Anniversary Spotlight: Brita Moosmann’s Reflection on 10 Years with HotelPartner

Brita Moosmann , our Senior Officer of Accounting, has so far had a remarkable career with HotelPartner. Her professional journey took her from founding her own company and international lecturing to a position as Managing Director at HotelPartner Germany followed by an international sabbatical and then back to the company in her current role. With her wealth of experience, she has enriched the HotelPartner team for a decade. In this interview, she shares some experiences and personal insights from her time with us.

Congratulations on your milestone anniversary, dear Brita! Please tell us about your journey with HotelPartner.

Before joining HotelPartner, I developed a system for F&B Revenue Management called YieldforProfit. At the ITB 2013 in Berlin, I met Oliver Meyer and Rainer M. Willa, and we exchanged ideas about possible collaborations between our digital solutions. Following a whole day of meetings in Bern, where we showcased our systems and exchanged ideas, it was agreed that the first focus was on the expansion into Germany, and that I should establish HotelPartner there by opening an office in Hamburg. I became the Managing Director of HotelPartner Germany, and over the years, together with Pascal Ploch (our first team member in Germany) I  built up and developed the German branch with the team in Hamburg – until I moved to Canada for a sabbatical in 2017. Even during that time, my connection with HotelPartner remained strong. In Canada, I realized that I wanted a professional change, and HotelPartner supported me in transitioning to my current role, where I advise senior management on process optimization and oversee finance and accounting operations in Germany.

What an exciting and diverse journey. Looking back, what do you consider your most significant personal contribution?

My most significant contribution to HotelPartner’s development is undoubtedly the establishment of the German branch. Creating financial stability was not easy in the beginning, especially as investments had to be financed through regular revenue flow.

Personally, the most meaningful aspect for me is witnessing the development of my team: Lars Meier, Pascal Ploch, Jan M. Reiländer, Robin Czullay, etc. – I am incredibly proud that the people with whom I established the company are now more advanced in revenue management than I am, and have moved up to important Management positions within the company. That laid the foundation for this development, supporting HotelPartner’s creed that one can achieve anything here. This is only possible because we all respect each other and have no fear that our employees can grow beyond us.

That speaks of a respectful collaboration and great career advancement opportunities. At which points in your time with HotelPartner did you experience significant personal growth?

In the same way that I trusted my team to grow, Oliver and Rainer trusted me from the start when they put me in charge of the German branch. Although I had never done anything like this before and we didn’t know each other well, Oliver appointed me Managing Director, Germany. Meeting this challenge cost me a lot of energy but it was also a very fulfilling time that I will always value highly, both personally and professionally.

I also want to highlight my collaboration with the Hotel Management School Hamburg, where I lectured in Revenue Management and Menu-Engineering for many years. The school gave me the green light to establish a scholarship with HotelPartner, enabling Revenue Management students to qualify for HSMAI certification, which usually requires two years of experience as a Revenue Manager. In general, I am very passionate about lifelong learning. I earned my MBA at the age of 50 and find it incredibly inspiring to intently educate myself and connect with fascinating people. I gladly support this and am pleased that HotelPartner is increasingly creating offers for interested employees in this area.

Some great insights into your professional and personal journey. Even after 10 years, there might be something that your team doesn’t know about you. Can you give us a glimpse behind the scenes?

What few people may know about me is that I am a keen ukulele player and choir singer. I discovered these hobbies during my sabbatical in Canada and continue to pursue them here with much joy.

I am also passionate about sustainability: as a co-founder of the Green Tourism Camp, together with Wolf-Thomas Karl,  I continue to be very involved in promoting sustainability in everything we do. This always leads to new ideas and projects.

Speaking of projects, what do you still want to achieve on your further journey with HotelPartner?

Although I am now one of the elders here, I am determined to do what I love for as long as I can and I want to help HotelPartner continue to grow. I believe that especially in a more advanced age I can make a valuable contribution; perhaps mine will eventually be shifting to crisis or budget management. For now, my goal is to help in streamlining our internal processes so that people can spend their time on more value-adding tasks. However, the issues are complex and the freedom to do things in an individual way sometimes may clash with establishing common structures and systems. Who knows, maybe I’ll also find time to automate processes in accounting and further support our revenue management services.

Fantastic, you have quite a few plans! To conclude, do you have a wish for HotelPartner?

My experience at HotelPartner has shown that it has always been possible to balance my professional and personal goals, as long as I communicated my needs and wants properly. So, all I can say is: keep up the good work! HotelPartner should continue to support, and reward committed people on their career paths. Working towards making everyone’s day-to-day work a good fit for themselves and the company – and valuing all their unique skills.

And I encourage diversity: in this otherwise very young team, I, as an older member, represent a smaller group in our company. We should trust each other increasingly and benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience: personally, I enjoy the contact with my colleagues every day, I appreciate their openness and I find something inspiring in every conversation.

Thank you so much, dear Brita, for these insightful glimpses into your career and your personal values! We look forward to many more great years together and wish you all the best for the many projects to come!