The Pulse by apaleo: The Voice of Hospitality Tech Leaders

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder & CEO Ulrich Pillau and special guest star Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vanessa Borkmann, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO's Head of Research in the field of Hotel and Tourism & SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences' Professor for Tourism with focus on Hotel Management.Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through an inspiring conversation about the future of hospitality through technology. Other areas we dive into include where hotel technology is making the biggest difference, understanding the value of a brand, and so much more! Listen to the episode to find out more!Who's Prof. Dr.-Ing Vanessa Borkmann?Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vanessa Borkmann heads the research work in the field of hotel and tourism at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart. She is also a Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management at the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences. She is the initiator and project manager of the joint research project FutureHotel and of the research networks Alpen FutureHotel Y and Future Museum. In 2011 she received the "Innovation Award for Technology Management" at Fraunhofer IAO, in 2017 the "Hospitality Innovation Award" in recognition of significant achievements that have had a lasting impact on the international hotel industry. In many hotel development projects, she is responsible for the conception and implementation of innovative solutions, e.g. for the digitalized, mobile customer journey (including room selection, check-in/out process) at the Hotel Schani in Vienna. She develops and researches concepts and solutions for innovative buildings, innovation- and performance-enhancing spatial environments, and service innovations with a focus on the application fields of hotel and tourism. She is a globally recognized expert for innovation and digitalization in the tourism industry. Vanessa Borkmann is editor and author of numerous scientific studies, books, and specialist publications, as well as a keynote speaker at international events.

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder Stephan Wiesener and special guest star Rita Varga the  Raizup's CEO and Co-Founder at Hotel Resbot.Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through an inspiring conversation around diversity in regards to funding and entrepreneurship with AI/Tech. Other areas we dive into include unconscious biases around hiring and funding, inclusion in the workplace, and as well as how to help your team and increase their success and diversity.  Listen to the episode to find out more!Who's Rita?Based in Berlin, Rita is the Managing Director of Raizup, a personalized career pathing platform, fueled by community and Founding Team Member of HERA by Hotel ResBot, AI-powered Email Reservation Assistant for Hotels.Before shifting focus to EdTech, Rita has been involved with mainly travel technology, in various sales and account management roles with organizations, like BudgetPlaces, Vueling Airlines, Availpro / D-Edge, Infor. Her work with Raizup (WHTT) led to her being selected as Phocuswright Young Leader 30 under 35 twice.Rita is also a certified #IamRemarkable by Google trainer, empowering women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond, thereby breaking modesty norms and glass ceilings.Originally from Hungary, Rita lived in 6 countries during the past 18 years andis mother to a young daughter.“With individual action and collective effort, we can change the world.”“The biggest advocate for your career is yourself. Learning how to talk about your accomplishments and promote yourself is part of the journey to self-confidence. It is part of my personal mission to thrive sustainable change and it starts with you.”

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder Martin Reichenbach and special guest stars KITRO's Founders Anastasia Hofmann & Naomi MacKenzie.Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through an inquiring conversation about how Anastasia and Naomi found their passions in the hospitality industry, grew their own company from the ground up, created an amazing product when everyone told them it was impossible, and how they built a team on success and diversity. Listen to the episode to find out more!KITROFounded in 2017, KITRO is a Swiss startup embarking on a global challenge by harnessing the power of technology and using it for sustainable change. With artificial intelligence as the foundation, KITRO offers an automated food waste data collection and analysis solution that can be adopted by food and beverage outlets worldwide.Created by hospitality insiders, the company strives to bring back the value of valuable resources, so they are appreciated and not wasted.Want to check out more KITRO?Check out KITRO's website hereor their LinkedIn page here

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder Benjamin Schmid and special guest stars Stayery's Laura Neuberger, and detco's Sebastian Constantin. Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through an inquiring conversation about how Stayery chose to create their own app within the apaleo platform with the help of detco and why. The takeaway is that making it custom and simple for not only your team but also your guest starts with your Tech Stack. Listen to the episode to find out more!Who is Laura Neuberger?As Marketing & Brand Manager at STAYERY, Laura Neuberger is responsible for the strategic development of the brand and the advancement of the customer journey. Joining STAYERY in 2019, Laura brought in her hospitality expertise to initially set up the reservations and distribution department, which she is now heading alongside her marketing role.Laura discovered her passion for marketing while studying Hotel management in the Netherlands. Prior to joining STAYERY, she was leading the digital marketing strategy for all German properties at Hyatt Hotels. She also has previously worked in Marketing & Guests Relations for Hilton.Want to see more about Laura? Check out her LinkedIn profile here.You can also connect with the team at Stayery on LinkedIn here.Or check out the Stayery website here.Who is Sebastian Constantin?Sebastian Constantin, together with Jens Frischen, is one of the founders of detco (www.detco.de). They met during their computer science study in Bremen and driven by the idea to automate and digitalize workflows for small to mid-sized businesses, they started in 2005 their company. Very early on detco started to work with customers in the hospitality business and managed to develop a variety of mobile and web-based solutions ranging from highly customized booking engines, to fully automated bidirectional channel managers, CRS systems, in house tracking apps for housekeeping, POS terminals as well as mobile hotel access and mobile check-in apps. At the moment they operate with a team of 12 dedicated developers from Bremen and Hamburg (Germany). Want to see more about Sebastian? Check out his XING profile here.

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder & COO Martin Reichenbach and special guest star Marco Nussbaum, hospitality industry expert,Hotelier, Entrepreneur, Podcaster, and Author. Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through a spicy and revealing conversation about leading through mistake culture and where the future of hospitality strategy will be headed.Who is Marco Nussbaum?Marco Nussbaum has over 30 years of hotel business, as an apprentice, as a manager, as an entrepreneur. You could more than say that Marco Nussbaum knows the industry! In the specialist media, he is considered a “controlled rule-breaker”. He always questions the status quo, that of others, and his own. With a wide range of talents, Marco is a Hotelier, Entrepreneur, Podcaster, Author, and Hospitality Expert.In exceptional times such as the corona pandemic, when it comes to questions of crisis or change management, he is closely involved. When it comes to the future of digitization, he set trends early on and is also here to help others. In his hotels, Marco Nussbaum helped to develop, implement - and live digitization in various areas. His experience makes him a sparring partner to advance the transformation of a company into the digital age.Now he passes on his knowledge because knowledge is not a possession for him. He is an advisor and accelerator. Because where others are now, he was too. He was a trainee, manager at various management levels in large hotel chains, co-founder, and CEO. The tuition he paid on his path to success was valuable, as were the teachings of his mentors.Spurred on by the great response to his articles in industry magazines, he started a much-noticed blog “This is how hotel works today” in 2009. He attracted the greatest attention in 2015 with his open letter to Booking.com boss Peter Verhoeven, published in the blog, in which he accused him of guest-napping and brand bidding. Until then, no one had approached the online booking giant so directly. In 2020 Marco Nussbaum will say goodbye to his blog in order to devote himself even more to his podcast. But the posts are still being viewed and shared today.After co-authoring several books on the hotel and tourism industry, he will publish his first book as author and editor in 2021. His upcoming book appears in his own publishing house and will be out in Spring 2021.Marco’s Profilelinkedin.com/in/marconussbaumWebsitesungefiltert.com  (Personal Website)so-geht-hotel-heute.com  (Blog)poly-hohwacht.com  (Company Website)

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder & COO Martin Reichenbach and special guest star Marloes Knippenberg, CEO, Kerten Hospitality. Your host Alicia Wahlberg will take you through an innovative and revealing conversation about expansion and culture.Who is Marloes Knippenberg?The award-winning CEO of Kerten Hospitality, Marloes Knippenberg, has established the organization as a disruptive, dynamic international hospitality group dedicated to the management of mixed-use developments in key global destinations.   Her journey in the hospitality field started with Hilton where Marloes held senior operational and commercial management positions for over a decade. At the helm of Kerten Hospitality, which she developed and launched with the backing of Kerten, an Ireland-based investment vehicle, Marloes has grown the organization’s operational and pipeline portfolio from one brand in one country to 12 aspirational lifestyle-driven concepts in 35+ development projects across 3 continents.   Known for her mentorship empowering the next generation of hoteliers, the topic of sustainability within the larger context of ecosystem’s build and the creation of “authentic” experiences in “’ Cities of the Future” developments, Marloes continuously pioneers the role of innovation across the whole value chain of investors, owners, and the hospitality leadership. Empowerment of female hospitality leaders within WiH Group has been her latest commitment. She has been a mentor for students in hospitality schools and has been a Co-Chair of the Student Hospitality Challenge by Hotelschool The Hague. She sits on the Advisory Board Bench, a global events’ organizer, and is a Vice-Chair role of GRI’s Hospitality Club connecting C-Suite real estate and Infrastructure leaders from around the world. Marloes serves on the Advisory Boards of flagship events like IHIDC – Vienna, AHIC - UAE, HITEC - Dubai, IHIF - Berlin and is frequently invited to contribute Thought Leadership to industry forums: ITHIC - Italy, SHIC - Saudi Arabia, HOST – London and The Retail Summit, Dubai. Most recently and for the second year in a row, Marloes was listed in the Hotelier Middle East Power List 2020 ranking the region’s most influential industry professionals. She has been on Hotelier Middle East 25 'women in hospitality power list' listing women who are making waves in the industry. She is the Winner of CEO Today’s 2020 Business Women of the Year recognition in hospitality.  Want to learn more about Kerten Hospitality? Check out their website at: www.kertenhospitality.com

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's Founder & CBDO Philip von Ditfurth and special guest stars Dr. Josef Vollmayr and Nils Ziehn from Limehome GmbH. Join your host Alicia Wahlberg for an innovative and revealing conversation about scalability and automation.Guest Speakers:Dr. Josef VollmayrFounder & Managing Director Limehome GmbHAs Managing Director, Dr. Josef Vollmayr is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, further development of the product, national and international expansion, as well as marketing and finance. In 2018, he co-founded Limehome, a radical technology-based hotel concept that can offer fully equipped suites at prices of a standard hotel room by fully automating all processes, with Lars Stäbe.After spending more than 500 nights in various hotels around the world during his time as a management consultant at McKinsey, Vollmayr couldn't let go of the idea of developing a concept that eliminates waiting times, combines modern design with a feeling of home while promising the standards of an established hotel brand. Within less than 2 years, the idea became an established concept that provides a novel hotel experience to more than 50,000 satisfied guests at more than 40 locations in Germany and Austria. By 2021, at least 40 more locations in DACH and Spain will be added, which will be operated via the technology platform.Josef Vollmayr is the author of scientific articles in marketing, was a lecturer for statistics, CRM, and empirical methods at several universities, and as a management consultant has supported companies from consumer industries and private equity worldwide in the development and implementation of their growth strategies. Privately, he invests in real estate and as an angel investor in tech start-ups and likes to spend his free time by the sea - to test other hotel concepts, but also to keep fit by surfing. The former competitive athlete (decathlon) is considered an expert in prop and travel tech industries, organizational development, and growth strategies.Nils ZiehnVP Product & BI at Limehome GmbHNils Ziehn is responsible for digital product development and business intelligence at Limehome as VP Product & BI. In his role as VP Product, his focus at Limehome is on maximizing customer satisfaction, expanding digital products, and developing modern, digital methods for optimized price development and identifying new locations. While studying Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, Ziehn discovered his passion for digital products and founded his first startup. After selling two of his startups, he deepened his expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science in his role as Senior Vice President Data at online shopping platform Stylight. Before joining Limehome in March 2020, Ziehn served as Chief Technology Officer at Homelike, a booking portal for furnished business apartments. -------------------------------Want to learn more about Limehome? Check out their website here.And for property owners, you'll want to check out this page. Want to learn more about the  Hack@thon with apaleo & Limehome going on right now? Click here!

Join us this time for an exciting conversation with apaleo's CEO & Co-Founder Ulrich Pillau and guest star Chief Evangelist and Head of Strategy for IDeaS Klaus Kohlmayr. Join your Host Alicia Wahlberg for an innovative and revealing conversation about the future of Revenue Management.Who is Klaus Kohlmayr?As Chief Evangelist and Head of Strategy for IDeaS, Klaus role is to challenge existing thought processes, create stimulating conversations and help bring  live the future of Revenue Management and Pricing in hospitality and travel.Klaus has been working to challenge the status quo for the last 20+ years. He re-joined IDeaS from TSA Solutions where he led the company’s global commercial, operations, and strategic partnership initiatives. Previously with IDeaS he started the companies’ global consulting division and led teams that partnered with leading hotel companies to jointly develop the world’s first group price optimization and function space revenue management solutions as well as requirements for new pricing methodologies. An advocate of lifelong learning, Klaus holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management, has studied business at Henley Management College, real estate investment and asset management at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration; and finance and strategy at the Singapore Management University. Curious to hear more from Klaus? Check out his podcast:Unconstrained Conversations Podcast https://ideas.com/podcasts/

Join apaleo’s Uli and Alicia alongside our first guest star, citizenM’s Michael Levie, for an exciting conversation all about Brand DNA, Company Values, Tech Platforms, and so much more.Who’s Michael Levie?Upon graduating from Essec with an MBA in hospitality management (IMHI Cornell / Essec), Michael worked for various international hotel chains including Sonesta International Hotels Corporation and NH Hoteles all over the world. As Vice-President of Operations, he managed large hotel portfolios. Michael also worked for SynXis, where he started and headed up the European office. Michael Levie is currently a founding partner and in charge of operations at citizenM hotels.

Hi friends, welcome to an all-new podcast "The Pulse by apaleo: The Voice of Hospitality Tech Leaders". This week on Friday, February 12th, we will air our first episode. Be sure to subscribe to get all the latest episodes wherever you find your podcasts. To get even more exciting information, be sure to check out our website at www.apaleo.com so you can subscribe to our newsletter.