Vienna You don’t always have to be a specialist to create a company. Gerhard Wendl is a sociologist and has built up Austria’s largest hotel chain with the Jufa Holding. However, his studies shine through, for example when he says that “isolated ghetto hotel concepts” have no place in his group. Instead, his farms should be part of their environment.
“We want to help develop a region,” says the 59-year-old. He would therefore prefer it if there were ten other hotels in one place than for his company to be all alone.
His chain is aimed at families, groups and clubs – all segments that many competitors shy away from. For example, because they fear that children’s noise will drive guests away, and sports teams are not considered quiet anyway. Wendl has no problem with that. The indoor playgrounds at his Jufa hotels, for example, are open to the public. “That promotes cross-selling,” says the Austrian entrepreneur. “The parents exchange ideas and we win new guests.”
Jufa already operates ten hotels in Germany
Jufa now operates 63 hotels in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Wendl has opened two to three houses a year, and he wants to keep this pace. The next thing he has in mind is the Adriatic Sea, more precisely: a location in Italy or Croatia.
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The chain operates ten hotels in Germany. The newest company is in the Black Forest, and next year one is to be added on the Moselle. What is unusual is that Jufa not only runs holiday hotels in Germany, but also a town house in Hamburg’s HafenCity.
The chain does not only run holiday hotels in Germany.
(Photo: Jufa)
Not many tourism companies dare to approach these two segments with their different laws. However, the different target groups would balance out fluctuations in demand, says Wendl.
Jufa is the largest hotel chain in Austria. Surprisingly, the entrepreneur in the Alpine republic does not receive nearly as much attention as some Viennese hoteliers who like to do things in glamor or refer to their roots in the imperial era. “Wendl is a hotelier without airs and graces,” says hotel consultant Thomas Reisenzahn.
Wendl himself is also aware that he was considered an outsider for a long time. As an entrepreneur whose roots lie in the “budget hotel” sector, he probably didn’t bring enough stable smell with him to be widely accepted by his colleagues.
Wendl’s career started with youth hostels
His entrepreneurial career began in 1991 when he took over the management of three run-down youth hostels in Styria. He brought them into shape, the number of guests increased. Suddenly, Styrian mayors were competing to have Wendl set up a hotel in their town. “Inexpensive, but well done,” says a now grown-up Styrian about the accommodations where he spent his holidays with his parents as a child.
The company structure shows that Jufa has its roots in youth hostels. The Jufa Holding is owned by a foundation. They also own three quarters of the hotel properties. The rest belong to local investors. Wendl prefers this solution the further away a company is from the “heartland”.
Otherwise, Jufa has moved far away from its origins. Although the hotels are still aimed at the same customer segments, they are now in the three and four-star segment. With the new positioning, the group has lost guests, but obviously gained many more new ones. “With the upgrade, Wendl is pursuing a clever strategy,” says Oliver Fritz, economist at the Wifo Economic Institute in Vienna.
Wendl’s satisfaction seems all the greater that he is now also invited to speak at tourist congresses. The entrepreneur does not push himself to the fore. But if you ask him, he is also critical of his industry. This may have gone down badly in many places.
“Certain concepts don’t make sense to me,” he says, for example. By that he means the high sums that some competitors have invested in wellness facilities. In view of the high energy prices, these hoteliers would now have to consider to what extent they still want to operate their systems in the coming winter.
Pandemic cleans up the market
Wendl was also surprised about the customs of the hotel and real estate industry during the low-interest phase that has now come to an end. In Germany he was contacted by an investor who wanted to invest 500 million euros in 20 hotels. Wendl only had to tell the financier where this should happen.
In the hotel business, many short-term financiers were out and about, says Wendl. They primarily had quick resale in mind, but gave little thought to the long-term viability of the businesses.
The pandemic has partially put an end to such concepts. However, it has also left its mark on the Jufa Group. Wendl is rather taciturn on this topic. He doesn’t want to be one of the whiners in the industry, he says. But he also got a lot of gray hair because of the pandemic.
In 2019, i.e. before the outbreak of the disease, the Jufa Group registered 1.6 million overnight stays; this year it will be around 1.3 million after the 2020/21 slump. The owners of the hotel properties would have partially forgone their returns, explains Wendl. That helped during the difficult times.
1.3
million overnight stays
is what the Jufa hotels have to say this year.
With the high energy prices, however, the hotel sector has already been caught up in a new crisis. “Now we have to save energy without the guests noticing,” says Wendl.
The big question will be how travelers will react to the higher costs, especially in the coming winter. In contrast to summer holidays, ski holidays are more of a luxury, says economist Oliver Fritz. If money was tight, some would probably do without it or switch to a cheaper place to stay.
As a traditional provider of relatively cheap family holidays, Wendl expects opportunities – but of course others do the same.
Shifts are likely to occur in the travel industry next winter. Turkey, for example, is aggressively courting western and northern European guests. Escape the cold: This standard phrase has taken on a new meaning in tourism marketing.
More: Is it now worth taking a working holiday in the south to save money?