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

The commercial team provides strategic support for the hotels and franchise partners on both national and international level. It also carries out regular quality inspections. 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. WHG, IHG, Rezidor, Best Western and ACCOR) 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 employees of the revenue and distribution department manage the occupancy and RevPar (Revenue per available room) of the hotels through the application of 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 optimal strategic hotel orientation. Furthermore, it supports the training of future yield and revenue managers in the Junior Revenue Academy and offers training to hotel employees who also have revenue responsibility. Under the motto "Efficient revenue management in combination with flexibility, dynamism and creativity", the 40 employees successfully meet the challenge of finding the ideal business mix for the hotels.

The 50 members of the corporate sales and MICE departments support the six areas of North, Berlin, East, West, Central and South. The department is responsible for field sales, key account management and desk meetings as well as supporting existing and contractual clients and acquiring new ones. It is also in charge of optimizing the utilization of conference capacities and thus expanding the entire corporate business of all GCH hotels. The main focus of the GCH Hotel Group corporate and MICE sales teams is on promoting the cross-selling concept between vendors in the areas and hotels as well as coordinating and optimizing sales operations between the GCH sales team and the franchise partners IHG, Best Western, ACCOR, Rezidor and Wyndham. How do the members of sales department view their work? As sustainable, customer-oriented, competent and professional.

The GCH Hotel Group Sales Leisure Department is subdivided into Key Account Management Leisure, Area Sales Management and Leisure Coordination. The team, consisting of 13 field and in-house employees, is responsible for all national and international leisure sales strategies and activities. Key tasks include establishing and maintaining business relationships with national and international B2B customers from various leisure segments, sharing knowledge and advice concerning leisure and trends as well as supporting new GCH hotels in the development and implementation of the leisure strategy. The members of sales team consider themselves as reliable, strong and fast team players with expertise.

The GCH Hotel Group Digital Department develops and programmes websites and landing pages for the hotels. It is also responsible for the programming and development of corporate websites for the company. The department's range of digital services include programming, layouting, SEO, SEM, social media, content management and online marketing with its own editorial staff and guarantees the timeliness, functionality and usability of the websites. Through the use of storytelling, promotional activities and a good online presence, the hotels generate bookings and profit directly.

The marketing department is also responsible for the brand management of the GCH Hotel Group and the franchisors. This encompasses the preparation, takeover and integration of new or rebranded hotels into the portfolio. The marketing department participates in trade fairs, organises events, coordinates agencies, printing houses and co-operative partners and creates presentation material, give-aways and promotional material in line with the CI. Optimised, innovative, efficient processes and service-oriented activities make the Marketing & Digital Department a high-performing reliable partner.

The Central Reservation Office (CRO), headquartered in Berlin and Dresden, currently consists of around 60 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, English and French can be dealt with around the clock. 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 the 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.

The GCH Hotel Group Procure Department includes the areas of purchasing, cost controlling and supplier, contract and quality management. Considering the speed at which the company develops, it is necessary to guarantee continuous improvement of the procurement processes under the best conditions. Market adaptability and communication and negotiation skills are just a few of the features that characterize the department. In the near future, the department’s goal is to become one of the top-selling central purchasing departments in the European hotel industry. 

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 of the GCH Hotel Group is made up of approximately 100 F&B Managers who operate in the areas of breakfast, banqueting, à la carte, kitchen and bar. The tasks vary from the creation of the latest food concepts to the management of all F&B shopping, including also the services they offer in the hotels: the Twenty4Seven Food Concept, the Gourmet Snack Concept in the Garni Hotels, the new banquet concept with the establishment of a central kitchen and more. The greatest strength of the team is creating professional and customized culinary concepts for the wide range of hotel brands. For the GCH Hotel Group these are concepts with quality, lifestyle and soul, because we believe the food reflects the soul of the hotel.

Telecommunications, helpdesk, networks, server systems, Opera PMS, data security - the competent and experienced IT team supports the consortium in all IT issues. This includes supporting staff in all EDM concerns, fixing system malfunctions, planning and monitoring backups as well as developing and maintaining the systems. The IT department brings together innovation, experience and specialist knowledge and the coordination of external service providers. With its high level of expertise, in-house IT succeeds in ensuring high quality of support and continuous adaptation of infrastructure and processes to a rapidly developing IT landscape.

The GCH Maintenance Department, with a staff of 8 full-time employees, is the operative technical department for all GCH hotels. Alongside on-site technicians in the hotels, the team is responsible for all operative engineering projects, i.e. they carry out renovations and conversions, take care of all security-relevant systems, deal with technical problems, deal with negotiation proceedings for maintenance contracts and energy contracts, and implement measures for potential savings (water, electricity, gas). The maintenance department is very well organised, and sees itself in five years as the leading technical management team in Germany.