Muenster It was a day entirely to Kurt Zech’s taste. Together with two of his children and his long-term partner at the Bremen Atlantic Group, the real estate entrepreneur Joachim Linnemann, the head of the Zech Group set out for the Westphalian Münster in the best late summer weather to launch the company’s latest flagship: the Atlantic Hotel Münster, a four-star hotel with 224 rooms and suites in the very best downtown location. After two years of construction, “a wonderful feeling,” says Zech.
It wasn’t his only hotel opening these days. A few hours earlier, the managing director of his group, Markus Griesenbeck, had given the go-ahead for “unique by Atlantic Bremen”: a house with 97 three-star rooms in the middle of the new tobacco district in the south of the Hanseatic city.
The opening of the second “unique” in Kiel is planned for autumn. Further Atlantic hotels in Heidelberg and Erfurt as well as a resort on Lake Tegernsee are currently under construction or in planning.
Such an investment plan in the midst of the pandemic? Yet Germany’s business travel and conference hotel industries are in an unprecedented crisis; According to the Association of German Travel Management, 83.3 percent fewer business trips took place last year than in 2019 – that means a decrease in overnight spending from 15.6 billion euros in 2019 to 3.1 billion in 2020.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
And there is no improvement in sight anytime soon: Moritz Dietl, managing partner of the consulting firm Treugast, which specializes in the hotel industry, sees the “city hotel industry facing massive problems” and does not expect “in most A-locations to reach the pre-crisis level before 2024/2025”.
Markus Griesenbeck knows that too, but he doesn’t let that put him off. “Of course we will not reach the pre-Corona level anytime soon,” says the managing director of the Atlantic Hotels Group, which has so far comprised 18 hotels, “currently we have 40 to 50 percent of a normal year – at least.” The hotel manager is therefore leaving from “there will be a shakeout”.
Solid equity ratio of 35 percent
But what then drives his employer to invest in a business that is in its worst crisis in the Federal Republic of Germany?
“We stand by our hotel investments in the long term,” explains Kurt Zech with the calmness of a professional accountant. And as if this were also a matter of course, he adds: “We also have access to good properties.” “We” means the man who – in all modesty – describes himself as a “Bremen businessman”, his family business, the Zech Group.
In 1979 Kurt took over the company founded by his grandfather Gustav Zech in 1909 from his father – according to legend, with three employees. He has persistently built it into an important company for construction, project and hotel development. Today the man, who is said to have a strong courage to take risks, has more than 11,000 employees, total assets of 1.84 billion euros and a solid equity ratio of 35 percent.
The four-star hotel with 224 rooms and suites recently opened after two years of construction.
(Photo: Zech Group)
The fact that Kurt Zech can get “good properties”, such as those in Münster now, should contribute significantly to his success. The new house is in the best inner city location between the train station and the pedestrian zone, only a few meters away from the promenade that surrounds the center, Münster’s secret bicycle highway.
This also applies to the other locations. The site of the historic cigarette factory in the new tobacco quarter in Bremen is framed by restaurants, sports and cultural activities as well as living and working spaces. And opposite the Atlantic Heidelberg announced for 2022, a municipal congress center is being built at the same time.
Hotel name cannot be protected as a trademark
So it’s no wonder that Kurt Zech answered the question about the expansion of the hotel company founded in 2001 as follows: “What sets us apart: We are driven by opportunities, we always look at properties in attractive locations.” emblazoned directly on the Kiel Fjord.
Even with projects that he does not realize himself, Zech pays meticulous attention to the location: The luxury hotel “Louis”, which he took over in September 2020, is a pearl right on Munich’s Viktualienmarkt; The former Columbia Hotels in Travemünde and Wilhelmshaven, which have been part of the group since 2015, are real creampieces directly on the North and Baltic Seas, and this also applies to the Kiel Yacht Club, which joined the family in 2018.
Nevertheless, the group is still quite unknown, with the exception of the north. That is the price for the thing with the “opportunity”: A common corporate design does not exist here. “Our planning rounds always begin with the location,” says Christian Olufemi, who has worked for the group with the Olufemi Moser architecture firm for twelve years, “always with a blank sheet of paper and a relatively large amount of leeway”.
But above all: never without Kurt Zech personally. “Hotel is a very emotional subject,” he says, “something where you can be very creative. I take the time to have fun with Freud, and planning round after planning round we are getting better and better. “
Kurt Zech has big goals, says Markus Griesenbeck, confirming the boss’s love for his hotels. “The aim is always to be the first house on the square.” Unfortunately, the name “Atlantic” does not really score. Although it arouses the longing for travel, it is not unmistakable: the name is a so-called establishment name – and therefore not a brand that can be protected.
Locations with a lot of potential
A look at the hotel crisis shows that a good location alone is not a guarantee of survival. But Treugast advisor Moritz Dietl notes: “Someone like Zech invests in the property, in the stones, which in the worst case can be reused. The situation is different for operators who have to pay a lease to third parties. “
In addition, Zech is investing in B and C cities with a lot of leisure tourism potential. “This allows a healthy business mix, as you also have strong medium-sized companies in these cities that produce stable hotel demand,” says Dietl. In many cases, they are much less affected by the crisis and recover more quickly.
Markus Lewe, Lord Mayor of the medium-sized city of Münster, seems to share this optimism. At the end of his welcome speech at the new hotel, he raises his glass to the drink and family and belts out a warm Westphalian: “Glück auf, Atlantic!”
More: German hospitality industry takes a deep breath – best sales since the beginning of the crisis