A tourism destination in Slovenia: a closer look at guest experience across 16 hospitality providers

Project overview

→ Client: a regional development agency

→ Challenge: support local tourism providers in delivering on the promise of boutique hospitality and identify opportunities to create more value

→ Scope: guest journey reviews of 16 providers – accommodation, restaurants, experiences and tourist information centres – across three municipalities

Each provider received individual findings and recommendations. But looking across 16 very different guest experiences also revealed something else: where individual challenges were actually part of a wider pattern.

That made the project useful at two levels – helping individual providers see what they could improve, while giving the client a clearer picture of where wider support could make the biggest difference.

What we saw across the destination

Looking at one business tells you what is happening there. Looking across many businesses lets you see the patterns.

Here are some of the recurring themes that appeared across the reviews – and what they meant both for individual providers and for the destination as a whole.

1 — Good hospitality was often reactive rather than proactive

What we saw
Guests were generally welcomed warmly, but often had to ask for information, recommendations or help planning their stay.

For individual providers
There was an opportunity to move beyond responding well to requests and become more confident in anticipating needs and making useful recommendations.

Across the destination
Because the pattern appeared more widely, practical training in boutique hospitality, guest communication and recommendation skills could support several providers at once.

2 — Guests were not always being introduced to everything the destination had to offer

What we saw
Local experiences, additional services and products were not always introduced when they could genuinely add to the guest’s stay. Providers also did not consistently recommend other businesses nearby.

For individual providers
Better recommendations could strengthen the guest experience, help providers make more of their existing offer and create natural opportunities for additional revenue.

Across the destination
Better cross-referral could help guests discover more of the destination and spread their spending across more local businesses.

3 — A good individual service did not always add up to a well-designed guest journey

What we saw
Individual touchpoints could work well, while the journey from first enquiry through arrival, stay and departure was not always equally thought through. Promotional information also did not always fully match what guests encountered in practice.

For individual providers
There was room to look beyond individual moments and make the whole journey more consistent – including communication, service standards and the way expectations were set.

Across the destination
Guest journey workshops, service development and practical standards could help providers strengthen the experience without losing their individuality.

4 — Useful knowledge existed, but did not always travel

What we saw
Some providers had strong practices and useful solutions, but these were not always shared across the destination. Guest feedback was also not consistently collected and used to guide improvements.

For individual providers
Simple feedback routines and learning from other providers could help them improve without having to solve every problem from scratch.

Across the destination
Peer learning, practical workshops, mentoring and better sharing of good practice could turn knowledge already present in the destination into a resource for more providers.

The value of seeing both levels

→ Individual providers gained a clearer view of where their own guest experience could be stronger and what they could realistically improve.

→ Looking across all 16 reviews revealed recurring patterns that would have been easy to dismiss as isolated issues when looking at each business separately.

→ For the client, those patterns provided a clearer basis for deciding where training, tools and other support could benefit more providers at once.

→ The project therefore did more than review 16 businesses. It connected individual guest experiences with a wider picture of how the destination could strengthen its hospitality offer.