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"Digitalization has to make life easier. If it doesn't, it's out of place." </div>
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Florian Ultsch
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Ultsch Family Hotel Group

Florian Ultsch has a degree in economics from the University of Vienna and specialized training at Cornell University in the USA. He's been working in his parents' business since 2016. The managing directors of the Ultsch family hotel group are father Harald and mother Sonja-Sophie, while Florian Ultsch serves as director of business development. The family's hotels include the boutique hotel Schwarzer Adler and the design hotel aDLERS in Innsbruck, as well as the rapidly expanding Harry's Home hotel group with locations in Vienna, Graz, Linz, Dornbirn, Munich and Zurich, which focuses on "modern travel habits" and "temporary living" as a provider of rooms and apartments.

<h3 class="interview-question">Mr. Ultsch, your family runs several hotels and brands: what do they stand for, how do they differ and what is the overall vision of the company?</h3>
Basically, we are a traditional hotelier family with the Schwarzer Adler in Innsbruck as our flagship hotel, which has been family-owned for 100 years. It is a boutique hotel with a 500-year history that is currently being run by the fourth generation, or rather the fifth generation with my brother and myself. The counterpart is the sister hotel aDLERS, a design hotel in the "Headline Tower" in Innsbruck. Here you are above the rooftops of the city with a view of the surrounding mountains from every room, a cool rooftop bar and lots of events and clubbing - the modern counterpart to the traditional Schwarzer Adler. The third is Harry's Home Hotels, and we are expanding there rapidly. We currently have six properties in Austria, Germany and most recently in Zurich, Switzerland. In terms of the company's vision, the expansion of Harry's Home Hotels will certainly continue. We have ten more locations planned and under construction over the next three to four years.

We run all three brands as a family. The nice thing about it is that you always have three different challenges to switch between and they always offer something new.

<h3 class="interview-question">How many people do you employ in Marketing/Online Marketing & Communications? Is this area centralized for the whole company?</h3>
We don't have a big marketing machine in the background, and we work quite efficiently in this area. There are currently three people: two marketing managers, one of whom is responsible for the Schwarzer Adler and aDLERS, and one for Harry's Home. There is also a content manager. We are very selective with our strategy. In the past we tried a lot and had a broad base, but now we have specialized and focused on certain methods.

<h3 class="interview-question">Is there one person in charge of digital strategy?</h3>
The bottom line is that the strategies are always developed and agreed upon by the entire team. We have our weekly marketing meetings, which are quite intense and also discuss strategy. There is no classic digital strategist and each marketing manager is responsible for the brand. We have all-rounders who are masters of PR, classic print marketing, online marketing and social media. That's what's so attractive about this job, that you have this variety.

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"Especially in the area of social media, we focus heavily on emotions—because people no longer respond to traditional advertising."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Florian Ultsch</div></div></div>

In Conversation with Florian Ultsch, Hotelgroup Family Ultsch (Innsbruck/AT)

Social Media and the Future of Hotel Distribution

<h3 class="interview-question">How is digital marketing/digital sales developing at your company? Which online sales channels and advertising platforms or partners do you rely on (in addition to your website)?</h3>
Especially in the area of social media, we try to rely heavily on emotions, because people no longer respond to classic advertising. It's all about emotions and stories from employees and guests that convey the atmosphere and special moments. We want to build an image through social media and we are very selective when it comes to advertising and we like to work with print media. In addition, we are mainly active in the areas of newsletters, website and SEO (search engine optimization).

<h3 class="interview-question">Is there a strategy to promote direct & online bookings?</h3>
Depending on the location, we decide to go to the market with certain price differences, we want to offer advantages when people book through our websites and try to make the whole thing as simple as possible. All of our revenue management is highly digitized and automated, and of course we have a revenue management system that supports us. We are very agile in this area, sometimes changing prices on an hourly basis.
We have also started a new project: We are going to develop our own booking platform for Harry's Home. The product is so complex and flexible that there is no third party that allows us to deliver the product to the customer the way we want. We are not developing this platform as a competitor to the OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), but as an alternative for those who simply want to be more flexible.

<h3 class="interview-question">You are present and active with your hotels on Facebook and especially on Instagram. Is there a clearly defined strategy for social media communication?</h3>
Each marketing manager decides independently for each brand. This gives us more flexibility and heterogeneity, because if everything were the same, it would be boring.

The most important thing is the local performance, the product, otherwise guests would not come back. Our focus is on bed, bath and comfort, in other words, what is practical in the room. As I mentioned earlier, our focus in social media is on image and emotion. We don't want to overwhelm or annoy people with advertising or promotions. Our newsletters are also geared towards that, with stories and events like the Bregenz Festival or in Munich, where we managed to get a contingent of Oktoberfest tables. Stories, products and offers like that really hit the mark.

<h3 class="interview-question">What does "digitalization" in the hotel industry mean to you? What opportunities and risks do you see?</h3>
I think there is a very big risk in digitalization. Measure and target is the key to success here, because there are enough examples of how it can be overdone. My favorite example of automation and digitization is the classic light switch: If I, as a guest in a hotel room, have a tablet to set my different lighting scenarios and light colors, but I no longer know how to turn the light on and off, I think that is overkill. The guest - especially shortly after waking up or after a long journey with jet lag - just wants a mechanical lever to turn the light on and off. The other is a gimmick that, instead of delighting the guest, does the opposite. You don't have to have a tablet in every room, because there are enough generations or countries of origin where this is not yet so widespread. 

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"Digitization has to make life easier, and if it doesn't, it's out of place."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Florian Ultsch</div></div></div>

<h3 class="interview-question">If you could wish for one digital solution, what would it be?</h3>
I would most like to simplify check-in and digitize the European bureaucracy of the registration form. In Austria, there is currently a move to bring the registration form to a tablet and sign it there. In the past, you always had to print out the registration form, have it physically signed, file it and keep it for seven years. It is clear that this is not in the interest of the environment and sustainability. The important thing is to simplify the whole check-in process so that the staff can spend more time with the guests.

<h3 class="interview-question">What is the status of "digitalization" in the Ultsch Family Hotels and what are the next steps/focuses on the short to medium term?</h3>
We have a "digital wave" behind us with the new websites and are now in the process of developing the new booking channel. We have a lot of software to support the staff, both with the revenue management system and with a lot of interfaces. We are certainly a leader in this area.

We were also the first in Austria to have the menu on the tablet. When we opened aDLERS in 2013, every guest at the table or at the bar received a tablet with the entire food and beverage menu. But from the beginning, we deliberately didn't let people order from the tablet, so that the human element wasn't lost.It was a lot of work to manage the content, but it's a really good app. However, we found that people still like to have a nice menu in their hands, so we decided to go from a full menu to a wine list. That way we can use the tablets to tell stories about the wines and go deeper.

<h3 class="interview-question">What projects come to mind when you think of new, outstanding hotel concepts around the world?</h3>
or me, there are four defining concepts: Moxy, Motel One, 25hours and citizenM. The Motel One group has completely changed the market and is now back to developing the original concept. citizenM is for me the market leader, especially in the area of social media.

<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"When it comes to influencers, we are selective, preferring micro-influencers over big influencers to better reach our target audiences. "</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Florian Ultsch</div></div></div>