Peter gives a bold idea a face: a church that also has a café and a hotel. A real hotel, not a retreat center.
We often encounter the question of how the hotel and catering business relates to the Gospel.
Faith & works. For Peter, being Catholic has always been linked to very concrete acts of charity. As Managing Director of our Café and Hotel Karol, he would therefore like to focus on precisely this and be a sign that business can also be a place where charity is consciously practiced. He was particularly influenced by the hospitality he experienced in his childhood and youth, of which he tells us an anecdote.
When hospitality is a matter of course.
“In my family, it was a matter of course to always bring friends home, whether for lunch or dinner, weekends or vacations. The same was practiced with “tramps” – beggars who used to ask for money at the front door. Of course, they were invited for a meal and usually given a shower and “new” clothes beforehand.
Charity was practiced and actively lived in many different ways. The most important experience is that everything you give, you get back in one way or another.”
And why the hotel business?
“Purely by chance. My career goal at the time was actually to teach sex education in East African or South American countries. However, this was not possible due to a flood disaster in Germany that year. I was offered a job in a hotel and I took it as a temporary solution…that would turn into 23 years,” Peter shares with a hearty laugh, and continues:
”The profession is incredibly varied. You deal with completely different topics. However, the primary goal is always to make guests happy with their individual wishes. Of course, it is also important to work profitably in order to achieve economic sustainability. You can and should live your values and ideals in every profession. In my specific case, it’s charity – you can live it out and experience it with your employees. Charity is also experienced by making guests happy, by anticipating and recognizing their wishes and needs and fulfilling them – as far as that is possible”
Café Karol precisely
“Charity is important. It is so much: appreciation, acceptance, forgiveness, listening and much more. If you live this, it is passed on from person to person and the world becomes a little better.”
In the Catholic Church, we talk about very specific works of mercy. Works of mercy include “welcoming the stranger” and, of course, feeding the hungry and thirsty. We asked Peter: “How do you think this is possible in a commercialized environment? How can we combine mercy and business?”
“First of all, it is important that the café and hotel are commercially successful. The income will make a significant contribution to financing the operation of ZJP II. However, it would be nice if special offers in the café and hotel/meeting area could encourage guests and customers to do good by booking services. This could be a special rate in the hotel where 10% goes to a development aid project or, for example, where a guest consumes something at extra cost to help others. One example of this is the café sospeso – a tradition from Naples that we will also be implementing. You order one espresso, but pay for two. The second is “pushed” (sospeso), i.e. saved for someone who can’t afford a café. We will do the same with a food offer. The respective recipient of the “pushed” food/drinks will be an institution in the neighborhood that cares for people in need. In addition, there will be various events where special food or drinks will be sold, the proceeds of which will be donated to charitable causes.”
We are really looking forward to our café and Hotel Karol, and to all the encounters we can have there. Peter shares a final word with us:
I wish for many great guests, whom we can give an unforgettable time in Vienna with our café, hotel and center.
