BERLIN—One of Berlin’s largest hotels, the 558-key InterContinental Berlin last year celebrated its 35th anniversary under the InterContinental Hotels Group flag.
Today at the helm is Robert P. Herr, a 20-year veteran of IHG, who became GM in 2010.
Half-Swiss, half-American, Herr has had a peripatetic life: born in Dublin; schooled in the United Kingdom and at the École Hôtelière de Lausanne; and residing in Germany and the Czech Republic. His first three IHG GM posts following completion of the company’s fast-track management program were in Hamburg (2003), Düsseldorf (2004) and Prague (2006).
“I’ve always had a love of hotels. Out of school, I wanted to study language and history but wondered how I could make money out of those subjects. I started getting a few jobs in hotels,” he said.
Close to Herr’s heart are service and the differentiation that can come from excellence, the anticipation of guests’ needs and the betterment of service.
“Hoteliers do have a tendency to think big, but it is simpler than that,” he said. “The most precious commodity guests have is their time, so we have to instead think of creating more efficiency. The bottom line is that it is guests’ time, not ours.”
One novel way in which Herr has created this efficiency is to empower his staff members, every one of which has €100 ($140) to use per day on guests at their discretion. Often, that money is never spent; since he introduced the scheme in mid-2013, Herr said it has not been abused.
“It allows staff not to have to fear. They do not need to ask if they can spend the money. They can just act,” Herr said.
Being Berlin
Back in Germany, Herr is excited about the Berlin he has seen grow around the hotel, which is one of very few IHG properties that is leased.
“When I started, there were 20 million visitors to the city. Now there are 27 million, and by 2016 that number is expected to be 30 million,” Herr said.
He has also seen IHG grow from 120 properties when he started to more than 3,000 today.
“IHG was like a big family, and it had that approach to business,” Herr added.
The property has withstood even greater changes before Herr’s tenure. Back in 1978 when IHG took over the property, its home of Tiergarten was the very center of West Berlin, with the city divided by the Cold War.
Herr also has seen Berlin change in regard to its hotel stock.
“A huge growth in supply, happily absorbed by demand, is particularly noticeable in the 3- and 4-star market, which has created new niche markets. But also we’re seeing a rise in luxury. Our niche remains the large conventions,” he said.
Herr’s plans for the hotel are to increase the staff’s freedom to provide those personal touches his guests demand and, over the next three years, to refurbish the lobby, bar and meeting rooms.