Roland Hamberger, managing director, Rosewood Vienna

0:12Roland Hamberger:Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco and this week I head to Vienna to speak with Roland Hamberger, managing director of the Rosewood Vienna. What a delightful man. We discuss hospitality, the wonders of Vienna and a bit more about the hotel.

0:36Tom Edwards:Roland Humberger, Managing Director of Rosewood Vienna. What a pleasure meeting you. I am meeting you in quite a special moment in your career because you just won a very important prize. Can you tell us a bit more? Because I know your mom was proud. You're just telling me this.

0:49Andrew Tuck:Yeah, it was a few weeks ago and it was a high sense of surprise. I got the award for Hotelier of the Year in Austria and I'm still overwhelmed. And I think the older you get, then the awards are coming. I'm extremely proud. It's a huge privilege. I couldn't do this without my team, of course, because I have the best team. And I think when you find love in your business career, and I found love with Rosa Vienna, I think these people feel and see. Yeah, and the best thing is my mom is super proud. And this really made me cry. And no, it's amazing. So it's great.

1:24Tom Edwards:I was going to say, Roland, what's the secret of good hospitality? And one thing that came to mind when I came here is warmth in every single way, from the secretary, from the people that opened the door. I think that's very important. But what do you think is the secret of hospitality?

1:39Andrew Tuck:I couldn't agree more. And what we live here is be your true self. I said once in an interview, we are not looking for machines, we're looking for characters. And A1 of my amazing 200 associates is handpicked. I know everyone by name, of course. also not even the names I know more of them and this is so important to connect and the secret is a combination of really great associates who really also like what they do great guests and an amazing local community and all combining this creates a special place and Rosewood loves a sense of place and is a sense of place and I think it's all about that and I love to talk and they love to listen.

2:25Andrew Tuck:And sometimes the small details, what you hear, it's from guests, from associates, from friends. And just make some magic moments and some little surprises. I love doing this and I think this makes the magic.

2:38Tom Edwards:It's interesting you said a sense of place because here the Rosewood Vienna is a fairly new hotel. In a city known for its Grand Ames, it's a very traditional city, if I may say. But it quickly kind of established itself as one of the leading destinations. tell us a bit more and the location because we are i mean we're looking at the cathedral here

2:58Andrew Tuck:right i saw it here three years ago and uh i'm very proud and location wise i mean roswell vienna is in the best location of vienna it's you're surrounded by a lot of amazing uh sites like just in front of us is uh peter's church and we have saint steven's church and also like All the great shops and stores, the big names are just like from here, wait 10 seconds. But what I love the most is of Rosewood Vienna. Even when the city is full and packed, you cross the corner on Petersplatz and you enter the Rosewood on the ground floor. And even when we're fully booked, you don't feed it. It's calm.

3:42Andrew Tuck:You feel really like you're coming to a special place and without any stress. And I think this is so important nowadays. Because in a world of AI, everything is so fast and so quick. And sometimes it's really, in my opinion, very important to calm down and to relax. And you're right, there are many, many amazing hotels in Vienna. And we're all friends. That's always very important for me. We're not competitors. Of course, we compete, but we are friends. And the Rosewood Vienna is just a perfect fit into the landscape of the Hotel der Hotter in Vienna. And what we did, we were looking for, of course, a sense of place.

4:23Andrew Tuck:We were mainly working with local vendors. Everything here is bespoke. That means nothing here, no chair, no table, no whatever you can buy. It's really only done for us. And what is very important for us, I actually went to flea markets and bought little stuff there. And every room, every suite has a little detail of Vienna in there. And this is also one of the main feedbacks we get from our guests when they're in a room or in a suite or in a house. As Roland, we experience so many things. We discover and traveling changed totally. When I started 28 years ago as a waiter in Vienna, a hotel room or hotel was a room, a bed to sleep and then to move to the next city.

5:08Andrew Tuck:Now the hotel is part of the experience. I think this is one of the biggest and in my opinion most valuable and best changes. That's a fantastic point you made there.

5:19Tom Edwards:And it's interesting you said about flea markets and supporting like Viennese design as well, because I am a little bit obsessed about the city. You know, we're talking about the tabac, the fonts. For me, Vienna is very special because of that. How do you see Vienna? Because you're from Austria, but not Vienna. But do you enjoy the city? You've been living here for quite a while.

5:37Andrew Tuck:I say I'm from Austria and I live now since 1998 in Vienna. And it's my dream city. And it changed so much. I remember when I came in before 2000, it was still a bit more gray and everything. And now it's such a colorful, open city. We have the best museums. What is totally underestimated, we have one of the best culinary scene in Vienna. The restaurants, the little cafes, the bars, it's outstanding. And what for me is also important, I love to walk. Vienna is such a walkable city. It's a safe city. It's a clean city. and it's a friendly city. Sometimes people can be a bit grumpy but I think that's a part of it.

6:22Andrew Tuck:But it's such an open, lovely city. I will stay with Vienna forever because it's... And you know, I also built my home here and I have my friends here. As you said, I'm quite a long time here now and funny why, as I never was abroad, I always thought it's my biggest disadvantage. In the end, it's my biggest strength because I love to connect and I love to meet people and I think I have a great network now in Vienna and this also supports and helps to make my life and also life for guests easier and better.

6:52Tom Edwards:You mentioned the cuisine. I have to say I do like the food here, you know, and there's something sometimes understated even, but I love it. Tell me more about the food kind of offering of the Rose of Vienna. Is there anything that reflects Austrian cuisine or maybe not? Or tell us a bit more about it.

7:10Andrew Tuck:The Fassel Rose of Vienna at the Neue Hoheit, It was very important to also have typical Austrian classics like Emine Schnitzel. We have, of course, we have the best Trautmüllerin. It's like, I was annoyed by my mom. It's done like my mom is doing it. We have, in my opinion, one of the best Kaiserschmarns. It was the favorite dessert of the emperor. We have an outstanding Kugelhupf. Kugelhupf is a cake. It also was the favorite cake of the emperor, Franz Josef. Of course, it's also like we have some international dishes on the menu. We have some lovely steaks from the grill. We have, in my opinion, an amazing Caesar salad.

7:50Andrew Tuck:We do on-table service with Caesar salad. It's a great variety. And what most important thing is for me, 50 % of our guests are local guests. This was for us the most important thing to bring local community into as well. And I think we're doing this pretty well at the moment. And then I also have two bars. one is on the sixth floor attached to the restaurant and then with the 1835 where we're sitting in a moment you have a view of the whole city of Vienna with a beautiful terrace yeah and it's for me just a nice spot to sit with guests and relax, hang out and talk about life

8:27Tom Edwards:you said 50 % but just to clarify for the restaurants or for actually your people that come and stay at the hotel for the restaurant Oh, great. Fantastic. And is it true that Mozart used to live in this location? That's incredible.

8:45Andrew Tuck:I'm very proud and it's a very special year. It's the 275th year of Mozart's birth year this year. And Wolfgang's Mozart lived actually in one of the four buildings combined and he lived in one of the four buildings because his wife, Constanze, her mom owned one of the buildings. and they become a couple here when he was this half a year in Vienna. He also composed one of his symphonies on property. We will do two new projects this year where I can't talk really about it, but they will dedicate to Mozart. We're very proud and there is also like the city of Vienna placed a lovely signage in front of one of our entrances that Mozart lived here.

9:29Andrew Tuck:And I mean, he was a genius.

9:32Tom Edwards:Well, you've hinted about new projects. I know you can't talk about everything, but there's been other updates. I think we might even cover that in the spa. So there's a lot of things to look forward as well here at the Rosewood.

9:44Andrew Tuck:What we did already is, since we opened 22, we invested another 6 million euros in two more presidential suites. We redid the spa and built two beautiful suites facing the dome. one with a private sauna and steam the other one with the most spectacular bathroom then we elevated the restaurant downstairs and we're doing a new project in the entrance air on the ground floor and also a new project we will design and create another suite because for my team also my owners and Rosewood for me the worst thing is standing still and And I love to do projects and I love to have amazing partners that support us in this.

10:35Andrew Tuck:This is a thing that's very important also for our guests and the community.

10:38Tom Edwards:That's amazing. And another thing I like about the Rosewood, even when we did the partnership with Monaco, the book, that already tells me something. Because a lot of hotels, they're like, no, we're not going to have any books or magazines. It's all digital. Digital is important, but isn't it nice to have something physical when you're in your room or something like that?

10:57Andrew Tuck:It's the best. And as I said, nowadays, where time is so fast, to sit down and go through a book and see beautiful, beautiful images you can dream of with a lot of guests. Like we were to order a lot of new of the World of Rosa books, what was a corporation with Monaco, because our guests take them at home and have now an idea where to do the next holiday. and I love to read books. My husband reads the Kindle. I can't do this. It's really, I need a book in my hand and I'm pretty conservative on that. And like on our last holiday, I think it was three kilos was only books, but it was really important for me to have a real book.

11:45Roland Hamberger:Thank you, Roland. And for more information, go to rosewoodhotels.com. The show is edited by Jack Dewars and I am Fernando Gusto Bacheco. Thank you.