Hotel consulting for German-speaking Europe

For US owners with a DACH property

Your asset manager reports in EUR. Your bookkeeper works in SKR04 (German standard chart of accounts). Your monthly P&L lands six weeks late. Your GM (general manager) sends Excel sheets that don't reconcile to the trial balance. The local accountant is competent and unreachable.

None of that is unusual for a DACH-owned hotel run for a foreign investor. It's what happens when ownership sits eight time zones away and the operator on property doesn't have the back-office grip to translate. You end up with an asset you can't read.

This is the gap I fill. I'm a hotelier first, consultant second. Fifteen years on property in four- and five-star independent houses in Germany and Austria. I read your books in the language they're kept in. I report to you in the format your asset manager needs. I sit between the two.

Why DACH is a different market

DACH stands for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Three countries, one language, three different rule books. A US owner who treats it as one market finds out the hard way.

Regulatory weight

Property tax, VAT (19% in Germany, 10 or 20% in Austria depending on service, 8.1% in Switzerland), hotel-specific local taxes, and reporting duties to local tourism authorities. None of it is intuitive from a US baseline. All of it is enforced.

Labor law and works councils

Tighter than US norms by a long way. Works councils (Betriebsrat) have legal co-determination rights on staffing, shift schedules, and process changes. You can't fire your way out of a problem. You can structure your way through it.

F&B as core, not amenity

DACH four- and five-star houses run real restaurants. Breakfast is full service, not a buffet handed off. Half-board and full-board contracts are common in resort markets.

Local books, international reporting

Bookkeeping is in SKR03 or SKR04 (the two German standard chart-of-accounts schemas), or the Austrian equivalent. Owner reporting almost always needs USALI (Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, 11th edition). Without a clean mapping, every month becomes a negotiation.

What I do on the ground

I work in the property, not from a deck. The work falls into four buckets, sometimes one of them, sometimes all four at once.

Operator-grade due diligence

For acquisition, refinancing, or owner change.

A formal DD package from a Big Four firm covers the legal and the financial. It doesn't tell you whether the F&B margin will hold under your operating plan, whether the PMS (property management system) is one tax change away from a rebuild, or whether the GM has been carrying the property alone for two years.

I read the operating reality. Front desk, back office, kitchen, accounting. Three days on site, plus the books. Short report. Checked numbers. Named risks.

Monthly P&L cleanup and USALI mapping

From BWA to owner-ready reporting.

The BWA (monthly P&L in the German bookkeeping standard) is what your local accountant produces by default. It isn't what your asset manager reads. I build the mapping between SKR03 or SKR04 and USALI 11th edition inside the local accounting system, so the same close produces both views.

Outcome: monthly P&L closed by business day 10, mapped to USALI, optional USD conversion at month-end FX rate. No more six-week lag. No more guesswork on the call with the owner.

System audits and integration

PMS, POS, accounting, channel manager. Joined up.

Most DACH independent houses run a stack that grew over years: a PMS chosen by a previous GM, a POS that doesn't talk to the PMS, a channel manager bolted on, an accounting system that takes numbers by hand from all three. That's normal. It's also fixable.

I audit the stack vendor-neutral. I have no resale agreements with PMS vendors. I name what works, what doesn't, and what costs more to keep than to replace.

Local representation

A German-speaking owner ear on the ground.

For owners without a local asset manager, I take the standing owner position in monthly operating reviews. Not to replace the GM. To make sure the conversation happens in both languages and the numbers reconcile both ways.

Track record

Fifteen years on property in DACH four- and five-star independent hotels. Director of finance roles, deputy general manager roles, front office leadership. Now an independent consultant.

Credentials that read in a US context:

• Austrian Hotel Association certified hotelier (ÖHV-Diplomhotelier). Austria's main industry credential for hoteliers.
• Appointed examiner, German Chamber of Commerce (IHK Munich). Sets and grades the national hotelier qualification exam.
• Property classifier, German Hotel & Restaurant Association (DEHOGA). Accredited to assess properties for the German Hotel Classification system.
• Builds Power BI data pipelines across PMS, POS, RMS (revenue management system), and accounting.

Property sizes: 30 to 300 rooms. That's the band where owner authority meets operational complexity. Below 30 rooms, structured consulting often doesn't pay back. Above 300, chain structures need a different method.

How an engagement starts

First call. Thirty minutes. Free. Send me your last three monthly P&Ls and I'll read them ahead of the call.

If it makes sense, I come on site for two to three days. I look at the operation, the books, and the systems. You get a short written read-out with the priorities and a scoped proposal.

No deck. No methodology slide. No follow-up sales sequence.

Frequently asked questions

I own a DACH property through a German GmbH. How does engagement work legally?

I contract through my own German entity. For a US owner, the typical setup is a consulting agreement between my GmbH (German limited-liability company, closest US equivalent: LLC) and the asset-owning entity, often a German GmbH or an Austrian GmbH. If the US parent prefers to contract directly, that works too. The legal lift is small. The work is the work.

My books are in SKR04 and my asset manager reports in USALI. Which one do you use?

Both. SKR04 (German standard chart of accounts) is what the local bookkeeper uses. USALI (Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, 11th edition) is what your asset manager and your owner reporting need. I build a clean mapping between them, so the monthly P&L closes locally and reads internationally. Same source of truth, two views.

What if my GM doesn't speak English well?

Most GMs in DACH four- and five-star houses speak working English. The bookkeeper and the back office, less so. I work in German on the floor and in English in reporting. Owner communication is in English. Internal handoffs are in German. Nobody has to translate on the side.

How often do you fly to the property?

I drive. Most DACH properties are within a half-day drive of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. For new engagements, two to three days on site to start. After that, a one-day visit per month for active projects, less for monitoring. No air travel padding the bill.

Can you report in USD?

Yes. Owner reporting in USD at month-end FX rate, with a stable internal rate for budget variance. Local books stay in EUR (or CHF for Swiss properties). The conversion is deterministic, not negotiable.

What about German labor law and works councils (Betriebsrat)?

German and Austrian labor law is strict by US standards. Works councils (Betriebsrat) have co-determination rights on staffing, shift scheduling, and process changes. I work inside that frame, not around it. I'm not your lawyer. For employment matters I refer you to a local labor attorney. For operational changes that touch the council, I help structure the conversation so it moves.

Do you handle the F&B side as well?

Yes. F&B margin in DACH four- and five-star is typically 25 to 32%. If your property lands below 22%, something is wrong in the cost capture, not the menu. I read the F&B P&L the same way I read the rooms P&L: by cost center, by month, by trend.

Last updated: 17. Mai 2026