General manager (Direktion / hotel-direction role)

The general manager carries the commercial and operational responsibility for a hotel. In chain hotels, that is a defined role with a clear reporting line up. In owner-operated properties, the general manager is often the owner: decision-maker, department head, and day-to-day operator in one.

That is a strength. Short paths, direct decisions, real ownership. It is also a risk. The person who knows everything eventually stops seeing it.

What we see in practice: A family business in the Bavarian Forest, third generation, 28 staff. The owner-GM runs purchasing, reservations, F&B, and people decisions. External advice was never bought because the house was assumed to know itself well enough. The first controlling pass reveals a labor cost ratio of 48% -- unnoticed for years, never benchmarked. Knowing is not the same as measuring. The direction role is not a weakness, but it needs an outside view from time to time -- a view that, structurally, can't come from inside.