The best hotel teams don’t just work in a place they understand it. They know its history, its textures, its stories. They can answer a guest’s question about the neighborhood not because they memorized a script, but because they’ve walked those streets themselves.
At Hotel Carlota, building that connection is intentional. As a hotel boutique in Quito committed to B Corp principles, we believe that a team which is genuinely connected to the Historic Center will deliver a genuinely different guest experience more authentic, more informed, and more human.
This year, we organized a special full-day cultural experience for our entire team a journey through the plazas, convents, museums, and flavors of Quito’s Historic Center, designed to strengthen their relationship with the community we are part of every day.
Why Team Cultural Education Matters for a Boutique Hotel
Most hotels train their staff on operational procedures. Fewer invest in connecting their teams to the cultural and historical context of the place they work in. At Hotel Carlota, we see this as one of the most important investments we can make.
When a guest asks about the significance of a church they passed on the way to the hotel, or wants to know where to find authentic local food, or is curious about the history of the building they’re staying in — the answer they get from our team shouldn’t be a Google search. It should come from someone who has been there, tasted it, and felt it.
According to research on cultural tourism and hospitality, guests who receive locally-informed recommendations from hotel staff report significantly higher overall satisfaction with their stay. That connection starts with the team.
The Route A Full Day Through Quito’s Historic Center
The day was designed to move through the Historic Center with intention — covering architecture, pre-Hispanic history, colonial culture, and local gastronomy.
Plaza Chica opened the day — a contemporary urban space featuring architectural rosettes and local cafés that reflect the modern life happening within the historic fabric of the city.
From there, the team visited the Iglesia de La Merced, one of Quito’s most emblematic colonial churches, dedicated to the Virgen de la Merced and featuring some of the finest baroque stonework in the city.
The Convento de San Francisco followed — the oldest religious complex in South America, built on pre-Hispanic foundations and home to more than 3,500 works from the Escuela Quiteña, Ecuador’s distinctive school of colonial religious art. Our team engaged with both the prehispanic history of the site and its colonial transformation — understanding how layers of culture and time exist simultaneously in the Historic Center.
Pre-Hispanic Culture and the Origins of Chocolate
Two stops took the team deeper into Ecuador’s pre-Hispanic heritage.
At the Museo Casa del Alabado, one of Latin America’s finest pre-Columbian art museums, the team explored the cultures of Valdivia, Chorrera, and Jama-Coaque — among the oldest civilizations in the Americas. The museum’s thematic organization around cosmovision, life, death, and the natural world gave the team a framework for understanding the indigenous roots of much of what Quito celebrates today.
The afternoon brought a different kind of cultural education at Yumbos Chocolate — a local producer dedicated to Ecuador’s cacao heritage. The team learned about the origin of cacao in Ecuador, the full production process from bean to bar, and finished with a tasting that connected food culture to the country’s biodiversity and indigenous agricultural traditions. For context on why this matters for our guests, Ecuador is one of the world’s top producers of fine flavor cacao — a story worth knowing and sharing.
Closing at Hotel Carlota — Understanding the Building We Work In
The day ended where the team begins every working morning: at Hotel Carlota itself. But this time, with fresh eyes.
The hotel’s owner shared the history of the patrimonial house its construction in 1905, the families who lived in it, the decisions made during its renovation, and the meaning of its LEED Gold certification within the context of sustainable architecture in Quito.
The team then moved to the rooftop for a guided reading of the Historic Center’s skyline — identifying the domes, towers, and urban landmarks visible from above, and understanding Hotel Carlota’s position within that landscape. Seeing the city from that vantage point, with the context of the day behind them, made the building feel different. More connected. More significant.
A Team That Knows Where It Stands
At Hotel Carlota, we reaffirm our commitment to the growth and development of our collaborators through experiences like this one. A team that is informed, culturally aware, and genuinely connected to its context is capable of creating guest experiences that no training manual can produce on its own.
This initiative aligns with our staff training philosophy and with the B Corp principle that a company’s impact on its workers — their growth, wellbeing, and sense of purpose — is as important as its environmental or financial performance.
Book your stay at Hotel Carlota and let our team show you the Quito they know from the inside.