A virtual assistant sends her weekly deliverables to a client with a one-line message: “Attached.”
A different VA sends the same deliverables with a brief note:
“This week’s reports are attached. The client inquiry backlog is cleared through Thursday, and I flagged two invoices in the shared folder that looked like duplicates for your review before I process them. Let me know if you’d like anything adjusted.”
Both did the work. Only one made the client feel like her business was being cared for. That difference has nothing to do with skill and everything to do with what the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration calls “intentional hospitality,” the practice of treating every professional interaction as an opportunity to make someone feel seen, informed, and valued.
In the remote world, where relationships exist entirely through screens and text, that intentionality isn’t a personality trait. It’s a professional practice with specific, learnable behaviors that benefit both sides of the hiring relationship.
What This Looks Like for Job Seekers
The most common way remote professionals undermine their own value is by treating communication as purely transactional. You complete the task, submit it, and move on. The work gets done, but the client never feels confident about what’s happening behind the scenes.
Intentional hospitality in a remote role means building brief, proactive context into every interaction. Submitting a deliverable with a two-sentence summary of what you did and anything the client should know takes 30 seconds and changes how she perceives your engagement. Finishing early and letting her know signals you’re thinking ahead.
Flagging something that seems off with a suggestion demonstrates ownership: “I noticed the email open rates dropped this week. I looked at the subject lines and thought a shorter format might help. Want me to test that next week?” That single message transforms you from someone who completes assignments into someone actively thinking about the business.
What This Looks Like for Employers
The hospitality dynamic runs both ways. Small business owners who treat contractors as invisible task-completers lose their best people. Intentional hospitality from the employer side means creating an experience where your remote professional feels like a valued member of the business.
Specific practices that take almost no time but change the relationship entirely: respond to a submitted deliverable with one line of acknowledgment rather than silence. Mention what went well alongside what needs changing in revision feedback. Share a brief business update once a month so your contractor understands the context behind her work. Tell her when a client compliments something she contributed to. These are the digital equivalent of looking someone in the eye and saying “thank you,” and they’re the reason one employer retains a great VA for three years while another cycles through a new hire every six months.
Name the Standard in Your First Week
The most effective way to make hospitality a practice rather than an afterthought is to discuss it explicitly at the start of the working relationship. In your first week together, have a brief conversation about communication preferences. The employer describes what kind of updates she finds most useful and how she prefers to give feedback. The hire describes what kind of context helps her do her best work and how she’ll communicate proactively. That five-minute conversation sets the tone for every interaction that follows and gives both sides permission to show up with intention rather than guessing at what the other person needs.
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