Ahead of our Connections Social at the award-winning Regent Berlin, we spoke with Carmen Hackmann who has held the position as Director of Sales and Marketing for the past eight years. The 5-star historic hotel resides in the heart of Berlin’s Mitte district overlooking Gendarmenmarkt Square and is widely recognised as one of Berlin’s finest. Proud of Regent’s host of accolades – including recognition for years over by Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes and The Telegraph – Carmen now looks to the future of servicing the elite.
What does luxury mean to you?
Luxury to me is having time to experience the extraordinary. For example in terms of service, it feels very luxurious to me if someone delivers very attentive service and anticipates your wishes.
Describe Regent Berlin in three words.
Location, Service, Food!
Tell us something special about Regent Berlin.
Guests are always delighted by the attentiveness of our staff – their care and dedication ensure first-class service and a luxury experience.
What are currently your most popular source markets for business and leisure travel?
For us it is our home market, but also the UK and US are very important to us!
Are you noticing any trends in what your clients are asking for at the moment?
Our guests now seek for a greater flexibility in terms of their stay. Due to advancing technologies, last minute changes and requests, this is becoming more and more a daily requirement.
How have you adapted your offering in recent years, and why?
We have come up with some exclusive partnerships to provide our guests a once-in-a-lifetime Berlin experiences, whether that is gaining access to preferred tickets for the State Opera or test drives with Bentley’s latest automobile models. This is what sets us apart from our competitors.
Tell us about a time when Regent Berlin went above and beyond to assist a guest.
There are so many stories of our dedicated team going above and beyond, but there is one that is truly remarkable. We welcomed the arrival of a guest’s VIP (very-important-pet), and in advance, covered the balcony and bathroom of our Presidential Suite with rolled sod and built stairs to a special bed for our furry friend. Keeping the lawn green for a week was quite an adventure.
How do you plan on evolving your offering to meet the growing use of technology within the luxury travel industry?
Digital check-in is already in place for the well-travelled businessman and is highly appreciated. We may potentially roll out digital concierges in our rooms to take out, highlighting Berlin’s famous sights, secret spots and personal staff recommendations to enhance the overall Regent Berlin experience.
What appeals to you about the Connections way of doing business?
This is a people business and Connections is a great opportunity to meet industry peers and make a real connection! In different places all over the world.
Finally, if we had only 48 hours in Berlin, what would you recommend we do?
Stay at Regent Berlin, visit the wall memorial at Bernauer Straße, have a coffee in a hip café in “Mitte”, climb the Victory Column for a view of Berlin, have a beer in a beer garden in “Tiergarten”, eat German tapas at “Peter Paul”!
