyle, and PopSugar, among others.
In 2025, she contributed the St. Barthélemy chapter to the Fodor's Essential Caribbean guidebook. Her editorial eye — knowing not just what to notice, but what it means — is the foundation of Sense of Place's on-the-ground assessment work.
Lauren's journalism spans luxury travel, hotel reviews, and destination guides — the same firsthand exposure that now informs every Sense of Place assessment. A selection of her work is below.
We are currently conducting our first formal engagements. Testimonials and case studies will be published here as they become available. If you're interested in being among our first clients, we'd welcome the conversation.
We take on a small number of engagements at a time. Tell us about your property and we'll arrange a 30-minute call to explore whether we're a good fit — no commitment required.