How “Order an Object” Changes Everything Tour Operators Know About London Experiences
Last month, a family from Boston asked if we could arrange curator access to see a specific Victorian mourning brooch at the V&A—not on display, likely in storage for years. Ten years ago, this request would have been politely redirected. Today, thanks to the V&A East’s revolutionary “Order an Object” feature, it’s Tuesday.
The Power Dynamic Just Flipped
Since May 31, the V&A East Storehouse in Stratford has quietly rewritten museum visiting rules. With 500,000+ objects spanning every creative discipline, visitors can now book to see ANY item from the collection, seven days a week. This isn’t a special program or members-only perk—it’s standard operating procedure at what Time Out just named one of the world’s best attractions for 2025.
The Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed space represents something far more significant than architectural innovation. It signals a fundamental shift from curator-controlled access to visitor-driven discovery. And when the David Bowie Centre opened there on the 13th of September with 80,000+ items spanning six decades, this model will reach critical mass.
The Control Paradox in Modern Tourism
A clear pattern emerges across London’s tour industry: operators who resist customisation requests see satisfaction scores plateau. Those who embrace flexibility—even when it disrupts carefully planned itineraries—consistently outperform. This isn’t theoretical—it’s operational reality backed by a decade of booking data.
The pre-planning paradox haunts our industry. We spend hours researching what visitors “should” see, crafting perfect narratives around permanent collections. Meanwhile, visitor requests have grown increasingly specific. In 2014, maybe 5% of our bookings included highly specialised interests. Today? Nearly 30% arrive knowing exactly what they want to experience, often down to specific objects or stories.
Our Blue Badge guides have functioned as informal curators for decades, selecting what to show based on real-time visitor engagement. When someone’s eyes glaze over at medieval armour but light up at Victorian fashion, the best guides pivot immediately. The V&A East has just institutionalised this approach.
Consider accessibility through this lens. The V&A’s monthly “Lights Up” initiative (which I covered previously) treats light as a flexible resource, increasing exhibition lighting 10-25% for visitors who need it. Similarly, “Order an Object” treats the entire collection as flexible inventory. Both recognise that personalisation isn’t accommodation—it’s baseline service. With 15% of our bookings mentioning specific accessibility needs, we learned this lesson through operational necessity.
The operational complexity behind “Order an Object” mirrors challenges tour operators face daily. Object retrieval logistics, staff training for 500,000 items, managing expectations when pieces prove too fragile—these parallel our challenges when visitors request spontaneous route changes or discover unexpected interests mid-tour.
Here’s the contrarian truth: most operators fear this loss of control. But our 98% 5-star review rate comes from flexibility, not rigid adherence to itineraries. Visitors don’t want less expertise—they want expertise applied to their specific interests.
The Ripple Effect Reaches Every Operator
Three consequences will reshape London tourism operations within 18 months:
Museums Will Race to Compete: The National Gallery, British Museum, and Science Museum are watching V&A East’s visitor numbers closely. When “Order an Object” proves successful (early indicators suggest strong adoption), expect rapid replication. Tour operators planning 2026 experiences should assume every major institution will offer similar personalised access.
Standard Tours Become Obsolete: Just as “Order an Object” eliminates the concept of a standard museum visit, tour operators must abandon template thinking. Our North American visitors (50% of bookings) already expect customisation as standard. European visitors (25%) increasingly share this expectation. The remaining 25% from Asia-Pacific and other markets often request the most specialised experiences.
Infrastructure Determines Winners: V&A East only works with robust booking systems, real-time inventory management, and seamless staff communication. Tour operators need equivalent infrastructure. It’s why we invested in custom booking platforms three years before this trend emerged—adaptation requires foundation.
East London’s Strategic Advantage
V&A East’s Stratford location accelerates East London’s cultural emergence. Combined with Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Westfield, and the area’s exploding food scene, it transforms neighbourhood dynamics. Our East London tour requests increased 40% over the past two years, before V&A East opened.
The geographic implications matter operationally. Liverpool Street access simplifies logistics for City hotel guests. Connecting V&A East with Columbia Road Flower Market, Brick Lane, or Hackney Wick creates full-day experiences that weren’t viable five years ago. Guides need deep East London knowledge now, not just Westminster expertise.
The Opportunity in Operational Evolution
What fascinates me most about V&A East’s approach isn’t the technology or logistics—it’s the institutional confidence to trust visitors with curatorial power. After a decade of coordinating tours where guides make hundreds of micro-decisions based on visitor engagement, I recognise this model immediately. The difference is scale and formalisation.
Tour operators who understand this shift will find remarkable opportunities. When every major museum offers personalised access—and they will—visitors won’t compare attractions based on collections alone. They’ll choose based on how well their specific interests are served. The operators who built flexibility into their DNA will thrive in this environment.
Our Blue Badge guide network has operated on visitor-driven principles since 2014—it’s why reviews consistently highlight how guides adapt to unexpected interests or mobility challenges. V&A East proves at an institutional scale what we’ve learned from 30,000 visitors: personalisation isn’t an extra service, it’s becoming the standard visitors use to measure every experience.
The institutions are moving faster than most operators realise. V&A East opened in May. The Bowie Centre launched in September. By next summer, London’s cultural landscape will operate on fundamentally different principles than it did last year. The most successful operators won’t be those who react to these changes—they’ll be the ones who anticipated them and built the operational flexibility to capitalise on visitor expectations that are evolving in real time.
