HOTOUR Team

Philipp Linder is managing partner at HOTOUR Hotel Consulting GmbH, he is head of the divisions “Valuation/Appraisal” and “Financing”.

Following his training in hotel management, Philip Linder went on to study at the University of Applied Sciences in Wilhelmshaven focussing on the hotel industry, financial management and controlling before graduating with a tourism business diploma. Since joining HOTOUR 2008, he completed his broad theoretical knowledge through professional experience during different market cycles. His studies of real estate economics (IRE|BS) put his real estate business know-how on a solid foundation. In addition, he completed the postgraduate course “Hospitality Real Estate” at the International University of Applied Sciences in Bad Honnef.

Claudia Sunderkamp is managing partner at HOTOUR Hotel Consulting GmbH. In this role she is responsible for the divisions “Asset Management”, “Operator Search” and “Project Development”.

Trained in hotel management, she holds a degree in business administration with a focus on tourism management from Munich University of Applied Sciences. She deepened her knowledge of the real estate business by studying real estate economics (IRE | BS) and her hotel expertise within the “Professional Development Program” at Cornell University in New York / USA. Before joining HOTOUR in 2014, she worked as a Senior Development Manager in a German hotel chain.

Martina Fidlschuster supports HOTOUR Hotel Consulting as Senior Advisor in the areas of transaction consulting, asset management and hotel appraisals. She is an official expert on the hotel trade for the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Furthermore, she initiated the project partnership “Hotel Industry Rating with the Hotel Association Germany and works as an industry specialist for a rating agency.

She took a degree in Tourism at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration before attending the Institute of Interpreting at Vienna University and Cornell University in New York. She has more than 25 years of experience in the hotel industry and worked for Hilton, top Swiss Hotels and in several leadership positions for the Steigenberger Hotels AG. Since many years she has supported investors, financial institutions, project developers and hotel operators concerning real estate issues with a focus on hotel market analysis, transactions, financing and asset management.

As Senior Advisor of HOTOUR Hotel Consulting, Klaus Fidlschuster is specialized in project development and realization as well as interim management.  Furthermore, he is running his own hotel management company with a 150-room hotel in Trier.

After completing hotel studies he worked for Hilton as well as in various management level positions at Steigenberger Hotels AG, including that as a Hotel Director in Bad Griesbach. As Project Manager of the Development Department at Steigenberger, he managed the construction and pre-opening of six large business and resort hotels in Germany and Austria. From 1997 onwards he has been working as managing Director Germany and Vice President Central and Eastern Europe, being responsible for the launch of Park Inn and Park Plaza hotels in Central and Eastern Europe.

Klaus Fidlschuster has more than 30 years of experience in the operational management of up to ten hotels of a hotel chain and references in the development, conception, building, equipping and opening of 17 large hotels.

Ulrike Scheefer has been working as a freelance expert for HOTOUR Hotel Consulting since 2006. She supports HOTOUR with projects in her function as a consultant, appraiser or primarily as an expert in financial and operational issues around hotel real estate.

All in all, Ulrike Scheefer, who holds a degree in Business Administration (BA) in the field of Hotel Management from the Berufsakademie Ravensburg, has more than 30 years of hospitality and tourism experience. This includes more than 15 years of experience in management consultancy. Such positions in her professional career have led her to prestigious enterprises such as MÖVENPICK Hotel & Resorts, MÖVENPICK Einkaufs- und Importgesellschaft, PAGE Hotels GmbH, Stella AG, Hotel Consult Dröscher + Partner, HOGARAT Carduck & Partner sowie PROJECT M Tourismusberatung.

Since 2010, Mrs. Scheefer has been a lecturer and member of the board of examiners for the field of Hotel Management at the Baden-Wuerttemberg dual University in Ravensburg. She is also a specialist author in the areas of Accounting and Controlling within the hotel industry for renowned professional publishers.

Since 2015 she became likewise a member of the board of B.i.G. Berater im Gastgewerbe e.V. as well as a member of the HogaQ network for consulting specialists in the hotel and catering industry.

Tobias Auerbach has been with HOTOUR Hotel Consulting since October 2024. Tobias obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on “General Management” at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Tobias’ career started with an apprenticeship as a hotel specialist, supplemented by an additional qualification in hotel management, at the Jumeirah Hotel Frankfurt. He then expanded his specialist knowledge at Hilton in the development division, where he gained extensive insights into the expansion and strategic development of hotels. He laid the foundations for his real estate expertise by working for Erhard & Stern, where he was involved in commercial real estate project development. His professional career ultimately led him to B&B Hotels. There he deepened his expertise in strategic expansion in the area of business development before moving to HOTOUR.

Yannik Hibben joined HOTOUR Hotel Consulting GmbH in 2023.

The trained hotel specialist already supported the HOTOUR team as a working student, in 2024 he switched to a permanent position as a Junior Consultant and has now been supporting HOTOUR as a Consultant since January 2025.

Hibben studied economics at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, specializing in financial management. He laid the foundation for his career entry into the hotel industry in 2017 with his training as a hotel specialist at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich. After he gained practical experience as a front office agent at the Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne, Obbürgen, Switzerland, before moving back to Germany to study in 2021.

Lea Lentke has been working for HOTOUR Hotel Consulting since January 2019 in the areas of expert opinions, feasibility studies as well as market and location analysis.

Ms. Lentke completed her bachelor degree in International Tourism Management in the Netherlands. During her studies she worked for various tour operators in Asia and Germany. She gained her first professional experience in the hotel industry with the opening of a 4-star superior hotel in Northern Germany and subsequently worked in the project management role of another 4-star hotel construction. Most recently she worked in strategic sales in the international hotel industry for the Frankfurt Marriott Hotel. Ms. Lentke completed her part-time Master of Business Administration in Innovation Management and Business Development at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt in April 2021.

Johannes Hencke has been part of HOTOUR since September 2024 and supports the team in the areas of market analysis, expert opinions and feasibility studies.

Mr. Hencke completed both the Bachelor’s degree in “International Tourism Management B.A.” and the Master’s degree in “Strategic Management and Consulting M.A.” at the CBS International Business School in Cologne and Mainz. He started his career in the hotel industry as a working student in the head office of B&B HOTELS in the areas of sales and development acquisition. Prior to this, he had already gained practical experience in tourism consulting at projekt2508 in Bonn and in the hotel departments of the Clayton Hotel (formerly Nikko) in Düsseldorf.

Pia Kerkeling, M.Sc. Sustainable Management, has been part of HOTOUR’s consulting team in the field of market analyses, feasibility studies and sustainability since the end of 2023.

She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management at the Hotel Management School Maastricht (HMSM) in 2019 and gained operational hotel knowledge in various establishments in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Germany. After a cross-departmental management traineeship, she moved to a permanent position at the head office of a small international hotel chain. There she deepened her knowledge of cross-brand operations, purchasing, project management and the development and implementation of a sustainability strategy.

She then went on to specialise in sustainability with a Master’s degree in Sustainable Management at Uppsala University before joining HOTOUR.

Niklas Prasser joined HOTOUR in January 2025.

He started his career by training as a hotel manager at Platzl Hotel Inselkammer KG in Munich and then expanded his knowledge of hotel operations by studying tourism management at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology, specializing in hospitality management, destination management and mobility and resource management. As part of his studies, he also gained practical experience at the corporate headquarters of Steigenberger Hotels GmbH, where he worked in the area of digital HR systems and played a key role in project work and the implementation of the digital HR system landscape.

Since 2006, Mrs Stich has been contributing her organisational skills to HOTOUR. In addition to her responsibility for the office and invoicing, she also supports the team in different projects.

After her vocational training in Hotel Management, Sabrina Stich worked, among other things, as an Executive Assistant at one of the international hotel chains, where she was responsible for contracting the East European market and held an interface role between European tour operators and hotels worldwide. After this, she worked as a Management Assistant at an international advertising company in the areas of organisation, research and creating Powerpoint presentations.

Kathrin Tabert has learned the hotel industry from the ground up. The qualified hotel business specialist had initially came into contact with Hotour as a freelance associate in 2006 and subsequently became a permanent member of the HOTOUR team in 2014.

Among other responsibilities, she provides vital support in the office management to her colleague, Sabrina Greif. After completion of her education, Tabert initially gathered her first experiences in the hotel industry at the Steigenberger Hotel Management Academy in Bad Reichenhall before her path led her to various Front Office and Reservations positions both at home and abroad and ultimately to Frankfurt where she had most recently been active as Regional Reservation Manager for the three Frankfurt properties of ArabellaSheraton Hotels.

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