10 questions for Roberto Payer, Luxury Hotel & Travel Consultant

‘You don't remember the room, but how you felt’

Roberto Payer came to the Netherlands in the late 1960s as a young Italian with one goal: to work in the international hotel business. He started at the bottom at Hilton Amsterdam, later helped build Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and grew into a hotelier for whom hospitality is never about ostentation, but about feeling, attention and discipline. In this compact Q&A, he looks back on his route, his vision and the lesson he still wants to teach young people.

Name:
Roberto Payer
Age:
75
Study:
Finmare Italy Bachelor, Stenden Finishing Cornell university
Current Function:
Luxury Hotel & Travel Consultant -President
Hotel(s):
Hilton Amsterdam, Schiphol and Rotterdam. Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam, Roma
Number of years in the industry:
57

Can you tell a bit about your background and how you ended up in the hotel industry?

“When I was eight years old, I saw one man in a hotel who directed everything like an orchestra conductor. I thought that was fabulous. Other kids wanted to work in the fire brigade or the hospital; I wanted to be a hotel manager. My father did not want that and did not pay for my hotel school, so I started working as a labourer first to pay for my education myself.”

Why did that end up being the Netherlands?

“In Italy, hotels were mostly family-run businesses. I specifically wanted to work for an international company. Through a friend of my father's I heard about Holland and Hilton. If you have a dream and you stand behind it, you just have to do it.”

How do you look back on your first years in Amsterdam?
“Those were tough. When my room and food were paid for, I was sometimes left with 30 or 40 guilders a month. But I never for a second thought: I'm going back to Italy. I felt I could grow here, that I was respected and that good work was seen.”

What exactly do you do in your current role? What are you mainly concerned with now?
“The operational hotel work is over for me. I still give master classes and only do things I really enjoy. If I say ‘yes’ to something, I have to be fully behind it. Otherwise, don't do it.”

What typifies you as a hotelier?

“I never wanted to make a career for the sake of a career itself. That doesn't interest me. I am interested in a product and how to make it the most beautiful. And when I perform something, I want to be the best of the best.”

What do you think is at the heart of true hospitality?

“Hospitality doesn't have to cost money. You can give someone spaghetti on a bare table, or on a table with a nice cloth, good cutlery, a flower and a candle. It's still the same spaghetti, but the experience is completely different. That's what it's all about.”

How do you teach employees to actually see that difference?

“By making it visible. An ordinary table and a well-laid table give a completely different feeling. I show what lines, flowers and details do to a space. It's not complicated, but you have to teach people how to look.”

Which development in the sector keeps you most busy?

“That many young people have a dream but don't know the application. They say they want to work in sales, marketing or HR, but don't know exactly what they want to contribute there. You need to know what your role is and what you add.”

What made Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam so special to you?

“That was the finale for me. Not because I wanted a career, but because I got the opportunity to give substance to one of the best brands in the world. You can have beautiful rooms, but it's not about that. You remember how you felt.”

What do you want to give young people today?

“That a lot is possible in this country, but you have to perform and complain less. Don't just talk, but perform. Learn the language, understand how the country works and accept that sometimes you don't yet achieve what you want. Then you have to work harder.”

Listen to Hotelvak the Podcast an episode with Roberto Payer here.