Effective On-Site Support For Hotels And Back-Up In Berlin

The Commercial Services team provides strategic support for hotels and franchise partners on both national and international level and carries out regular quality checks. The main challenge faced by the Commercial Services team is to communicate with individual stakeholders, owners and General Managers.  Direct and immediate contact with the franchisors (e.g. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, IHG, Radisson Hotel Group, Best Western and Accor Hotels) ensures efficient implementation processes and excellent communication. The future of Commercial Services lies in the expansion of strategic partnerships and revenue streams as well as in the development of internal and external quality management.

The Revenue & Distribution department manages and optimises the occupancy and RevPar (Revenue per available room) of our hotels by applying yield and revenue management strategies.
The department adapts to the rapid changes in the distribution landscape and collaborates efficiently with hotel directors, Area Vice Presidents and the commercial team for an optimal strategic hotel orientation. Furthermore, it supports the training of yield and revenue managers in the department and offers 4 levels of revenue management training to hotel employees with  revenue responsibility.
The 40 employees successfully tackle the challenge of finding the ideal business mix for our hotels, true to  the motto: efficient revenue management in combination with flexibility, dynamics and creativity.

Our Sales Corporate and MICE Department counts with about 40 employees who take care of GCH’s customers in the six regions North, Berlin, East, West, Central and South. The department is responsible for Field Sales, Key Account Management and the Meeting Desk, furthermore for existing and contractual customer care, customer acquisition, optimisation of the conference facilities’ occupancy rate and herewith for the further expansion of the whole corporate business of all hotels in the GCH portfolio. The main focus for the GCH Corporate and MICE Sales Team lies on supporting and promoting the German feeder markets as well as the cross-selling approach between sellers in the different areas and the hotels. This includes the coordination and optimisation of sales campaigns between the GCH Sales Team and our franchise partners IHG, Best Western, Accor Hotels, Radisson Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. The Sales Department defines its work as close to the market, sustainable, customer-oriented, competent and professional.

Our 11-person Sales (Leisure) department is responsible for the touristic distribution of all hotels that are part of the GCH Hotel Group. Our team members take competent care of the national and international B2B Leisure customers in the FIT and group travel segment. Together with the hotels, they develop fitting leisure distribution strategies and align their sales activities and the customer mix to the needs of each hotel in the GCH portfolio. The department’s focus lies on the support of existing and key customers as well as on the establishment and strengthening of new potential business partnerships. The department’s goal is the optimal occupancy of all GCH hotels’ leisure facilities. Accomplishing this goal requires the ideal utilisation of the dynamic travel market’s diverse distribution channels and agile reactions to market fluctuations. Our GCH Leisure Sales team’s strengths are professionalism, strong communication, customer-oriented work and keeping an ear close to the market.

The GCH Hotel Group Digital department develops, builds and maintains landing pages and websites for the hotels as well as the GCH corporate website. Services include programming, search engine marketing (SEO and SEM), display and remarketing, social media, e-mail marketing, content creation and layout. The focus is on timeliness, functionality and usability of the websites. All processes are based on analyses and data to ensure that the right target groups are addressed. Through a strong online presence and the use of promotional storytelling the hotels generate bookings and revenue directly.

The Marketing department is responsible for the brand management of the GCH Hotel Group and for the hotels. This encompasses the preparation, takeover and integration of new or rebranded hotels into the portfolio as well as PR measures. The Marketing department organizes trade fairs and events, maintains cooperations and sponsorships, coordinates agencies and printing houses, and creates presentation materials, giveaways and promotional materials following the corporate identity guidelines. Furthermore, the Marketing Department creates and edits pictures, videos, graphics and documents. Optimised and innovative processes and service-orientated activities make the Marketing & Digital department a high-performing and reliable partner.

The Central Reservation Office (CRO), headquartered in Berlin and Dresden, currently consists of around 35 employees and is set to grow in the coming years. More than 50 hotels are directly connected to the CRO via fax, email and telephone, and other hotels of the GCH Hotel Group can contact the office using the central, free-of-charge 0800 reservation hotline. Reservation requests in German and English are dealt with from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekends and public holidays. The CRO provides a healthy balance in the communication between the hotels, regional departments, brand and hotel standards and the guests' wishes. The committed, naturally friendly call center sees itself as a service-providing link between guests and front office.

The GCH Hotel Group Accounting Department is responsible for operative hotel accounting, controlling and auditing. With seven employees in the head office, 35 regional and 25 hotel employees, accounting is a growing branch of the company. The main challenges faced by the department are the integration of new hotels into the existing structures while maintaining the quality standards and the implementation of uniform practices for all accounting departments. Precision, pragmatism and flexibility define the service-oriented accounting and controlling of the GCH Hotel Group.

Human capital as a whole is the intangible asset of a company. For this reason, the HR department sets itself the goal of strengthening and expanding this capital through both recruitment and further development of its own employees. The Human Resources department of the GCH Hotel Group is divided into Administration and Management & People Development. It consists of professionally competent employees covering the areas of personnel administration, personnel management/development, training and recruiting. The department provides advice on all labor law, social law and works constitution law issues. Furthermore, the HR department develops customized HR solutions to support the business strategy.

The Food & Beverage department collaborates on a corporate level with the Directors of Operation in each region, the General Managers of the different hotels and in particular with the individual F&B Managers of each hotel. It supports them in their daily operations in the areas of breakfast, banqueting, à la carte, kitchen and bar, ensures the high-quality standard of the products, trains the staff and controls the profit and loss reportings. Another task and passion is the creation of food & beverage concepts and standards (including non-food related F&B) with adaption for the different brands and locations.

Guests are looking for more than just a great product – they are looking for an experience as part of their lifestyle. Creating a bubble of comfort around the individual guest through design, interesting content and a feel-good ambience enhances their stay and gives them the best value for their money. If the rooms are the heart of hospitality, the Food & Beverage department is its character and soul.

The department Design & Construction takes care of executing the design and planning in cooperation with their internal renovations team and external renovation partners. Each concept is customised according to the individual hotel concepts and their renovation objectives. Both planning and management of the procurement of furniture, building materials, decoration and equipment are handled internally.

The in-house design team creates full or partial concepts for individual hotel areas like lobby, F&B areas, conference rooms and spa areas. The primary objective for the tasks and goals of our hotels is to develop an inspiring, functional and cost-effective design.

They provide the hotels with both a design and a Look & Feel concept tailored to their individual needs.

In order to stay on top of the expected expenses, they draft a cost budget considering the extent of the renovation at a very early stage.
They are experts and service providers in every sense – as consultants, planners, calculators, organisers and designers.

Telecommunications, HelpDesk, networks, server systems, Opera PMS, data security: The competent and experienced IT department supports the consortium in all IT matters. This includes the support of employees with all IT issues, troubleshooting system malfunctions, planning and monitoring backups, and expanding and maintaining systems. The IT department bundles innovation, experience and specialist knowledge to continously develop and optimise IT systems and coordinate external service providers. Thanks to its high level of expertise, the in-house IT department successfully ensures high-quality support and a continuous adaptation of infrastructure and processes to the rapidly evolving IT landscape.

With 6 permanent employees, the Maintenance department takes care of operational engineering in all GCH Hotels. Together with the technicians, the team is responsible for all operational engineering projects in the hotels, carries out renovations and reconstructions, takes care of saftey-relevant equipment, troubleshoots technical issues, negotiates maintenance and energy-supply contracts and puts cost-saving options (water, electricity, gas) into practice. The Maintenance department is highly organised and aims to becomes Germany's leading operational engineering management in 5 years.