Investor Talk with Ulli Kastner

With nearly 30 years of industry experience, leadership roles in international hotel and travel tech companies, and as the founder of the metasearch platform myhotelshop, Ulli Kastner knows the industry inside out. Today, he is an active investor. In this interview, he talks about learning curves, moments of failure, sluggish systems – and why technology alone has no impact without the right mindset.

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Ulli, you spent many years in operational hospitality before becoming an entrepreneur. Was there a moment that set you on this path?

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‍It wasn’t a dramatic “time to change everything” moment. It was more of a gradual shift. I held solid positions, took on responsibility, led teams. And at some point, I thought: if what I do works economically – why not build it on my own terms?

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And then you left the big hotel chains?

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‍Yes, but it wasn’t out of frustration – it was a decision driven by conviction. I no longer wanted to work within structures I couldn’t influence. I saw that direct sales in the hotel industry were still hugely underdeveloped. And I had the idea that there was a better way – with the right approach.

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What shaped you most during your time as a founder?

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‍The crises. We faced the brink more than once – and COVID was just one of them. There were earlier phases where I thought: this might be the end. But once you push through something like that, you truly understand what it means to carry responsibility – not just financially, but for the people you work with. You can be behind, but as long as you're still in the game, you have a chance. That mindset has always been important to me, especially when you're in a leadership role. Giving up isn't an option – at least not before you've tried everything.

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Today, you're investing in hotel tech. What does a product need to have to convince you?

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‍It has to solve a real problem – and do it in a way that fits into a hotelier’s daily operations. Not with fancy features, but with clarity. And it needs a team that truly understands what it's all about. If you want to change something in this industry, you have to know what a day in a hotel actually looks like – breakfast service, check-in, housekeeping, online reviews – all happening at once.

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What was your impression of profitize?

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It was immediately clear: this tackles a real pain point. Many hotels work with isolated numbers from PMS, POS, banking, or HR systems – without any big picture. profitize systematically brings this data together, creates structure, and enables solid financial analysis and planning. The results are presented in a clear, actionable way – not just for CFOs, but also for hotel managers who are deeply involved in day-to-day operations.

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Still, many in the hospitality industry struggle with digitalization. Why is that?

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‍Because day-to-day operations consume them. Most owners or general managers are deeply involved in running their hotels. And on top of that, they’re expected to handle digital strategy, e-commerce, and forecasting. It just doesn’t work. There’s often also a lack of basic financial understanding. Hospitality schools rarely teach what’s truly relevant today.

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Are you saying there’s a kind of structural gap?

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Absolutely. In 2025, we’re still discussing topics I covered in hotel trainings back in 2006. Why do I need my own website? Why not just sell everything through Booking? That alone shows how stuck we still are in explanation mode – even though both technology and guest behavior have long since moved on.

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And the solution?

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‍You have to start. Not perfectly, not comprehensively – but concretely. If you wait for the big transformation project, you’ll never begin. Digitalization isn’t a final state – it has to be embedded in daily operations and evolve over time. It’s better to start with a small, functional tool than to make no decision at all.

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One topic you often emphasize is company culture.

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‍Because it’s the core of everything. If people don’t enjoy working, no tool in the world will help you. At my startup myhotelshop, “Happiness” was our most important company value. Not as a marketing buzzword, but because I knew: people who feel seen perform better – and stay. I know the parents of my former team members, their kids. That, to me, is the real value of entrepreneurship – relationships that go beyond the job and truly last.

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What advice do you give to young founders venturing into hospitality or tech?

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‍Understand your problem better than anyone else. Talk to real users. And stick with it – even when it gets tough. It’s never over until the final whistle blows. And that goes for startups, too.

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And what do you wish for the hotel industry?

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‍That we take our learning curve seriously. That we stop outsourcing training and make it a leadership priority. And that we stop seeing technology as an end in itself – but rather as a tool to regain time for what truly matters: the guest, the team, and the idea of genuine hospitality.

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Thank you for the conversation, Ulli.

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About – Ulli Kastner

‍Ulli Kastner is an entrepreneur and investor. After holding leadership positions at Accor, Hilton, Starwood, TripAdvisor, and trivago, he founded myhotelshop in 2012 – a platform for managing metasearch campaigns for hotels, now part of RateGain. Today, he actively invests in hotel tech companies, including the financial analytics platform profitize.