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About Laura
Born and raised in Germany, Laura grew up in a small historical town east of Frankfurt. When she finished high school at the age of 16, her teacher recommended her to consider a career in hospitality (they are still in contact and have to laugh about how right she was!) and she decided to try it out. Laura does not have a typical career path: she never went to university, nor has a bachelor or master’s degree. She built her career on working experience, being generally a very curious person and always paying attention to her co-workers, being eager to learn new things and constantly pushing herself out of her comfort zone and challenging herself to do better.
"She built her career on working experience, being a very curious person and eager to learn new things."
Can you explain us your career?
I started out as an intern in housekeeping, stewarding and F&B, where I learned all hotel operations from A-Z within three years; and found my interest in F&B (good food, delicious wines and fantastic service!). At the age of 19, I spent over two years working in F&B as a supervisor in a fine dining restaurant. I made the decision to move to Hamburg to improve my competencies and skills in the room’s discipline of a hotel, and found a job as a Front Desk Agent. Curious to learn more, I moved to the reservations department. Looking back, I would say this decision was the kickstart of my current career path. Making promotions towards assistant reservations manager, I discovered my passion for the other department I was sharing my office with: revenue management. Inspired by the revenue manager at that hotel, I took a position as revenue analyst in the Westin Hamburg. After almost three years there, I came across the revenue manager vacancy at the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel and immediately grabbed the phone to show my interest.
"Curious to learn more, I moved to the reservations department. Looking back, I would say this decision was the kickstart of my current career path."
Why did you move to Amsterdam?
Amsterdam is the perfect combination of an interesting market to work in and an amazing city to explore after work: “The water, canals, bridges, the fantastic gastronomy, cultural offers (brilliant museums!), the historical scenery, green parks, cute boutiques, flower season, bicycle culture and last but not least; the extremely open minded and lovely people from all over the world make life in Amsterdam so enjoyable for me!”
What are the tasks of a revenue manager?
As revenue manager, Laura is responsible for various tasks: from setting the correct pricing strategy to identifying market trends. Pricing, forecasting, preparing the hotel budget, improving our hotel strategy and at the end – maximize the total hotel revenue. No day is the same! During the pandemic, revenue teams had to start from scratch several times and were constantly quickly adapting to new circumstances, but Laura always remained positive. Brainstorming about creative action plans, hearing the different point of views of all hotel departments, implementing new ideas and seeing the positive results of those actions was something that always motivated her.
"What I enjoy the most is explaining other people the exciting world of revenue management!"