Commercial Director
Unicorn Hospitality Group · Berlin, Germany · hybrid
Commercial Director (m/w/d)Berlin · Full-time · Member of the group leadership team
Who we areWe are hotel people. We believe a stay is made in the details nobody writes about: the room that is ready when the guest arrives early, the host who remembers the name, the bed made the same way in Oslo and in Munich. That is what our clients buy from us, and it is why they stay.
We started with a simple observation: hotel operations were bought in pieces. A cleaning contract here, a maintenance vendor there, a receptionist from an agency, and nobody who answered for the guest. So we put our own people in the building, under one agreement, with one person accountable. Our clients call it something that lets them grow. We call it hotel operations.
Today Unicorn Hospitality Group runs the operations behind some of Europe's fastest-growing hotel and serviced-apartment brands: the people in the building and everything it takes to run it, from the first room ready in the morning to the last guest checked in at night, delivered by our own people, on our clients' systems and the tools we build on top of them. Ten cities in five countries, close to 350 colleagues, and a German business that doubles this winter.
What we believe about growthWe do not chase contracts. We build relationships that last longer than the first building. Our best clients have given us their second, third and tenth house, because the first one worked. That is the only growth we are interested in.
We have come this far on the strength of the work and on relationships the Founder built himself. The next chapter needs someone whose job it is.
The roleYou lead Unicorn's commercial growth across Europe. You bring the next operators in, you build the relationships that make the one after that easier, and you sign the agreements yourself. And you decide, with the Founder and group management, what we build next and where. You will be in rooms where the easy answer is a cleaning contract; your job is to make the better one obvious.
You sit in the group leadership team, as well as co-aligned with our market General Managers, and you report to the Founder.
What you will do- You bring in the next operators across Europe, from first conversation to signed agreement
- You open new markets for existing clients and bring Unicorn into the cities where they go next
- You shape what Unicorn builds next, with the Founder: new service lines, new models for new building types, and the economics behind them, built from what the operators tell you they need
- You build the case for each new city and country: which operators are going there, when, and whether the volume carries a team, so group management decides on evidence rather than instinct
- You build the partnerships that put Unicorn inside the operators' ecosystem: property-management systems, suppliers, advisers and the people who see new buildings before they are public
- You build and keep the relationships with the development and operations leaders who decide how the segment buys operations
- You shape each offer with our relevant team members, inside a pricing framework agreed once per operator, and you negotiate it to signature
- You hand over cleanly at signature to the Group COO, who opens the house, and to the market General Manager, who runs the relationship, and you stay close through the first year so the second and third building follow
- You make Unicorn known to the people who matter: you choose where we show up, what we say and who says it, from the conferences worth attending to trade press, LinkedIn and the conversations that happen in between
- You keep a pipeline the leadership team can read in ten minutes
What you bring- Solid experience in hospitality operations, hotel services or hospitality real estate, and a track record of bringing operator or brand clients in across more than one European market
- You have closed agreements yourself, at director level, with operators or brands in the serviced-apartment, aparthotel or lifestyle-hotel segment, and you can show them
- You know the segment: who is growing, who decides, and how they buy operations
- You have been close enough to a housekeeping floor that an operations director takes you seriously
- You love hotels. Not the industry; hotels. The lobby at seven in the morning, a freshly made room, the host who gets it right. You carry that energy into every room you walk into, and people notice
- You are not here to sell what we have. You are here to tell us, and our clients, what the next version should be: which building needs a host and which does not, which service an operator will actually pay for, where we can do better. The Founder will challenge you. That is part of the job
- You use AI and data in your own work without being told to
- You run your own week and your own pipeline; you are comfortable being the first and only person in your function
- Fluent English; German or Dutch a strong advantage
- Based in Berlin or willing to relocate; around a third of your time travelling in Europe
What we offer- Mandate: you own new business for the group, with the authority to close inside an agreed framework
- Seat at the table: a place in the group leadership team of a company that is scaling now
- Base salary: EUR 85,000 to 100,000 gross per year, depending on track record
- Success bonus: a meaningful bonus for new operators, clients and partnerships you bring in, tied to what is signed and what opens
- Budget: travel and conference budget without approval rounds
- Place: Unicorn House on Veteranenstraße in Berlin-Mitte, with flexible hours
- Time off: 30 days of holiday and the option of a workation
- Getting around: Deutschlandticket covered; BahnCard when you travel as much as we expect you to
- Staying: discounted stays in the houses we operate, across Europe
- Kit: MacBook and phone
- The team: regular offsites with the leadership team and the market General Managers, in the cities where we operate
How to applyApply below with your CV and a few lines in your own words: the operator relationships you have built, the agreements you have closed, and the hotel you still think about. Name two operators you have signed with who will take our call. I read every application myself.
Lars Lindø, Founder and Chairman