Walk into a hotel and it’s some rendition of a familiar gesture: “If you’re looking for things to do, just ask the concierge – they’ve got plenty of recommendations.” Substitute concierge for front desk or any other hospitality team lingo – you catch our drift.

And usually, they do. But what you’re handed doesn’t always feel like a thoughtful guide. Sometimes it’s a laminated sheet with stock picks. Sometimes it’s a crinkled brochure or a few names scribbled on the back of a map – offered mid-sentence while the concierge checks someone in. The intention is there. But the delivery often falls short.

Sometimes, so do the recommendations.

Generic Recommendations

That's part of the reality – not all the suggestions are that strong to begin with. Many are just the safest options: high-volume restaurants, top-reviewed attractions, the rooftop bar everyone already found on Google. These aren’t bad places, but they’re rarely memorable. They’re chosen to please the widest range of guests and to avoid complaints. However, they rarely surprise or connect.

Key Takeaways: What’s Wrong (and Why It Matters)

• 81% of hotel guests want local experience recommendations – but many hotels default to generic, popular picks. Local recommendations are how hotels win.

• Even strong recommendations fall flat when they're buried in laminated lists, outdated brochures, or scribbled notes. Guests expect modern, accessible delivery.

• Recommendations shape guest experience. Thoughtful, personal guidance can define how positively a guest remembers their visit.

• The problem is twofold: the recommendations aren’t always curated, and the method of sharing them hasn’t evolved.

Great Insight, Outdated Delivery

It's not a knock on concierges. Many of them do have incredible local knowledge. We’ve had concierges send us to perfect under-the-radar spots – places we’d never have found otherwise. They’re the trips we remember. But, we’ve also been handed lists that felt like filler, or been pointed to the same five places we saw in a taxi ad the night before. It’s a mixed bag. And for guests, that inconsistency becomes part of the experience.

The presentation doesn’t help either. Great advice gets buried in outdated formats. Rushed handoffs. Laminated sheets that can’t flex to seasonality or mood. Guests want something that feels intentional – not generic. But more often than not, they get something that’s just fine. 

This matters. Because those early recommendations shape how a guest engages with the city. Whether they explore with confidence or hesitation. Whether they feel like just another tourist – or like someone who was pointed toward something real.

Curation With Intention

We’re not suggesting hotels stop offering recs or need to overhaul everything – quite the opposite. Local advice is one of hospitality’s biggest assets. But the method of sharing it needs to catch up. So hotels can take what they already know – the good, the specific, the local – and actually help guests make use of it.

Whether a hotel has a full concierge team or just a single multitasking staff member, guests deserve more than default picks and outdated formats.

They deserve a moment of clarity: Here’s something worth your time. Something specific and local. Something that makes the city feel just a little more open.

Want to boost your property’s recommendation process? Tipsiti delivers a digital guidebook tool powered by local recommendations that raises guest satisfaction and hotel revenue.

Written by the Tipsiti team – travelers, curators, and hospitality professionals working to make guest recommendations more intentional and more local.