Hello Justin, welcome to HotelNetSolutions. You will be working for us in the home office. After a two-week flying visit with us in Berlin, you have already arrived at the other end of Germany.
Exactly. As nice as I found it at your place, I much prefer it here at home.
Where exactly are you from?
I come from the Rhine-Neckar region. In fact, I live in Hockenheim. Most people are probably most familiar with it because Formula 1 and other motorsport events often stop off at the Hockenheimring.
Are you also interested in motorsport in your private life?
There is definitely a great interest in motorsport. I just love driving around in my car. Especially in the evening when the sun goes down, it’s somehow a particularly great feeling of freedom. Friends, good music and a few good drinks – non-alcoholic, of course. 😉 I’m a big BMW lover, whether old or new cars.
It really is a very special hobby. But I can certainly understand the freedom you’re talking about. We’ll come to your hobbies in more detail later. First of all, I’d like to know what you did before HNS and how you came to us?
I did my training in the traditional way as a hotel specialist. At the time, I really wanted to work with people so that I could get more out of myself. During my training, I also worked in sales at Deutsche Vermögensberatung. I really enjoyed that and I could definitely imagine working in sales again at some point. But it has to be a cool product that I fully support. As that wasn’t the case back then, I ended up working at the reception desk of the Hotel Motodrom in Hockenheim after my apprenticeship. My last position was as reception manager. After many great memories and the people I got to know, I decided to leave the hotel industry. I wanted to have more time for friends and family again, who I often didn’t see because shift work didn’t allow it. That’s why I’m now trying a traditional 9 to 5 job 😉
What excites you most about working for us?
In any case, that I can learn even more about digitalisation in the hotel industry. We are making more and more progress in this area in Germany and this will be even more noticeable in the hotel industry over the next few years than it already is. That’s why I’m excited to be a part of it all. At HNS, I find it particularly remarkable how interlinked everything is. On the one hand, we have bookability via our own hotel website. On the other hand, every hotel should of course also be represented on other booking platforms in order to have a balanced sales mix.
In support, you will definitely get to experience the full range. What exactly will your day-to-day work look like?
To start with, I’m going to set up a lot of hotels. This will familiarise me with the basis of our systems. Later on, I’ll be training new and existing customers. But daily support is also part of the job. That means recording error messages and, of course, solving them.
Ok, now let’s get to the really interesting part and the one I enjoy the most. To be honest, we only do the interviews with you to find out more about you privately. You seem to be a pretty relaxed person?
Relaxed and honest sums it up pretty well. I’m pretty direct. If I don’t like something, I say so and don’t keep it inside me for too long. At the same time, I also have a good sense of humour and am not angry with anyone if a joke is made at my expense. I’m more likely to laugh along with them.
Any fun fact you would like to share with us?
Good question… I love good food, coffee etc. That in itself is not really a fun fact, I know. But I can eat a lot of ice cream without any problems, especially when it comes to lemon ice cream. I once devoured 1kg of sorbet ice cream out of nowhere. Even my girlfriend, who knows me very well by now, was a bit taken aback 😉.
1kg of ice-cream is really cool. Although sorbet is almost water.
I think that too. But of course I also look after my health. Eating well is really important. I also enjoy going to the gym – whether it’s in the morning or at night, alone or with friends.
There are many beautiful places in the Rhine-Neckar region – just think of Heidelberg or Speyer, for example. Do you have any recommendations on where people should definitely go?
We have many good cities in the area. You’ve probably already mentioned the two biggest highlights, Heidelberg and Speyer. But Karlsruhe and even Mannheim also have their beautiful sides. You can really experience a lot. I usually go out with my girlfriend or friends to explore the region, have a coffee or just chat.
When you work in the tourism industry, you usually have some kind of favourite destination. What are they for you?
That would definitely be Tokyo & Mykonos. I want to go to Tokyo because I like cities with lots of lighting and beautiful architecture. And Mykonos, because it just looks so beautiful by the sea. All the white houses. It looks breathtaking. But as I suffer from a slight fear of flying, it could be a real challenge.
You just have to fly often enough and then you’ll get used to it. I know what I’m talking about. 😉 Although, for sustainability reasons, you might want to take the train more often … Finally, one last question: how do you get 1,000 Instagram followers? Julia, our social media manager, was almost green with envy when she saw that.
I really enjoy dressing well. I love looking around for new styles and clothes. Every now and then you can see some of it on my Instagram account and so one thing leads to another. I’m also really enthusiastic about video and image editing. That helps too, of course.
If you no longer like it in Support, you know where to find us. Thank you very much for the short interview. It was really very informative. 😉
