Guy Klaiman of the David Kempinski Tel Aviv on thriving during conflict

Travel Weekly

17 hours ago

The David Kempinski Tel Aviv opened in April 2022, not two years before the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Despite a downturn in travel to Israel since then, the hotel managed to have one of its best months ever in April. Guy Klaiman, general manager of the oceanfront property, spoke to news editor Johanna Jainchill about why the hotel is performing so well and its approach to staff, guests and travel advisors.
Guy Klaiman
Q: What's behind the hotel's positive performance?
A: In very challenging times, if you look at our compset, in 2024 we did relatively very well. In April, we did one of our best months ever. When we opened, we introduced a completely different level of product, of service. We did a lot of hard work in terms of sales and distribution. But one thing that is always the most important for me is our team, and they were in front of any decision we took. We have a very low turnover compared to the local market -- about 14% when the market is around 40%. Our investment into training and loyalty of the team makes the biggest difference compared to our competition. We also had a very different approach to the business during this war. For me, it was not the first crisis: I was running the Waldorf in Jerusalem during another operation in Gaza and with Covid. In Israel, we go through cycles.
Q: What was different about this one?
A: We pointed to three major priorities: One, to look after our team members in every aspect: their job, their security. Some had financial issues, so for instance, we allowed the family to come and to dine in our beautiful staff restaurant. Our philosophy is very clear: If our team members are happy, our guests will be happy. We hardly laid off anyone during the war, taking the decision that we might make less profit but that we are here for a marathon and not a sprint. The people that will make the difference in the near future are our team members, and we see that now when we are outperforming the market and doing extremely well, mainly because of the quality of service.
Q: What are the other two main priorities?
A: Our guests: We gave them a 100% guarantee of free cancellation, even on the day of arrival. You need to give assurance for the customers that they can go ahead and book and if something happens -- the cancellation of flights or they just don't feel secure enough to come -- we won't charge you. We didn't charge even $1 of cancellation fees. That made a lot of difference to our guests. People won't book at all if they are afraid to go because of charges. They will decide, "I don't want to take the chance."
Then there are our partners: the consortia and travel agents. The issues started Oct. 7, and by Oct. 10 we had called all our partners that had future business with us and had paid a deposit, we asked for an account number and said, "We'd like to send you back the deposit." This was very unique. Usually, companies negotiate and want to keep the money for future business. In 24 hours, everyone got their deposits back, about $1 million in revenue. And believe me, the same agents have booked nearly double that amount this year. They said, "You were the only one that called within three days and gave us the money back. That cash flow was important to us."
Q: Even though you just opened in 2022, you've already made several upgrades and additions.
A: We made changes using our own people's feedback and guest feedback. We added food and beverage concepts and tripled the number of experiences. I believe that travel is like fashion: If you don't change, you don't move forward, you are not relevant. Tel Aviv is a small market with a lot of returning guests. Some have come 10, 12, 14 times. We need to show them we are moving forward. This message is very important: that all the time, we are creating new experiences inside and outside the hotel.