Friedrich Niemann, upon departure: Sitting back and relaxing is not my cup of tea

After five years at the helm of the Athenee Palace Hilton five-star hotel in Bucharest, Friedrich Niemann has decided to change scenery. He will leave towards the end of August to run the Waldorf Astoria in Berlin. Before embarking on the new journey, he has talked to Romania Insider about the past five years in Romania and about the life of a hotel manager. By Corina Saceanu If you ever went to the Athenee Palace Hilton hotel downtown Bucharest anytime in the last five years, you have surely seen around Friedrich Niemann – the hotel's manager. It was hard not to notice him, he was almost always around to greet people or supervise activities. “I walk the floor of the hotel up to five times a day, particularly the restaurants, the lobby, the public areas, to meet and greet guests, I also go to the back of the house,” he says. Frieder, as most of his friends call him, gets deadly bored sitting at a desk, in an office.

“This is something I cherish about this job - it is very dynamic and flexible, it goes hand in hand with my personality; after two hours at the desk, I get impatient, I have to move around.”