Family business succession in a hotel: lessons from the inside

Family business succession in a hotel rarely happens on a single signing date. The next generation joins, learns the house, takes on part of the management and slowly earns the trust of the team, while the parents are still in the building. So what does that period actually ask of the person stepping in, and what can a family hotel do to make it work?

Emily Keppel, General Manager, knows the answer from the inside. She is 27, grew up in her parents' hotel in Baden-Württemberg near Heidelberg, and her parents still live in the hotel. Instead of a classic hotel apprenticeship she studied business administration, with a bachelor and a master in different cities, including Hamburg, Frankfurt and Naples. Since October she has been part of the management of the family business.

Why family business succession starts long before the handover

A handover is only as good as the business being handed over. In Emily Keppel's view, her family has always been future oriented, precisely because her parents want to pass on a business that can last.

“Also grundsätzlich würd ich sagen, waren wir schon immer eher zukunftsorientiert, weil meine Eltern natürlich auch 'n Betrieb übergeben wollen, der auch zukunftsfähig ist.”

Emily Keppel, 23:37

(Translated: “Basically I would say we have always been rather future oriented, because my parents of course also want to hand over a business that is fit for the future.”)

In practice that meant years of investment. When her grandparents built the hotel, it was the first fully electric hotel, she says. Today it has solar panels on the roof and a sustainable heating system that stores heat, and the family is working towards a sustainability certification. The hotel avoids paper where it can and uses an electric company car. The long term goal she describes is a hotel that is self-sufficient in energy. A related article explains why a hotel feasibility study comes before the architect.

The lesson for any family hotel: the successor inherits the decisions of the previous decade. Investing in a business that is ready for the future is part of any succession, not something to leave for later.

Learn every station before you lead

Joining as the owners' daughter does not replace knowing the work. Emily Keppel went through every station in the house: housekeeping, the restaurant and the front desk. She wanted to learn each job properly and to be close to the people who work there. A related article covers what a new general manager should do in the first months.

That included mistakes. In her second week, during her first service, a bowl of potato salad slid off the plate she was carrying and landed on a guest's trousers. The guest took it calmly. What stayed with her was how the staff consoled her and shared their own stories. For a successor, moments like that are part of learning the house.

Her own start also shaped how she thinks about onboarding new people. For her, a good first period includes:

• a personal welcome on the first day
• access to every system and tool from the start, including the team chat
• a tour and orientation, so people can move around the hotel with confidence
• named contact persons who are actually available, so nobody is left alone
• enough time, both to explain everything and to let the new colleague learn it

“Also Zeit, sich für den neuen Mitarbeitenden zu nehmen, dem alles zu erklären und aber auch Zeit, den Mitarbeitenden zu geben, das alles zu lernen erst mal.”

Emily Keppel, 7:28

(Translated: “So taking time for the new colleague, to explain everything to them, but also giving the new colleague time to learn it all first.”)

When staff leave during a change of generation

For her, the hardest test came early. Emily Keppel's start coincided with construction problems, including burst water pipes, and above all with a wave of resignations from October onwards, among them managers. At the same time the hotel outsourced its IT department, and she had to learn a subject she knew little about and steer the projects anyway. A related article explains what a cluster manager does in hotels.

The response was structural. Departments were reorganised, tasks redistributed and vacancies filled through new recruitment. Along the way she found a real passion for employer branding. She does not believe the departures were caused by her arrival; in her view it was simply a difficult period. She is open about the cost, though: a lot of self-doubt and enormous pressure.

Bringing two generations together in family business succession

Each generation brings its own strengths. Emily Keppel grew up in the digital world, so marketing and social media come easily to her. She now runs the hotel's Instagram and its advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn, and she introduced a monthly staff newsletter covering new colleagues, birthdays, construction work, events and last month's figures. Staff planning has been fully digitised: everyone can see overtime and minus hours, preferred times are entered and taken into account, and the hotel has no split shifts because it serves no lunch. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.

She also names a weakness of her own generation. Personal contact with craftsmen and suppliers counts for less, she has noticed, and the cheapest offer can win over a partner you have worked with for years. Her parents care deeply about those relationships, and so does she. For her, success comes from the synergy between the generations, which may be the most practical way to think about family business succession.

The culture work matters too. When she joined, the family revised its mission statement and anchored the idea of family in it: everyone can rely on everyone, everyone can be themselves at work, with appreciation and open communication. To make it tangible she had an AI-generated hotel song made, which the kitchen team now plays at midday to get ready for service. The hotel also trains staff in nonviolent communication.

Keeping family and work apart

Asked about the hardest part of working with family, Emily Keppel gives a simple answer: separating the two. Occupancy figures, staff matters and new ideas get pitched at the dinner table. There is pressure, too, even though her parents put little on her: you want to make them proud. And difficult conversations get personal quickly.

“Das sind so Schwierigkeiten oder auch, dass in kritischer Gesprächen das halt viel schneller emotional wird logischerweise.”

Emily Keppel, 21:13

(Translated: “Those are the kind of difficulties, or also that in critical conversations it simply gets emotional much faster, logically.”)

There is an upside she values just as much. With family you can say what you think without weighing every word first. A family hotel can use that openness on purpose. Her closing thought points the same way: it is time to think more about employees and not only put the guest first, and to create a place that, for some, can feel like home. You can watch the full conversation for her complete story.

Frequently asked questions

How do you prepare for family business succession in a hotel?

In Emily Keppel's experience, preparation starts early. She grew up in the hotel, studied business administration elsewhere, worked at an agency, and then went through every station in the house before taking on management tasks. Her parents also invested in sustainability and digital tools so that the business they hand over is ready for the future.

What is the hardest part of working in a family hotel?

According to Emily Keppel, the hardest part is keeping family and work apart. Occupancy figures and new ideas end up on the dinner table, critical conversations turn emotional faster than with colleagues, and there is a quiet pressure to make your parents proud, even when they do not push. The upside is that everyone can say openly what they think.

How can a family hotel keep staff during a change of generation?

Emily Keppel points to a few concrete steps: a mission statement built around family, appreciation and open communication, a monthly staff newsletter that also shares the figures, training in nonviolent communication, and digital rota planning that records preferred times. She sees employer branding as an ongoing task and a personal priority, not a one-off project.