SMACK Hospitality

The second episode of season 3 took us to the German Hotel Convention (Deutscher Hotelkongress 2021), hosted by the dfv Mediengruppe. Thomas Edelkamp, Chairman of the Board at Romantik Hotels & Restaurants AG joined us during the event and told us about his career starting as waiter, his 10 years abroad and what it was like to be FIFA’s Managing Director of accommodation services during the 2006 f...

Welcome to season 3 of the SMACK Hospitality Podcast! To start the season in style, our season opener took place in Amsterdam and we spoke to Michael Levie of citizenM. Michael told us about the journey and hierarchy structure of citizenM and why it is totally different to other hotel companies. He also shared his experience on what it takes for a brand to establish itself, how important it is to...

For the final episode of season 2 on SMACK Veerle Donders from Zoku came to join us on the show and told us all about her career to becoming Concept and Brand Director. From knowing at the age of 10 that hospitality was going to be her career choice, to doing things a little different throughout her studies, Veerle is the living proof that dream careers do happen. She let us in on the secret behin...

If you are looking for a true role-model in hospitality, Caroline von Kretschmann, Manging Director at Hotel Europäischer Hof Heidelberg, ranks as high as they come. With 1000 and 1 stories to tell, Caroline stood at the forefront of the of German hoteliers and hospitality during the pandemic, speaking on behalf of the industry with politicians, national and international TV-stations. As if all th...

In Episode 19 of season 2, we had the chance to sit down with Michael Ros, CEO & Co-founder of Bidroom, an OTC brand with the aim to enable fair travel, both for hotels and travellers. He shared his personal story and filled us in on how to successfully build early-stage startups, how he came up with the idea of the first membership-based marketplace that connects hotels and guests and how Bidroom...

This episode takes us all the way to the West Coast of the United States, where Richard Castle, Co-Founder and COO of Cloudbeds, joined us to tell his and Adam Harris’ story of how the story behind Cloudbeds unfolded. From two guys, who had nothing to do with hospitality other than a passion for travelling, to an award winning international hotel tech company – what sounds much like a fairy-tale s...

A truly inspirational episode on the SMACK hospitality podcast leads us to Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses Hotels & Resorts. Neil told us the amazing story behind the Six Senses brand, how it evolved from a local South-East Asian Resort Brand to a global hotel company with properties across the globe. We also got a sneak preview of the next destinations Six Senses is currently planning and learned...

Isabell Fuss, Group Vice President Development at Ruby Hotels joined us for a special episode to talk about something very different than her actual role at Ruby. Talking about New Work, a topic very dear to Isabel’s heart as a senior manager in the company, she shared some insights into what a modern company culture could look like and how it must be communicated. Beyond that Isabel explained to...

Marloes Knippenberg, CEO of Kerten Hospitality joined us for an in-depth talk on strategy and concepts, while letting us in on her thought process of some the corporate decisions she has taken. Beyond that Marloes shared her take on the role of women in hospitality and let us in her thoughts on effective sustainability in hospitality Enjoy the show!

In episode 14 of season 2 we were fortunate enough to meet someone, who’s pretty much done it all. Former president of the HSMA, recently elected regional DEHOGA president, owner of the Hotel Friends group and never shy of an opinion – Haakon Herbst truly has seen and done it all. In this German episode this hotel veteran talks to us about what it’s like to have to close down a hotel in times of C...

In this episode Christopher Hartley, CEO of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) joined us for a talk about the future of (business) travel and loyalty programs. Chris is not only an experienced traveller, but also a veteran of the hospitality industry, so it goes without saying that we also asked him about his favourite airline, loyalty program and hotels – you’d be surprised… Enjoy the show!

In part 2 of Boris Radke’s visit to SMACK, we continue to learn more Omio’s predicitons on how travelling will change due to the pandemic. We also got a behind-the-scenes understanding of how he believes communications work in the corporate world and why internal communications is so much more important than external communications at first – especially during a global pandemic. Beyond that, Boris...

Boris Radke, Ex-Zalando, Ex-ProSieben Sat. 1 Media and currently Director Corporate Affairs and Workplace Experience at one-stop-shop travel booking platform Omio, came to visit us on the show and told us all about his take on the travel industry and why he thinks it is one of the “least customer friendly industries” out there. In part 1 of their talk, Boris explained how cool “home-office” really...

A real special episode marks episode 11 of season 2 as Anne Wahl-Pozeg, Senior Vice President Communications Northern Europe at Accor came to join us on the show. Anne told us all about her journey to now being in charge of the press, internal and partner communications in Accor’s Northern Europe division, which includes 30 countries. She also told us about the recent developments at Accor, why sh...

This Smack Episode takes us back to university. Joshua Gan, Regional Director Asia/Pacific of the EHL Group, came to visit us on the show and told us about his journey from being a working student at the Ecole hotelière de Lausanne to becoming director of the Asia/Pacific Region and pushing forward the expansion plans of the group there. Josh also let us in on a couple of first impressions from th...

Dr. Ueli Schneider, Head of Business Development & Member of the Management Board at HotellerieSuisse, came to visit us on the show to give us some insights on what HotellerieSuisse’s Business Development team is currently working on, how Switzerland’s tourism will change in the future and why “the show must go on”. With a whole wealth of experience in the Swiss hotel market and beyond, Ueli also...

Episode 8 of season two takes us to the world of sports and hospitality management within one of Germany’s most unique stadiums. Katharina Kienemann, Managing Director of the infamous “Alte Försterei”, home to Bundesliga-team 1. FC Union Berlin, came to visit us on the show and told us all about the different aspects of running a stadium. From hosting events for 22’000 people, to running the opera...

This episode takes us to the skies of Switzerland and beyond. Lorenzo Stoll, Head of Western Switzerland at Swiss International Airlines came to visit us on the show and told us about some of the thought processes of the airline during Covid-19 in a truly open conversation. From planning flights the same day and keeping the Swiss-Team in Geneva afloat, to the perks of being part of the Lufthansa G...

Chalana Perera, Ex-Citizen M and Ex-Yays came to visit us for episode 6 of season 2 and told us how his interest in real estate development for hotels was sparked at an early stage of his career. He also gave us an insight into his entrepreneurial mindset and explained how his interest in the filed of serviced apartments arose, which wasn’t the original plan. Chalana also explains his thoughts beh...

This episode welcomes Robert Herr, widely recognized as the definition of a modern leader who has seen the world as a GM with Intercontinental Hotels with previous roles in Paris, Berlin, Prag, Beirut, Vienna to name just a few. He currently holds the General Manager position at the Buergenstock Resort in Lucerne, one of the hottest recent openings in Switzerland (with a kick-ass view of the Vierw...

As Patrizia “Pat” Zueck gives her debut as a host on Smack, we welcome Michelle Walder, GM at the NoMad Hotel New York to the show. The two former co-workers share their personal experiences on being women in the hospitality industry and discuss how travelling and hotels have been affected by the pandemic. Michelle also talked to us about how working within the Sydell Group and experiencing Covid-...

As season 2 continues, Chi Chan, Chief Commercial Officer at IRECKONU, joined us on the show and talked to Florian about disruption and innovation in hospitality. With previous roles at Loews Hotels, Chi Chan told us how the pandemic has changed the perception of digital solutions, their acceptance within hospitality and how hotels can improve their touchpoints with guests through the use of techn...

Philip Ibrahim’s first episode as a host on Smack features Roy Himmelreich, Senior Executive Manager Relationship Marketing Hotel at Sixt. Roy and Philip exchange old stories from back in the days when they were working at Accor together, all the way to Roy’s current role at Sixt. All of us have seen some of the great advertisements that Sixt has produced over the years, but what’s the real secret...

Welcome back to season 2 at Smack! For episode 1 Timothee Semelin, Global Senior Corporate Director of Digital Marketing & Transformation of Hong Kong’s based Rosewood Hotels joins Fritz Dickamp for a chat about the progress of digital marketing and what the future holds for the hospitality industry in terms of digital transformation. Beyond that they talked about how Rosewood Hotels relaunched th...

Wilhelm "Wilko" Weber, Vice President Global Revenue and Digital Strategy at Kempinksi came to visit us on the show - for a second time. Find out what went wrong in the first recording and discover what Kempinski has learned from the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of pricing, growing their e-commerce and teamwork across departments. We also dug deep on some true Kempinski secrets, such as who is the b...