“We are service providers, but not servants”

Hamburg is one of Germany’s most important hotel and city break destinations; competition for guests – and for good staff – is correspondingly fierce. For hotels, it is therefore no longer enough to focus solely on location, design, rooms and service quality. Behind every successful hotel lies a second layer, often invisible to guests: How are people managed? How do you retain good staff? And what sort of working culture does the hospitality industry need today?

We spoke to Enrico Ungermann, General Manager of the Empire Riverside Hotel in Hamburg, about these issues. The hotel is situated in the heart of St. Pauli, between the Reeperbahn, the River Elbe and the Port of Hamburg, and combines hospitality with a range of dining concepts – from the waterkant restaurant and DAVID’S to the Skyline Bar 20up. Ungermann himself originally comes from the kitchen. And perhaps it is precisely this background that makes his perspective so interesting: he knows the industry not only from management meetings, but from a working environment where long days, rigid hierarchies and a different approach to leadership were the norm for decades. Today, he says: leadership must work differently.

So the hospitality industry has changed not only from the guests’ perspective, but also as an employer?
Yes, and I think it’s good that this has changed. After finishing hotel management school, I worked my way through various management roles myself and remember very clearly what people used to earn back then and how many hours they worked at the same time. 16-hour days and six- or seven-day weeks over long periods were not uncommon. I’m glad we see things differently today. After all, it’s also about showing appreciation for staff. We certainly don’t want to drive people away from the catering and hospitality sectors. We want to inspire them to love this industry. And you don’t achieve that by – to put it bluntly – bullying them.

Has this shift also changed the way we think about guests today? After all, it used to be said very often: ‘The guest is king.’
Things have changed in that respect too, and I think that’s a good thing. Of course, we’re service providers. But we’re not servants. Just as I treat my staff with respect, I also expect our guests to treat them with respect. If there’s a problem, we can talk about it. You can contact me, a shift manager, a service manager or the restaurant manager. There’s almost always a solution to problems. But if someone feels the need to treat staff at reception or in another area disrespectfully, or to become abusive, then for me there are limits.

Could this perhaps even be one of the positive changes of recent years – that we are talking more about showing appreciation for the people who make hospitality possible in the first place?
Definitely. I think guests are now also becoming more aware of what goes on behind the scenes. We see, for example, restaurants reducing their opening hours or introducing extra days off. And perhaps this also makes us more conscious once again that there is a person working on a Saturday or Sunday, ensuring that I can enjoy a lovely day or evening with my family, with friends or whilst on holiday. This appreciation is important.

If a young person were standing in front of you today, considering a career in the catering or hospitality industry, what would you say to them?
For me, this passion began very early on. I was already in the cooking club at school – I was the only boy there at the time. My mum was a cook, and my aunt also worked in the catering industry. My mum actually tried to talk me out of going into the industry back then. But I was simply fascinated by it. I knew from an early age: I want to work on a ship, I want to go abroad, I want to see something of the world. And that’s exactly what I’d tell young people: if you’re keen to meet lots of people from different countries and with different ways of thinking, and to see the world, this industry opens up an incredible number of opportunities. The hotel and catering industry isn’t confined to a single city or region. You develop professionally, but above all personally. And even if you eventually decide to leave the industry or take a different career path, you take an incredible amount with you. I still find that enriching to this day.

You’re a trained chef. To what extent does this culinary background influence your work today as general manager of the Empire Riverside?
It had a particularly strong influence on me at the start, because I naturally come from the F&B sector. You know what levers to pull when it comes to costs, quality and processes. But that doesn’t mean that when I go into the kitchen today, the head chefs start to tremble. Quite the opposite. We have fun together and, of course, know the professional level at which we can talk to one another. And I, too, ask to be shown things. I ask: ‘How are you doing that today?’ That didn’t exist at all in my day. So for me, there’s always something new to learn.

Do you get more involved in the culinary concepts because of your experience?
No. My teams should have the opportunity to develop freely. I don’t go in and scrutinise every menu or dictate what they’re allowed to do and what they’re not. I’ve always demanded that freedom for myself, and that’s why I want to give it to others today as well. Because without freedom, you’ve hardly any chance of developing further. And it’s a very strong motivating factor.

Occupational hazard in the hospitality industry: Can you even stay in a hotel in your private life without immediately analysing everything? What do you look out for yourself?
It depends on how I’m travelling. If I’m travelling on my own and it’s really just about having a place to stay, I’m fairly easy-going. The main thing is that I have a bed. But when I’m travelling for pleasure, I do take a closer look: what does the surrounding area have to offer? What’s the food like? Where can you eat well in the region? For me, the motto these days is more: less, but more intensely. I don’t necessarily need mass tourism. I want peace and quiet and to be able to really enjoy what a place has to offer. For me, it’s about what’s special in that moment.

What is interesting about this conversation is that, ultimately, the major challenges facing the hospitality industry have surprisingly little to do with beds. It’s about people. About staff whom you not only want to recruit, but also to retain. About managers who accept that what used to be considered normal is no longer automatically the right approach today. It’s about the next generation, from whom one must not only demand resilience, but also show them the world this industry can open up. And it’s about guests, whose appreciation does not end with a tip, but begins with treating those people who make hospitality possible with respect. Ungermann’s statement, ‘We are service providers, but not servants’, succinctly sums up this shift. Perhaps this is precisely one of the key tasks of modern hospitality: not less hospitality, but hospitality that remains humane on both sides.