Luis Di Giorgio, General Manager of Hotel Albatros, Argentina
by Marcela Ledesma
After overcoming a series of difficulties, five years ago Luis di Giorgio assumed the general management of the Hotel Albatros, in Ushuaia. It is not just a position, the history of the establishment is part of his life and he has become the public image of a project that makes him proud.
Under his leadership, the hotel celebrates its 40th anniversary with an excellent position in the markets it serves and unbeatable prospects of reaching new ones.
At the age of 37, Di Giorgio also participated in the opening and commissioning of two other successful hotels in Ushuaia, the city that dazzled him when he was a young man in search of his destiny.
A teacher outside the academy
Elevator operator, doorman, porter at the City Hotel in Buenos Aires -Today NH- were the first steps of a 17-year-old teenager in the world of hospitality. Then came compulsory military service and finally two months of vacation before his leave ran out and he returned to his post. Backpack on his shoulder and in the company of a friend, he decided to take a tour of Patagonia. That trip changed the life of Luis Di Giorgio, general manager of the Albatros hotel.
There, in front of the Beagle Channel, or perhaps in the bay of Lapataia, where the immensity of silence is so resoundingly perceived, the young man imagined a destination and felt that the place to start building it was that city that grew timidly on the slopes of the Andes mountain range, almost where the world ends.
The first place where he showed up to look for work was the Albatros hotel and within 48 hours of arriving he had a night receptionist position. From that rather isolated position he became interested in all aspects of the job, he began to go outside his hours to see what the daytime movement of the reception was like and when a vacancy was presented he went to the afternoon shift. Step after step he was ascending to his current position, although not everything was so linear.
"I have no academic training, I learned everything working; I went through all the stalls, observing a lot and always attentive to what people need on one side of the counter and the other," says Luis, while recreating his life story, in one of the hotel's lounges. "I had a great reference, Juan Kratzmaier, who was general manager for several seasons" he continues and adds that the link transcended the labor: Kratzmaier, who is retired and lives in Bariloche, became a teacher from whom he not only took his knowledge of the hospitality industry, but also codes of life and ethical principles.
Some flee and others stay
Located in front of the port of Ushuaia, on the coastal avenue, the Albatross is a symbol of the city. It was built by the government of Tierra del Fuego as part of a plan to encourage tourism development in a province that 40 years ago barely glimpsed its potential. For a long time it was the most important building, center of the social life of Ushuaia.
In 1991 the concession passed into the hands of the Sociedad Hotelera Sudamericana, which at the end of that year faced the construction of the Hotel del Glaciar. Luis Di Giorgio, then head of reception at albatross, actively participated in the project from its inception and was summoned to take charge of the opening of the new property, as reception manager. With 123 rooms, three convention halls, confectionery, restaurant, a casino that was incorporated a few months later, the hotel marked another milestone for Ushuaia. In 1993, without having yet reached the age of 24, he became reception manager and in charge of the reservations of the two establishments.
When Sociedad Sudamericana sold the Albatross concession, Kratzmaier left and Luis took care of a new venture: the opening and start-up of the 4-star Los Ñires hotel. While continuing his career outside the Albatross, he saw how it entered a deep crisis that culminated in the flight of the concessionaire company, after defrauding the provincial State and leaving the employees to their fate. After two years, a new tender was called for six months, with the aim of reopening the hotel and putting it into operation to deliver it sanitized to a new concession for 10 years. He won a consortium formed by the owners of the hotels Cap Polonio, Los Ñires, Hostal del Bosque and the receptive tourism company Rumbo Sur, under the name of Albatros S.A., which began working from day one with the aspiration of staying with the management of the hotel for ten years.
Reborn from the ashes
Luis Di Giorgio left his position as manager at Los Ñires, a fully functioning, new hotel that offered him no conflict, to take a temporary management in an abandoned and closed hotel, with the staff installed inside. "I was the only person who knew most people as I had worked with them for over 8 years and had a good dialogue with everyone. From the beginning I was clear that the only way to do something was with people, in a teamwork, but at the same time I had perfectly defined their verticality, with responsible for each area. However, I went through difficult situations. The employees had been badly mistreated and had a great resentment. I was also returning as a general manager after having left as a colleague and many knew me since I was a receptionist. However, I had confidence, because I had put as a condition that if the new tender was won, I would stay in the position," he recalls five years after those events.
A very important investment was made to completely renovate the facilities and new services such as the business center, a gym and a spa were incorporated. Thanks to a patient work with operators and travel agencies, it was possible to reinstall it as a benchmark for high-level tourism that comes to the city. There are two challenges pending: to take advantage of the particular attraction of the ski resorts with the longest snowfall in the Southern Hemisphere to attract more Latin American visitors, especially Brazilians, unconditional lovers of Argentine Patagonia. The second, take advantage of the low season months, from April to June, to encourage cultural tourism around the two events that the city has organized for several seasons: The Classical Music Festival and the Biennial of the End of the World. "If we were able to reposition the hotel as we did, after overcoming such hard situations, everything else is possible," says Luis Di Giorgio, who knows about challenges.
