“Now you’re thinking big picture,” I grinned, already closing my laptop. “Want to go show her? I bet we could solve her booking headaches in about ten minutes.”
The walk to guest services took us through the main lodge, past the restaurant where lunch prep was already underway and tourists lingered over coffee at window tables with views of the Tetons. Maggie trotted beside us like she owned the place, tail wagging happily.
We found Lou behind the guest services desk, surrounded by printed booking confirmations, her computer screen displaying what looked like a complex spreadsheet with too many highlighted cells. She glanced up when we approached, her expression shifting to mild wariness when she saw me.
“Hey Lou,” Nolan smiled. “Alex has something that might help with your booking optimization challenges.”
Lou’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Oh?”
“I know this might sound strange,” I began, opening my laptop again, “but I have some tools that are really good at pattern analysis and system optimization. Nolan mentioned you’ve been struggling with room assignments and activity scheduling, and I thought maybe we could take a look?”
“You want to help with our booking system?” I didn’t miss the slight emphasis on “our.”
“If you’re interested,” I smiled gently. “No strings attached, just one businesswoman offering to help another figure out a complicated logistics problem.”
Lou studied me, curiosity and caution flickering across her face. “What kind of tools?”
“Sherlock is specifically designed for system optimization and pattern recognition,” I explained, settling into the chair next to her, preparing for another demonstration. “It can analyze booking data,identify trends you might not have noticed, suggest improvements to workflow efficiency. Want me to show you what I mean?”
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to take a look,” her tone remained carefully neutral.
I angled my laptop so she could see the screen and pulled up Sherlock’s interface. “Can you walk me through what you’re dealing with? What makes the booking assignments so challenging?”
Lou gestured at her computer screen. “Room preferences versus availability, coordinating activity schedules with guest interests, trying to predict which amenities get used when. Some weeks everything flows perfectly, other weeks it’s chaos and I can’t figure out why.”
“Okay, that’s exactly the kind of pattern analysis Sherlock excels at.” I began inputting parameters, my fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. “If you’re comfortable sharing some booking data, Sherlock can identify correlations between guest demographics, room assignments, activity choices, even seasonal patterns that might not be obvious from looking at individual reservations.”
“You can really do that?” Lou leaned forward slightly.
“Let me show you,” I replied, pulling up Sherlock’s analysis interface.
With her help, I uploaded guest data, activity preferences, and timing variables while Penny appeared at the edge of my peripheral vision, her coloring book tucked under one arm. She settled cross-legged on the floor near Maggie and pulled out her crayons.
“Okay, watch this,” I continued. “Sherlock is analyzing activity timing patterns based on guest demographics and preferences.” Sherlock began generating results almost immediately, colorful charts appearing on screen that mapped optimal scheduling windows.
“Oh my goodness,” Lou breathed, leaning closer to read the analysis. “It’s showing that families with young children prefer to book trail rides in mid-morning, but couples prefer late afternoon slots.”
“Right. And look at this,” I pointed to another correlation Sherlock had identified. “Spa services have higher satisfaction ratings when scheduled at least two hours after outdoor activities, and guests who book helicopter tours tend to skip afternoon ranch activities the same day.”
Lou’s eyes widened as she absorbed the implications. “This explains so much. The weeks that feel chaotic are when I’m trying to pack too much into single days or scheduling activities too close together.”
“And the weeks that flow smoothly?” I pulled up Sherlock’s successful pattern analysis.
“… Are when activities are naturally spaced according to these patterns,” Lou finished, staring at the screen in wonder. “I’ve been doing some of this intuitively, but I never realized there was such a clear system to it.”
“Your intuition was absolutely right,” I smiled. “You’ve been making smart decisions based on guest feedback and experience. Sherlock just helps you see the patterns more clearly and saves you time figuring out why some combinations work better than others.”
Lou nodded slowly, still studying the analysis. “This could streamline everything. Instead of spending hours trying to optimize each week’s schedule...”
“You could focus on the parts of hospitality that actually need your attention,” I finished. “That’s what we’ve found at Catalyst too. AI doesn’t replace expertise, it amplifies it. Lets you spend time on the things that matter most.”
“This is incredible, Alex. What would access to something like this cost?”
I was already shaking my head. “Nothing. Let me set you up with access to Sherlock for North Star’s business operations, same as I’m doing for Nolan. Consider it a business partnership, one company supporting another.”
Lou hesitated. “I couldn’t possibly—”
“Mommy,” Penny interrupted from the floor where she’d beencoloring quietly, not looking up from her picture of what appeared to be a blue and teal unicorn this time. “If the computer helps you not work so much, we could go see the baby horses more often.”
