Filippo Lunardi

Thank you Stefano, it’s a pleasure to have you here! Of course, I’d like to introduce myself, I’m Filippo, I’m 40 years old and I’ve been the Director of Palazzina Grassi since November 2022. Before that I was Director of another 5* hotel here in Venice and before that I spent 5 years in Tuscany as Deputy Director. Professionally I have 20 years of experience in hospitality, between London, Rome at the Baglioni Group for several years, then Tuscany and finally here in Venice. Being of Venetian origin, I am pretty much back home let’s say.

Palazzina Grassi is a boutique hotel with 25 rooms, on the Grand Canal, the only hotel in Italy designed entirely by Philippe Starck, and it opened in 2010. It was subsequently taken over by Relegance Group in 2017.

There are currently 45 people, front and back, as we have offices in Mestre.

Until 2020, there was, among young people, more predisposition for this sector, especially for the restaurant industry. It was easier to find certain resources and there was more desire to get to know these businesses and to grow and make a career in a hotel.

In 2020 there was this setback forced on everyone. When we reopened, especially in 2022 which was an exciting season for everyone, there was some difficulty in finding those same resources that were much easier to find before. This was probably also due to changes in vision, not necessarily in desire or interest. There has been much more discovery of what digitalisation is, of smart working, of alternative worlds that were previously less known in Italy.

Many have stayed, we have a solid team that has been with me for many years, they are young and dynamic people, very helpful.
They are people who, for example, came here as Commis and now hold the position of Restaurant Manager. New resources in terms of expertise were more difficult to find, not only in terms of quality but also quantity, and we are still experiencing this dynamic today.
What we notice is that the priorities on a personal level have changed a bit. We therefore give more value to the lifestyle balance, that is to say, to feeling good on a personal level, which today is becoming fundamental for every person.

The young people who are joining Palazzina Grassi are ambitious people and this is a positive aspect.
Let’s say that ambition has remained, the will to do has remained, but there are fewer resources. I believe, however, that it is very important at a territorial level to have Academies, schools that can give profusion to what is the hotel business today at 360°. I am talking about organisations that know how to transmit passion, love for the sector and also a certain philosophy of life. I emphasise philosophy of life because in my opinion hospitality becomes a lifestyle insofar as human relationships are created with customers, constant relations and interactions: this is the beauty of our job.

The selection process has remained somewhat as it was before the pandemic, namely the classic interview. It used to be that more spontaneous applications came in, now there are many announcements. When the applications come in, the process is always the same, HR or management or restaurant manager guides the new employees through their introduction to the company. We give them the tools they need to get to know the company and to work. We are also in a phase of change here, there is a lot of digitisation, paper is being taken away, we are going much more digital, sustainability is also asking us to do this.

Subsequently, people are officially becoming autonomous in their job. I have to say that the young people of today are very smart, very good, and they need a relatively short coaching because they are very attentive, so it’s a quick way of teaching them because there is a lot of intuition and learning about technology as well. They arrive already a step ahead of us who, a few years ago, used mainly paper-based tools.

I would like to say that we have a different identity compared to the others in Venice, both in terms of design and entertainment, as we are also a club where we do international DJ nights.

When you work with someone who is new or in the process of being interviewed, you have to convey that to them. It is also true, however, that many people already know Palazzina and our brand.

We have a lot of young people who are with us even after so many years, they liked it and decided to be part of this family that is Relegance and they have the same enthusiasm as when they arrived 5/10 years ago.
The great thing is that they manage to transmit this enthusiasm to the young people of today and this is the key to success because the people who make the difference are those who work with us.

Here in Venice there are many beautiful hotels, some historical, others opening, but for us, who makes the difference and makes Palazzina what it is, is who works there and knows how to give and make the guest live an experience. If in the past people looked purely for the stay, now, after the covid, guests look for experiences.

It is therefore necessary to give a plus, there must be something extra that makes the difference in the stay. For example, think of services such as shopping at the market with the chef: this is a type of service that involves the guest, makes him or her feel at the centre and at the same time creates memories and encourages them to come back.

The guest has changed so much. First of all, in terms of expense, prices have risen considerably throughout Italy. The guest is more demanding, and rightly so, because the standard of living has also changed and he/she is therefore looking for that something more than in the past.

The guest wants to experience Venice not like the classic tourist who stays in a hotel and goes to St Mark’s Square, the Rialto and then leaves. The new guest wants to return home with something that fills him or her on an emotional level, and this comes from the ability of those who welcome him or her into the hotel.

Our task is to be able to arouse in him/her the desire to return. This, in addition to satisfying our guest, allows us to retain him or her in the long term. As we are a boutique hotel with 25 rooms, we try to make every guest’s stay taylormade.

In detail, it is important to remember their name, to greet them at breakfast in the morning, to know if they need anything, to ask how dinner went the day before in the restaurant we recommended, to make them feel not in a hotel but in a home. This is a fundamental concept for us and in a small hotel this is achievable, whereas in a hotel with 200 rooms it is much more complex. Another aspect that helps us is the fact that the staff remained solid even after the covid, whereas other hotels here in Venice have lost most of their staff.

True, the guest here is very demanding, but we have few complaints, the facility is maintained like a home, both by the housekeeping department and by all the staff in the other departments.

This allows us to keep all services at a very high level. Of course we also have to make our staff happy, so we include welfare programmes and projects, the opportunity to participate in training courses: all aspects that were not there until a few years ago. I’m also talking about financial bonuses to make the staff understand that we appreciate their work and their value. For me it is crucial to make every employee feel part of a project, especially in our case as we are an expanding group. The people who work here must know where we are going, what our mission and desires are and that they are part of that for us. This creates a solid, positive and lasting working environment.

It is a daily job. Everyone’s ideas are put together, it’s never one-sided, there is always a lot of discussion. Everyone is involved, from the people who organise events here, to the sales people, to the booking people, to the concierge, to the receptionists, to the management, to the owners, who are very involved in the day-to-day work and operations. In order to meet the needs of the guests, we collaborate with local craftsmen.

This is because the guest wants to experience the city, he/she does not want to feel like a tourist, he/she wants to experience something different, from the glassworks where they make you glass, to the mosaics, to the traditional weaving of the 1700s. For example, we offer a lot of different experiences depending on the guest we have, from the one who wants to go to the market with the chef and then cook what they bought, or the boat ride at sunset and then end up having dinner in Murano or Burano. The guest experience varies so much and is always designed in detail.

In terms of origin, there is a big difference from the pre-covid period. The international guest is always present, but we have (in percentage) more Italian guests. This makes me very happy because it means that Venice is being rediscovered by the inhabitants of our country. Maybe in the past the same Italians preferred foreign, exotic destinations and now they have realised that we have wonderful cities to experience. Italy is a wonderful place, from the mountains, to the sea, to the cities of art, we are unique in the world.

So much, it is right that there should be opportunities and ambitions in young people, or perhaps in less young people who have already made a career path and are perhaps looking for and finding stability. Those who are young are right to have ambition and to see a growth path, perhaps not all facilities, companies, can offer this. Certainly the big international groups, having hundreds of facilities, can give you a path to growth. We, in our small way, with the various establishments that we have and that we want to integrate, want to do the same. We want to grow while remaining faithful to Made in Italy, but with the possibility, for those who are part of the group, to be able to grow and be part of this evolution.

Before there were not so many training schools, now there are ones springing up in Italy. Perhaps we are a bit late compared to other nationalities like Switzerland or the United States. In Italy, realities similar to those abroad are now emerging and they are of great importance, especially for the future of the industry. There are beautiful aspects of this job, which are the human relationships, there is always the dark side, as in all jobs, the experience you have to build up and the efforts you have to make, in hospitality as in many other sectors. It is always a job, so you need dedication and willpower.

There are people who attend or will attend the course to become Sommeliers or to become Front Office Managers. We invest according to the inclinations and desires of the individual because as a company we are aware that when a person joins us, it is our job to provide them with the motivation to stay and grow with us. We aim to create a team in which they can grow and achieve professional satisfaction.

To a colleague I advise never to stop, to continue, to believe in what they do, to have the ambition and above all to have a good relationship with the people around them and to always find time for discussion, to nurture their desire to share. I tell young people to follow their passions and to be hungry for know-how, to learn from those with more experience and to share their ideas in order to bring something new, innovations and new visions.