The Tuesday Test: How to Run It
Companion resource to The Tuesday Test: Make Every Day of the Week Worth Booking
Your listing shows Saturday every day.
Your guests don’t know that.
The Tuesday Test finds the mismatches before they show up in your reviews.
Two ways to run it. Pick whichever one you’ll actually use.
Option A: Run It With AI (10 Minutes)
Copy these prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, or whichever AI tool you have open. Fill in the brackets. The first prompt shows you what a guest sees. The second finds the fixes and writes the copy for you.
Prompt 1: See your slow day through a guest’s eyes
You are a hospitality experience auditor helping an independent property operator identify gaps between their online listing and the actual guest experience on slow days.
Here’s my property:
• Type: [hotel / inn / vacation rental / B&B]
• Location: [city or town, region]
• Size: [number of rooms/units]
• My listing highlights: [list 3-5 things your listing photos, description, or reviews emphasize]
• My slowest day: [e.g., Tuesday]
• What’s different on that day: [e.g., reduced staff, nearby restaurant closed, fewer guests, quieter area, list what you know]
First, walk me through a first-time guest’s experience on that specific day. Not a generic visit. Focus on the moments where what they expected (based on the listing) and what they find would diverge. Flag every point where there’s a gap between promise and reality.
Then ask me 5 sharp questions. One at a time to reveal mismatches I might not see because I know my property too well. Focus on: what’s actually open and available that day, what the guest does with unstructured time, and what the arrival experience feels like with reduced operations.
Prompt 2: Find the fixes
Based on our conversation, identify the three biggest gaps between what my listing promises and what a guest actually experiences on my slow day. Rank them by impact on reviews.
For each gap, give me:
1. What the guest expects (based on the listing)
2. What they actually find (on the slow day)
3. One fix I can implement this week. No new hires, no new software, no events
4. Exactly where to put it. Tell me whether this goes in my listing description, pre-stay email, welcome message, direct booking page, or check-in process
Write the actual copy I’d use for each fix. Keep it in a warm, direct, guest-facing tone, not corporate, not apologetic. Frame the slow day as something a guest would choose on purpose, not something they’d tolerate.
Two prompts. Three mismatches, three fixes, three places to put them. Ten minutes.
Option B: Run It Yourself (1 Hour)
No AI needed. Just you, your property, and an honest hour on the worst day of your week.
This is the hands-on version. No screen. Just your property on its worst day.
Step 1: Pick the day
Choose your thinnest operational day. Not a holiday. Not a crisis. The most ordinary, nothing-special day of your week. The one you’d least want a reviewer to show up on.
Block an hour. Treat it like a site visit from someone who’s never been here.
Step 2: Walk it as a stranger
Start outside. Drive the route a first-time guest would drive. Pull into the parking lot like you’ve never been here before.
Walk in through the guest entrance. Not the staff door. Not the shortcut you always use.
As you walk through, notice:
What’s the first thing you see? Is it welcoming or confusing?
Is anyone at the front desk? How long before someone acknowledges you?
Does the property feel occupied or empty?
What’s the noise level? The lighting? The smell?
Is there anything that looks tired, dated, or unfinished that you’ve stopped noticing?
We walk our properties as owners. Never as guests. We know them too well. That’s the problem.
Step 3: Check what’s around you
Pull out your phone. Open your own listing. Read it like a guest would.
Now look around.
Is the restaurant you recommend open today?
Is the activity you mention available?
Are the shops, attractions, or walkable spots your listing implies actually operating right now?
If a guest asked you “what should I do this afternoon?” — what would you honestly say?
Write down every gap between what your listing suggests and what’s actually here today.
Step 4: Fill four empty hours
Imagine you’re a guest with nothing planned from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on this day. No car. Or a car but no local knowledge.
Where would you go?
What would you find?
Would it feel like a good afternoon or a long one?
Would you feel taken care of or left to figure it out?
Step 5: Find the three biggest mismatches
Look at your notes. Pick the three biggest gaps.
For each, answer:
What does the guest expect? (Based on what they saw before booking.)
What do they actually get? (Based on what you just walked through.)
What’s one small thing you can do this week to close that gap?
Not a renovation. Not a new hire. Not an event. Think: a different recommendation in the welcome message. A pre-stay email that sets a different tone for midweek. A line on your direct booking page that names what a Tuesday stay actually looks like.
Step 6: Do something with it
Pick one fix. Do it before your next midweek guest arrives. One.
You don’t need to solve all three mismatches this week. You need to close one gap and see how it feels. The rest will follow.
That’s the Tuesday Test.
Reviews measure the gap. Close the gap, and the reviews take care of themselves.
If you haven’t read the main piece yet, start there: The Tuesday Test: Make Every Day of the Week Worth Booking