TSBG Host Families – The Hotel Gollner & family Gerlach

A special feature of the Austrian tourism industry is that the majority of Austrian businesses are family-run – there is the senior boss and the senior manager and the junior generation with the junior boss and the junior manager. They all have their place and their position.

Each one of them is an important cogwheel that keeps the business running, contributing to the company’s success with their own talents and strengths. And in this interplay of generations, the next generation grows up and learns from the very beginning what it means to be part of a family business. In our more than 75 years of school history, we have been able to train several generations of host families and provide them with the theoretical foundation, which they have then successfully applied in the family business after one or two internships and continue to do so. In this issue, we bring the Gerlach family from Hotel Gollner in the heart of Graz to the fore:

Every successful business begins with the first courageous step on which the following one, and the one after that, etc. are set. And each of these steps should be well considered and the direction you take should have future potential so that something can grow and flourish. The Gerlach family business, Hotel Gollner, has been growing for generations.
It all started with the great-grandfather, who ran the Gollner butcher’s shop on the current hotel site in the centre of Graz.

Daughter Marliese Gollner, later Gerlach, then opened the Hotel Gollner in 1961 with a lot of drive, vision and foresight, in the middle of the post-war economic miracle, and thus laid the actual foundation for the family business. From the very beginning, the hotel has stood for a hospitality culture full of exclusivity, quality and a personal touch.
Because what makes the hotel so unique is the fact that the business is not only owned by the family, but that the family also works so ‘close to the guest’ on a daily basis, is present, knows the wishes, preferences and needs of their guests and always tries to exceed them with a great deal of passion, dedication and professionalism.

The family, above all Christina Gerlach, has been successfully managing the Hotel Gollner for over 30 years.

 A lot has happened during this time. Right at the beginning of her time as hotel manager, in 1995, the hotel was extensively renovated. The next change was not long in coming: in 2003, the offer was expanded to include flats and the unique rose garden.

An extension to the main building followed in 2018, as well as the renovation of the roof terrace in 2020 and the modernisation of the fitness and sauna facilities in 2022.
Today, Hotel Gollner offers 61 beautiful rooms and spacious suites in various categories, seminar facilities, its own hotel garage, a wellness area that invites you to relax and a spacious roof terrace with one of the most beautiful panoramic views in Graz city centre. The people of Graz are also regularly drawn to the Hotel Gollner to enjoy the extensive, regional breakfast buffet.

Christina Gerlach is already passing on her knowledge and expertise to the next generation. Her two sons, Michael and Alexander Gerlach, are expected to take over in the next few years and follow in her big footsteps. Both Alexander and Michael are successful graduates of the Bad Gleichenberg Tourism College.

Alexander and his wife Carina, who is also a graduate of the tourism college, have been working and helping to shape the fortunes of their own business for over 5 years. Alexander previously worked in St. Moritz, Vienna and Munich in the top hotel industry in the areas of service, reception and event management.

Today, he is responsible for managing the reception and all the big, important and small, fine tasks as junior manager.

Carina has worked in flagship establishments in Fuschl, Vienna, Munich and Nuremberg. She gained valuable experience in the same areas, completed a Business Development Management Trainee Programme at Hilton and reached the position of Head of Department in Event Management. At Hotel Gollner, she is responsible for managing the payroll, marketing and accounting departments.

Michael explored the world immediately after graduating from college, familiarising himself with different cultures, management styles and great personalities at the renowned Willard in Washington D.C. and the Intercontinental Dubai, among others. He is currently gaining further international experience as Guest Relations Manager at the newly opened luxury hotel in Lucerne, Mandarin Oriental Palace.

The Hotel Gollner employs around 20 employees, including Alexander and Carina Gerlach as well as two other graduates of the Bad Gleichenberg tourism schools: Sophia Fastl, who graduated from the college in June 2023 and works at the reception desk, and Anastasiia Ryndiuk, a 2016 graduate of the hotel management school, who is responsible for the breakfast service. The secret of the family’s success lies in their vision and creativity and in the awareness that new things need space on the one hand and on the other the experience and support of the existing ones. Because in order to be able to contribute ideas, you need knowledge and experience from the past and the courage to look to the future. Every generation has played its part, contributed its viewpoint to the big picture and moulded the Hotel Gollner into what it is now and what it should become in the future.

‘Going the extra mile, as we learnt in the exciting concierge training with Mr Schöllauf, was very important. In general, I would like to emphasise that the college training was definitely an important foundation stone for my time abroad, both personally and professionally.’ – Michael, graduated from TSBG in 2017

‘It’s important for me to have a good network with colleagues in the industry to keep up to date. It’s also essential to keep learning, and the training in Bad Gleichenberg taught us this’ – says Alexander Gerlach, now Junior Manager in his own family business.

Employees and TSBG Family:

Sophia Fastl:

Graduated in 2023 at the Secondary School for Tourism (HLT)

Position in the hotel: Receptionist

Anastasiia Ryndiuk;

Graduated in 2016 at the Hotel Management School (3 years)

Position in the hotel: Managing breakfast service