Winzer's Success Stories: Barbara Kletzmayr

Before you joined us at the Hotel Winzer, you were a flight attendant at Niki – how did that move come about?

I have to be honest and say that the economic situation almost forced me to give up flying. The contracts for us staff got worse again following the airline’s resale. As I’m a qualified tourism manager and had seen a lot of the tourism industry even before my time as a flight attendant, I could well imagine working at reception again.

What convinced you to take the job as head of reception back then?

To be perfectly honest – Markus Winzer. I was looking for a job as a receptionist, not as a reception manager. After all, I hadn’t worked at reception for years. But as the reception manager’s position had just become vacant and Markus could well imagine me in that role, I eventually accepted.
He was right in his assumption that I would quickly catch up on everything there was to learn. I settled into the role very quickly.

Were you able to take anything from your time as a flight attendant that helped you in your current role?

Even though a lot of things are completely different, I’ve been able to benefit from one or two experiences. I know how to deal with guests and also how to lead a team. My previous employer posted me to several cities across Europe, and I worked with many different people and teams. This experience is an advantage for me and my reception team. Furthermore, in my previous role, I had to work in an extremely solution-oriented way. For example, I could never tell a passenger they had to get off the plane. I’ve incorporated this solution-oriented approach into my day-to-day work at reception too.

We’re facing a severe shortage of skilled staff in the hospitality industry – how do you deal with this within the team?

To come back to the topic of a solution-oriented approach – we’ve simplified many tasks and thereby saved time. Markus Winzer is particularly helpful in this regard with his forward-thinking approach and his IT expertise. I also try to make the most of each team member’s strengths and weaknesses, so that things run smoothly even with fewer staff.