Digital city guide: why the city shapes the hotel stay

Your guests spend most of their trip outside the hotel. They eat in restaurants you did not choose, visit museums you never mentioned and may judge the whole city on one bad evening. A digital city guide is one way for a hotel to take part in that part of the stay, with recommendations that fit the guest instead of a generic top 10 list. Below: what such a guide should do, where it belongs and who pays.

The ideas come from Gabriella Gomes Branco, co-founder of Maps Untold, a company that builds personal city recommendations for hotels. With a background in data science, she got the idea after a student trip to Saint Petersburg, where a quick online search for a night out ended in the wrong club and €8 per beer. In her view, the search was the problem, not the city.

Why the city experience shapes how guests judge your hotel

Gomes Branco describes a city trip as a sandwich. The hotel is the bread, and everything in between is the local experience. Even when those experiences happen outside the building, they colour how guests remember the whole trip. She wrote her master thesis on this effect for restaurants and sees the same thing in city trips. For high-end guests, destination management for VIP clients takes this idea even further.

Her example is a friend who came back from Milan unhappy. The first three days were beautiful, but on the last day a restaurant visit went wrong: an annoying waiter and food that was not good. That one evening was enough for her friend to say Milan was bad. People tend to remember the negative moments, so a hotel that only optimises its own rooms and service leaves a large part of the guest's memory to chance.

There is a commercial side too. Guests who return come back to the city first, not automatically to your hotel. And when guests tell friends to stay at a specific hotel because it gave such good tips, that helps loyalty.

What goes wrong with top 10 lists and endless search results

According to Gomes Branco, guests usually find their way in a few ways, and each has weak points:

• Generic lists. A list such as the top 10 best cafes in Lisbon sends everyone to the same ten places. Because they are on the list, they become very popular, and the hidden gem stops being hidden.
• Endless search results. Searching for a restaurant can return 500 options. In an unfamiliar city a guest has no reference point, so there is no way to know whether restaurant A suits them better than restaurant B.
• Outdated hotel lists. Many hotels keep a curated list of their own, but it ages. She has seen lists that still recommended a restaurant that had closed three years earlier.

What a digital city guide should do for your guests

The alternative starts with the guest instead of the list. In her approach, a good digital city guide asks one easy question rather than a long questionnaire: a favourite restaurant or coffee bar at home, a favourite movie, a hobby or even a favourite celebrity. From that answer the system reads the digital fingerprint of the places someone already loves and looks for matches in the city they are visiting.

Three principles stand out:

• Give a reference. Explain why a place fits, for example the same coffee style or the same relaxed vibe as the guest's favourite spot at home.
• Show less. Only the best five suggestions, so guests avoid information overload and know where to start.
• Treat every trip as new. A trip with a partner is different from a trip with friends or parents.

She calls this the Netflix problem: after her niece watched animated films on her account, she saw children's content for half a year. So every trip gets its own profile, which also respects privacy.

Where city recommendations belong in the guest journey

A hotel guest already deals with many systems: the PMS, guest messaging, a hotel guest app, perhaps a mobile key. Gomes Branco argues that city tips should not become yet another app to download.

“We don't want to be an other voice in the guest journey that the guest is having because a guest already has a lot of touch points with certain software systems.”

Gabriella Gomes Branco, 10:21

Her answer is a white-label module inside software the hotel already uses, so guests feel they are still within the hotel experience. The right entry point depends on the property:

• the pre-arrival email, so guests can plan while still at home;
• the guest app or mobile key app, for the moment they close the door and head out;
• a large QR code in shared spaces, as in hostels with a living room for backpackers;
• the front desk, where staff can explain the tool in person.

Maintenance matters as much as placement. Because the recommendations update themselves, nobody at the hotel has to keep a list current. The hotel can still set preferences, for example to highlight vegan or sustainable places. Sharing those choices openly also counters greenhushing in hotels.

“It's always personalized, it's always up to date because you often also see that hotels do have a list of curated things.”

Gabriella Gomes Branco, 11:00

Technology does not have to replace conversation. In the pilot with hotels in the Netherlands, front office staff got a tool for the question of where to go, and because some guests need a short explanation, staff talk with them more and learn what they look for.

Spreading guests across the city

Overtourism is a hot topic in cities like Amsterdam and Rome, and Gomes Branco links it to the same top 10 lists. When everyone gets the same recommendations, everyone goes to the same breakfast place. Personal suggestions send each guest to the place that suits them, which spreads the traffic.

“We do believe that the best experience don't have to be the popular experiences.”

Gabriella Gomes Branco, 15:59

Who pays for a digital city guide

In the model she describes, hotels pay nothing. The software is free for hotels and partners, and revenue comes from the local side. Guests can reserve a table or buy museum and event tickets, and the company earns a commission on those bookings, which it also shares with partners. Every place is shown, paying or not. Paying businesses can add photos, connect Instagram and offer deals, but a non-paying place with a 100% match is still shown first.

Early data shows that restaurant photos with people in them, especially the owner, perform best. At the time of recording the platform had around 2,000 users per month, with a goal of 250,000 per month by the end of the year. You can watch the full conversation.

Frequently asked questions

What is a digital city guide for hotels?

It gives hotel guests local recommendations for restaurants, coffee bars, museums and activities near the hotel. In the approach described here, it starts from one simple question about the guest, such as a favourite restaurant at home, shows only the best five matches and explains why each place fits. It works best inside tools the hotel already uses.

Why should a hotel care about what happens outside its doors?

Guests judge the whole trip, not only the room. In Gabriella Gomes Branco's view, one bad restaurant evening can spoil the memory of an entire city. Guests who return to a destination return to the city first, so a hotel that helps them enjoy it gains loyalty and word of mouth from guests who recommend both the city and the hotel.

Where should hotels offer city recommendations?

Where guests already are. Options include the pre-arrival email so guests can plan from home, the guest app or mobile key app for the moment they head out, a large QR code in shared spaces and the front desk, where staff can explain the tool and talk with guests about what they are looking for.