EF Loved a Budapest Icebreaker So Much They Asked for It Again in Barcelona

Case Study

A repeat client remembered one small detail from a previous teambuilding Budapest game — teams finding their own starting point — and asked Treasure Hunt Barcelona to recreate it.

The Brief: Recreating a Detail From a Different City

Charlotte Meyer's inquiry for a teambuilding Barcelona event came with an unusual reference point: EF had booked a Treasure Hunt in Budapest before, and one specific mechanic had stuck with the team — starting the game not at a fixed meeting point, but with the first task being to find the starting point themselves. “Maybe we can do a similar situation as in Budapest?” Charlotte asked. “We make Teams and give them first task to find the starting point. Where do you suggest starting?”

It's a small ask, but a telling one — it meant the previous event had been memorable enough, in its specific details, for someone to want it recreated in an entirely different city a year later.

The Solution: A Route Built Around a Dinner Reservation

Event Manager Martina Martišková confirmed the Budapest-style opening would work well starting outside the Jaume I Metro exit, in front of Hotel Suizo — a clean, findable spot in the Gothic Quarter for a group's first orienteering task. Pricing held at 920 EUR (excl. VAT) for the 30–40 person group, consistent with what EF had been quoted for a similar-sized event previously.

The game's length was built around Charlotte's dinner plans: a 17:30 start with a two-hour window landed the group at their restaurant reservation, set for 19:30 with an aperitif to start the evening.

Execution: An Out-of-Office Reply and a Quick Recovery

Planning ran smoothly apart from one ordinary hiccup — a reply from Charlotte arrived as an out-of-office auto-response while she was away until May 2nd. It caused no real delay; once she was back, the conversation picked up exactly where it left off, confirming the Budapest-style opening task and the restaurant-anchored finish time without needing to re-cover ground already agreed.

Results and Client Testimonial

Feedback came back specific and glowing, with particular praise for the guide:

“Good Morning Martina, Thank you so much! The Scavenger hunt was so much fun! And our guide, Javier — he was amazing! Bubbly and fun — he did such a great job! Everyone managed all tasks and we had a great time — I only received good feedback! Thank you so much! I will forward the Payment link to finance. Have a great day!”

— Charlotte Meyer, EF

Asked to turn the feedback into a Google review, Charlotte's response was a simple reaction emoji on the request — the kind of low-friction, genuinely positive close that only comes from a client who was already happy before being asked.

Outcome at a glance:

• A specific mechanic borrowed from a previous booking in a different city, recreated successfully on request
• A route and start time built to land the group at their restaurant reservation exactly on schedule
• A routine out-of-office delay that resolved itself without any impact on the booking
• Detailed, enthusiastic feedback naming the guide directly, followed by an immediate, low-friction response to the review request

Key Takeaways

A repeat client asking to recreate a specific detail from a different city's event is one of the clearest signals of genuine satisfaction — it means a small mechanic, not just the overall experience, was memorable enough to request again. Being able to adapt that detail to a new city's geography, rather than treating every booking as a fixed template, is what let this request become a real repeat booking. Building the game's timing backward from a client's own restaurant reservation — as with the aperitif booked for 19:30 — removes one more thing an organizer has to manage on the day, and it shows up in how relaxed and positive their feedback tends to be afterward.

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