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Sanne is Human Resources Manager Renaissance Amsterdam Airport & Moxy Hoofddorp
At certain moments in your career, you meet someone that sparkles your energy and passion for the business - Sanne Lindeman is that someone. Right off the bat Sanne starts talking about the hotel business, she chats about the industry she lives for. An energy that attracts lots of new talents to her existing and upcoming hotels.
My career in hospitality started at the Sheraton Hotel at Schiphol Airport as a Human Resources Trainee. During my interview, I expressed my wish to learn everything there is to know in the human resources department of a hotel. I soaked up as much information as possible to turn the internship into a success.
Is that what you recommend the starters of today?
Definitely! Another piece of advice I would give is to study the size and structure of the HR office. In some hotels, such as mine right now, HR is more an advising role where Head of Departments do a lot of HR aspects themselves. HR is in these cases more on the side instead of participating in the day-to-day operation. For larger hotels, such as Sheraton, the HR department consists out of different HR roles and each role has its own responsibility. They are in that sense more supporting the operations by taking care of the HR aspects completely. Obviously, it does depend on the aspects you want to learn, but I wanted to learn from a specialist in every field.
In some hotels, HR is more an advising role where Head of Departments do a lot of HR aspects themselves. HR is more on the side instead of participating in the day-to-day operation.
And did you learn everything you wanted?
You can never learn everything during one internship, but I had the opportunity to stay
working at the hotel as the HR coordinator. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, I had to leave the Sheraton and moved to Moxy/Residence Inn Houthavens and at the same time opened the Radisson Suites in Amsterdam South. This was certainly an experience I did not want to miss. The Radisson was a very special product with amazing people. This experience was new to me as I was used to working for Marriott International. Radisson has fewer standards, which gave us the opportunity to put our own signature on the day-to-day activities of the HR department.
Finally, I started my current position as HR Manager for the Renaissance Amsterdam Airport Hotel and the Moxy Hoofddorp, continuing my work experience with Marriott.
What can you tell us about the new project in The Hague?
We are currently opening a dual-brand hotel in The Hague. This will bring together Marriott’s long stay brand ‘Residence Inn’ and the playful ‘Moxy’ to the Muzentoren in The Hague. A great location right in the middle of the political area, ideal for Residence Inn, and very close to multiple attractions – fitting the young traveling guests of Moxy.
We are currently opening a dual-brand hotel in The Hague. This will bring together Marriott’s long stay brand ‘Residence Inn’ and the playful ‘Moxy’ to the Muzentoren in The Hague.
Is this the first new-build hotel you are working for?
Yes, but the Radisson Suites Amsterdam South was an opening as well. However, the Radisson was a re-build, where offices were refurbished into guestrooms.
The biggest contrast with the project in The Hague is that only the outside walls of the Muzentoren remained and the rest was formed from the ground-up. Also, the vision of Marriott on the Moxy brand is interesting to witness firsthand. To really pursue the Moxy brand you have to make sure the rooms are the same in all Moxy Hotels all over the world. Our building is spacious what would be ideal for larger guest rooms, but now we have larger corridors and regular-sized rooms.
You have started the hiring process, what are you looking for?
At the moment we have 3 open positions. But we will start hiring the operational teams very soon. If you like combining tasks instead of only working for Front Office or just for F&B and you’d like to specialize in both, the Muzentoren is the ideal place! We will train our people to be flexible to work in multiple positions in the hotel. No day will be the same!
If you like combining tasks instead of only working for Front Office or just for F&B and you’d like to specialize in both, the Muzentoren is the ideal place!