Zoran Pejović, Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Lošinj Hotels & Villas, shares how the brand is crafting memorable, meaningful guest experiences by embracing the Croatian island’s natural healing climate, deep-rooted culture, and a redefined vision of luxury — one that values attention, sincerity, and a sense of place
What inspired you to pursue a career in hospitality?
It was a confluence of different factors, none of which were pushing me into a career in hospitality! I grew up in Montenegro during the Balkan wars. When I got a scholarship to study hospitality management, this was my chance of getting out. I always wanted to study political science and philosophy; I saw myself in that realm. Once I got into the hospitality industry, I was lucky to meet some inspirational people who made me realise that the sector has the unique aspect of bringing people together, as opposed to politics, which often divides people. So, I said, let me be on the side of bringing people together!
Your professional experience has included roles with prolific luxury brands like Aman Resorts and Silversea Cruises. What were some of the learnings you gained from working with these brands?
It was about learning from the people who were there. They helped me realise that one thing worth obsessing over is quality. I then started building my own vision for hospitality. From Aman, I started understanding the experiential side of the industry; I realised they [Aman] were not in a service industry; they were in an experience industry. I think Adrian Zecca — and his vision — was so ahead of its time. I keep telling people today that we are no longer a part of the service industry; we are an experience industry, and to some, even a transformation industry. It really matters how we do things and how we make people feel, as opposed to achieving technical perfection in the delivery.
Everybody talks about ‘USPs’ (Unique Selling Points); I realised there are very few things that are unique left in the world. We really need to find a few things which we are good at and focus on those. It doesn’t matter if it’s unique or not. So later in my career, I even recoined it from USP to ‘Points of Distinction’ and said, this is what we are good at, not what our ‘uniqueness’ is. It’s been seven or eight years now in my team where I forbid the words ‘authentic’ and ‘unique’. Those words don’t mean anything anymore.
You mentioned the growing importance of experiential hospitality — have you noticed your guests seeking that out more over time, and how have their expectations evolved?
It’s been around a quarter of a century now that I’ve been in this industry, and things were, I wouldn’t say easier, but simpler at the start of my career. You could profile a typical guest much more easily — we always talk about buyer personas or guest personas or whatever it might be, and that was much easier before. If someone were staying in a luxury hotel, you could expect that they would book a transfer with your best car, book dinner right away at your best restaurant, would come dressed up, often in a suit and tie (but not always!). Now, you have people staying at a hostel and eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant and vice versa, guests staying at a luxury hotel and taking Ubers. So, firstly, people are much more focused on what it is that they want to spend money on. And when it comes to what they want to spend money on, they’re looking for something memorable. They’re looking for someone who will provide a peak experience for them. Our job is to create the context in which that experience may occur. We are orchestrators or architects of those experiences, but we can’t experience something for someone else. They must be open to those experiences.
Daniel Kahneman, one of the most famous psychologists of the 20th century, spoke about the “remembering self” versus the “experiencing self”. That idea is something I think about a lot. People are mostly either remembering the past or, strangely enough, remembering the future — which doesn’t really make sense when you put it like that, but it kind of does. As soon as you imagine the future, it becomes a memory in your mind. So people arrive at places and compare their actual experience to the imagined memory they had beforehand. And that often gets in the way of having a truly peak experience. Those who are open to exploring new cultures, cuisines, languages, and meeting new people, they really have the opportunity these days because there are so many businesses that are working hard on creating these platforms where that can occur.
This is the essence of what I try to do — often with much less money — yet achieving results that far exceed guest expectations. For example, at our boutique Hotel Alhambra and Hotel Bellevue, we offer forest bathing, combined with an educational element about the herbs of Lošinj. The island is home to 1,200 plant species, 250 of which are medicinal, making it, botanically, probably the richest island in the Mediterranean.
It’s about taking something that already exists — like forest bathing — and layering it with something educational, local, and contextual. And then we add an element of fun. I’ve found that if you aim for roughly 90 per cent entertainment, 9 per cent education, and 1 per cent enlightenment, you’ve got the right mix. This is what I’ve been testing throughout my career.
Here on this island, the climate itself creates a natural healing environment—something that can feel truly enlightening to some people. There are places in the world where you don’t need a spa; just walking around makes your lungs feel better, and this is one of them. When we build around things that are real, not imagined or artificial — and then layer on exceptional service with an obsessive focus on quality, and wrap it all in great storytelling, I don’t see how we can fail.
For those unfamiliar with the destination, can you share a bit about Lošinj and what makes it special?
We are in the northern Adriatic, probably the closest large island to Venice, just to put it into perspective. We’re what you’d call an ‘outside island’, meaning there’s no island beyond us; we face the open sea. Lošinj is perfectly positioned between Northern Dalmatia and Istria, between Venice and Split.
Because of this location — and to paraphrase one of the greatest historians of the Mediterranean, Fernand Braudel — the Mediterranean isn’t one landscape but a thousand. It’s the same with Lošinj. The island has been under various rulers; for 300 years, it was part of the Venetian Republic and served as one of its most important outposts, often the first port on the way from Venice to the rest of the Mediterranean. That history made it a hub of shipbuilding, seafaring, and maritime trade, which brought considerable wealth.
In the 19th century, it became part of the Austrian Empire, and the Viennese aristocracy built an incredible collection of villas here. Unlike many Mediterranean destinations, where tourism is built around the hard work of islanders and clusters of small stone houses, Lošinj offers the grandeur of imperial villas layered atop centuries of earlier wealth. It’s almost like if Lake Como had a child with the Mediterranean — you get this blend of regal architecture and a natural setting shaped by a one-of-a-kind combination of natural and climatic conditions..
What sets Lošinj Hotels & Villas apart from the competition?
I think it’s everything we’ve talked about above, and then there’s the fact that, being a remote island, we have almost 8000 people living here. Our company is the island, and the island is us. We have 700 permanent employees, 99 per cent of whom are from the island. They see this island and this company as their home, so the service they deliver unlocks a level of sincerity and honesty that creates amazing experiences for our guests.
That level of excellence in service might not be technically precise at all times — we’re working on that — but at the end of the day, I like to emphasise the energy, the good vibe, and the honesty with which we approach things. This is all layered on top of the architectural and infrastructural quality, which is fully comparable to some of the best hotels in Europe and the Mediterranean, and the nature that surrounds us.
Then, we’ve created a culinary journey, with 10 independent restaurants, including the Michelin-starred restaurant — one of only two Michelin-starred restaurants on the Croatian islands. We also have fabulous spa and wellness facilities. Out of our five hotels, four have spa and wellness facilities, and two of them offer medical treatments. So, it’s really the combination of infrastructure, products, services, and the natural environment that makes us unique.
What does sustainability mean to you, and how are you driving this ethos into the operations and guest experience at Lošinj Hotels & Villas?
Personally, I stopped using the word ‘sustainability’ about 10 years ago and shifted to ‘responsible tourism’. I don’t really know what ‘sustainable’ even means anymore. What we were taught 20 years ago about sustainability has turned out not to be sustainable at all. We’ve spent so much time chasing something that’s hard to prove, and once we achieve it, we find out it was wrong all along. So I thought, let’s focus on what we know for sure.
What we do know is that we can maintain the cleanliness of our spaces, we can take care of the communities we’re part of, and we can preserve what’s worth preserving. To me, sustainability is about what’s worth protecting — what’s aesthetically pleasing and has stood the test of time. If something has been around for 150 or 200 years, it’s worth preserving. That kind of heritage, even though it may have been written off because it was built in the 19th century, is something we should protect.
We’re focused on preserving the things that are valuable and beautiful, and that’s how we approach sustainability. All of this ties into being responsible toward both the nature and the community in which we operate. What’s responsible in New York or London doesn’t necessarily translate the same way in Lošinj. It has to be contextual, considering both the environment and the local community.
In the end, I think this is where we find our sweet spot. We define responsible behaviour not just for the future but also for the present generation. I don’t believe in sacrificing the current community’s well-being for the sake of future generations.
Who is the typical guest at your properties, and how do you communicate with them?
The majority of our guests are from Europe, particularly Central Europe, though we’re definitely seeing growing interest from the UK and US markets. One of the biggest challenges can be introducing people to the island and what it has to offer, but we have an incredibly high retention rate. Once people spend time with us, they want to come back. That’s a great indicator that we’re doing something right.
We aim to introduce guests to all aspects of island life — local traditions, customs, and the real, honest experience. It’s not about turning it into something contrived or touristy; it’s about showing them real, lived experiences. If guests want to be a part of it, we ask that they show respect for the local way of life. Mutual respect is key, and I think that’s what makes the experience meaningful.
Ultimately, we take our guests on a journey — whether it’s exploring the culinary and wellness offerings, or diving into the island’s cultural and historical treasures.
Your properties are an important source of livelihood for many Lošinj locals—how do you find and retain talented staff and what kinds of developmental opportunities exist for your employees?
This is, as you can imagine, one of the biggest challenges in the industry. Recruitment is one challenge, and retention is another. There have been changes in how young people view this industry, especially with the impact of remote work and the pandemic. We are sometimes faced with the challenge of meeting people’s expectations—people now expect remote work in the service industry, which, of course, is never going to happen.
But once we have them, I believe it’s our job to create lifelong journeys for our employees and help them rediscover the joy of working in this industry. I think we, as an industry, have lost the PR war over the past 10 years, and we need to make ourselves attractive again. This is not just a challenge for Lošinj, but it applies to almost every other hotel company, particularly in Europe. We are all facing this same challenge of a lack of talent, so we need to find ways to attract people again, especially young people, and show them why this industry is worth joining.
What does luxury mean to you?
I always first approach luxury through an economic lens, which may seem like a dry approach given everything I’ve said so far. But I think luxury is something that is hard to access, and once you access it, there is an excess of it. We need to distinguish between luxury and commodity. There will always be that one or two per cent of something that’s not available to everyone else, and that is, by economic definition, what makes it luxury. Hard access will always remain part of the formula, however, excess is something that needs to be mindful about.
A more philosophical answer is: attention is luxury. It’s really about how we play within that one or two per cent of the space we’re given in creating these memorable experiences. I like to quote Sam Harris, who says that attention is the cash value of our lives. This is what I want us to focus on in the industry: what do we pay attention to, and how do we ensure our guests can pay attention to the right things?
What’s next for Lošinj Hotels & Villas?
Right now, we’re still playing in the national or regional league, but we want to move up to the Premier League. We want to be seen as the top destination for the best corporate retreats in the world. We want to be recognised as a place where we already have villas that can rival the most beautiful ones in the Mediterranean. The infrastructure is already in place; we just need to bring it to the right audiences.
So, for us, the work isn’t so much about building new things, but about ensuring that the world hears and understands our stories.
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