Hotel industry: Kempinski and the ailing business with beautiful appearances

Dusseldorf. Kempinski's supervisory board and executive board have been working in crisis mode for several days. The background is the departure of CEO Barbara Muckermann, which the luxury hotel chain has now confirmed to WirtschaftsWoche. Supervisory board Rene Nijhof had previously informed employees at the Kempinski headquarters in Geneva and hotel managers around the world about the decision on Tuesday and Wednesday.

When asked, Kempinski said in writing on Thursday afternoon about Muckermann's dismissal: "Kempinski will continue to be led by the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, with Mr. René Nijhof as chairman implementing the vision of the committed shareholders." Current operations in the hotels will continue without interruption. The company did not want to comment on further details.

And disappears, literally: the company recently lost almost a quarter of its hotels. There is also a leadership crisis. A number of top managers have left Kempinski. And CEO Barbara Muckermann, who has only been in office for two years, may have had a few restless nights recently. There have been rumors in the hotel industry for some time that the 53-year-old has lost the trust of the owners. Now Kempinski has created facts.