Anglers Inn: Service is Our Focus
If you’ve never been to an Anglers Inn International property, you may read their motto of “Service is our focus” as a marketing tool, a nice slogan, or an empty platitude.
If you’ve fished with Anglers Inn, you know that the motto means a lot more. Once you’re there, your drink glass is never empty, you never have to carry a bag, and they’ll accommodate just about any food request you make. You can come home from the trip of a lifetime with unscathed thumbs because the guides are happy to unhook every fish you catch.
The commitment to service runs even deeper than that. Anglers Inn President Billy Chapman Jr. knows he can’t control the fishing, even on the best waters in the world, so he makes an effort to exceed expectations in any way that he does have control over. He doesn’t tolerate employees who don’t buy into that game plan, and it shows in the ways that I mentioned above. Everyone who stays around is constantly hustling.
The big stuff (grabbing bags, jumping over the bar to refill your drink) is obvious, but here are ten LITTLE THINGS that aren’t so little that made our most recent trip better:
Hanna was cold one morning and had not brought a sweatshirt on the trip, figuring that November in Sinaloa is balmy 24 hours a day. The next day our guide brought her a hooded sweatshirt and one of his wife’s hunting jackets.
Bottled water is restocked CONSTANTLY in your room and placed where you can’t miss it. While the stuff from the tap is filtered and fine to drink, this is one further step toward keeping you safe.
I’ve been on plenty of rough boat rides in my life, and while I’ve never seen El Salto or Picachos rough, they can get a little bit choppy. I wouldn’t slow down for it, but the guides always do, giving you a soft landing over each little wake.
If you leave your rods in the boat in between sessions, you can expect that your guide will check your line and retie your lures as necessary.
Each night when you return from fishing, a staff member will deliver appetizers and drinks directly to your room, giving you that extra 15 minutes to reorganize your tackle or take a shower before dinner.
When the boats come back in after each session of fishing, there are tires mounted on the bank to cushion your landing, but there are also two staffers there to soften the approach even further. Then they help you out of the boat, if needed, and take your belongings up to the van or directly to the lodge.
When you get out of the boat, there are a set of trailered “people mover bleachers” ready to escort you on an al fresco ride, even if it’s just a hundred and fifty or so yards back.
Hanna cannot sleep without a special pillow that her late mother made for her. She says it helps her bad back. Unfortunately the thing is a little crusty after 20 years – the cleaning staff took it one day at laundry time and brought it back free of drool and who knows what else.
On our last morning I thought I had a clear, staff-free path to take my carry-on up to the van to the airport. Literally, no one in sight for the 50 yard path. Nevertheless, three separate people (one of whom I’d never even seen before) popped out along the way and asked to help with my 15 pound bag. I declined them all – and I felt a little guilty about not letting them do it.
None of these actions by itself changed the trajectory or the overall feeling of my trip. Without one or the other, I still would have had a great time. Cumulatively, however, these are the things that make a vacation there so stress-free, and a big part of the reason that Hanna and I return again and again and again.
