ACHAT Hotels is a German Operator that has been in business for over 32 years since 1991, currently leasing over 50 hotels across Germany in the three-to-four-star sector, serving both corporate and leisure markets across its two main brands, ACHAT Hotels, and LOGINN Hotels & Apartments.
ACHAT, the operator’s main brand, is known for its flexibility and is perfectly positioned for further growth by taking over and converting existing hotels into the portfolio. LOGINN Hotels & Apartments, meanwhile, is focused primarily on new build hotel developments.
But across both brands, the common element is a strong focus on people.
“’People’ means both our guests and our employees,” says Philipp von Bodman, a partner and Managing Director in the firm. “We want to be recognized by the level of our service, creating memorable stays in our hotels.”
Creating those stays is possible thanks to ACHAT Hotels’ diversified portfolio which means each of the properties it manages has an individual identity that makes it a more attractive overnight stay than more generic corporate hotel chains.
“We want to protect the local spirit of the communities in which we operate,” von Bodman says. “So, the product itself can be diverse, but those softer qualities are the same across our hotels.”
Good Practices in Uncertain Times
When we talk to von Bodman our conversation does not linger much on the effects of the Covid pandemic. Like most hotel companies ACHAT Hotels found it to be a challenging time, and like most hotel companies ACHAT has seen rapid recovery once restrictions were lifted.
But the lessons learned in the pandemic, and the uncertainty that followed it, stay with the business today.
“Over the last three years we have looked at and deeply analysed how we do business, and how that business is being generated,” von Bodman tells us. 
“We no longer base our strategies on historic figures and assume they will remain the same for the future. The business has become more spontaneous and more short-term orientated.”
This is partly due to changing behaviour among guests. In the post-Covid era, people are much less likely to book a holiday far in advance.
However, in other areas, ACHAT Hotels is determined to take the long view.
“Sustainability is one of the top key topics that we as a company are focusing on,” von Bodman says. “Personally, I believe it is important we do our share. Sooner or later our guests and our employees will judge us by the efforts we make in this area. Until the end of 2023, each of our hotels will be certified by an internationally recognised sustainability label.”
For this reason, ACHAT Hotels has created its own department and team in the head office and has been working with the internationally recognised Considerate Group, an agency that helps companies create strategies and long-term plans around sustainability. At the same time, von Bodman has overseen the creation of teams in each hotel to push local sustainability efforts while implementing corporate ideas.
“It is a diverse and vast topic, and while we believe everybody can help, some people enjoy digging deeper into these topics at ground level. So, we didn’t want a top-down approach,” explains von Bodman.
To a certain extent, ACHAT Hotels is limited in what it can do, as a manager and lease tenant of hotels, it does not own any real estate itself.
“But as an operator for our guests and our employees we can implement improvements in numerous areas, reducing energy consumption and waste products,” von Bodman points out.
As well as taking care of its environmental impact, ACHAT Hotels also values the Social and Governance aspects of ESG. As von Bodman explains, “We want to run the company in such a way that each partner we’re working with knows what’s important for us and how we want to handle a situation.”
Digital Hospitality
As well as a more flexible, yet sustainable approach to the hospitality industry, the other requirement for modern hoteliers is that they adapt to the digital age.
ACHAT Hotels is ahead of the curve in that regard, and once again, the lessons from the Covid pandemic have been a factor.
“Covid gave us the opportunity, but also, the necessity of reviewing every operational process that we have, both front as also back-of-house,” von Bodman insists. “Over the last three years, we have looked at how we do business, and how that business is being generated. We looked at the expectations of our guests, the potential of our employees, and how we can digitalise our background processes to work better and more efficiently than if they were done manually.”
ACHAT Hotels has established a task force to analyse all its operations through this lens, examining revenue management, guest journeys, and communication tools. That task force has strategically established a plan across all areas of the company to enact in the next six to 12 months, adapting and implementing new tools to create a new way of doing business.
While often digitalisation and automation processes are introduced to reduce a company’s reliance on manpower, it is certainly easy to see why a company would do that when staffing is a rarer commodity than ever, for von Bodman it is not about replacing staff but redirecting their efforts.
“We are not digitising to reduce our headcount, but to give our employees more time to focus on what is most important to us,” he tells us.
“If the employee is stuck behind a desk doing admin, that employee is not catering to the guests to satisfy their demands.”
It is clear that von Bodman knows what he should be focusing his efforts on. He has been on a real journey since he joined the company, one that has clarified his priorities.
“I started here in September 2018, as managing partner. We had 25 hotels and used 2019 to set up and professionalise the head office here in Mannheim.
We carried out a major rebranding and launched a new website with a new look and feel,” von Bodman recalls. “In 2020 we were ready to really grow our portfolio. Covid slowed down that process slightly, but nevertheless, we doubled our portfolio of hotels in the last 4 years to currently 50 hotels with close to 6.000 rooms and apartments across Germany. We have the right structure to continue our growth story and create success in each of our properties moving forward.”
As a German operator, and a German brand, ACHAT Hotels has demonstrated the flexibility to adapt freely to uncertain circumstances, giving real estate owners the assurance they need. By maintaining a diverse portfolio, ACHAT Hotels can offer those real estate owners the opportunity to take advantage of properties that do not quite fit into other portfolios. ACHAT Hotels is a very flexible brand and therefore can be much more attractive from an investment cost point-of-view for real estate owners looking for a new operator.
