Worldwide Hospitality Awards

Claudia Pronk (Alumna (1991), Hotelschool The Hague) Claudia is committed to improve financial performance by focusing on constantly improving guest satisfaction and building a team culture of being engaged and taking ownership.

At the age of 15, Claudia Pronk attended a Career Choice Day at school and instantly knew what she was destined to become; a Hotel Manager. Although her parents „warned” her of the long days and the heavy job, they fully supported her all the way. They advised Claudia to first find a job in a local restaurant during weekends before applying for admission at Hotelschool The Hague. Soon after Claudia started as a waitress at restaurant “De Kroon” in the city where she was born, Weesp in the Netherlands.

Successfully attaining her degree at the Hotelschool The Hague in 1991, Claudia commenced her career, with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Nuernberg, Germany, as a Sales Assistant. This job was offered to her after she completed her 1 year Management Traineeship Programme with Forte Hotels. At that time, the hotel in Nuernberg was part of the Forte group, which was later acquired by Le Meridien, which then was taken over by Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Building on her sales experience, Claudia joined the flagship property of InterContinental Hotels, the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as a Sales & Banquet Manager. In this role, she was part of the re-opening team after a major renovation during which the hotel has been closed for 2 years. After this valuable experience, Claudia returned to the Starwood group at Le Meridien Apollo in Amsterdam to take on the role of Reception Manager and develop her leadership skills. From this initial role Claudia was promoted to Front Office Manager and a year later to Rooms Division Manager. After over 3 years in this property, Claudia was offered a promotion and joined the Le Meridien Parkhotel in Frankfurt as an Executive Assistant Manager. This was a new position, established because the responsibilities of the General Manager of the hotel were extended to an area role. Based on Claudia’s increased responsibilities and excellent performance, she was promoted to Hotel Manager. After 3 ½ years in Frankfurt Claudia was promoted within the group again, and became the Deputy General Manager in the 953 room and 2000 persons conference hotel Le Meridien Montparnasse in Paris. She was in this position during the 9/11 attack and highly contributed to successfully manage the hotel through very challenging times. Claudia took it upon her to temporarily reorganise parts of the hotel by means of freezing the public area cleaning outside contract, and have those tasks performed by the hotel’s housekeeping room attendants’ team. In 2003, at the age of 34, Claudia was promoted to take on her first General Manager’s position. She transferred to The Hague where she successfully managed the takeover of Hotel Des Indes by Le Meridien to become Le Meridien Hotel Des Indes. “It was amazing to return to the city where I studied and being given the opportunity to lead Hotel Des Indes. During my time at Hotelschool The Hague, I passed by the hotel very often on my bike and could not have dreamt of this”. Claudia led the major renovation (cost EUR 35 M) and re-positioning of this ‘Grande dame’ and was General Manager of this prestigious hotel for 5 years. She was then asked to do the opening of the new built Grand Mauritian, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa in Mauritius. This is an important hotel for the group as it was the first Luxury Collection property in the Indian Ocean. “The culture shock from being a General Manager in The Hague to being a General Manager in Mauritius could not have been bigger. But I really loved that challenge, and as a team we executed a great opening; on time, on budget and on brand”. Claudia remained a full year after the opening and was then contacted by Anantara to lead their cluster of 3 luxury resorts around 1 lagoon in The Maldives. Based on the excellent performance of all 3 resorts, Claudia received the “Tiger Award”; an intrapreneur award given out yearly by the Minor Hotel Group, which Anantara is part of. She remained in this position for 2 ½ years after which she requested to be relocated to a less remote location.

Claudia then transferred to the group’s flagship property Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort & Spa. After having run the property, which was just rebranded from Marriott to Anantara, for a year, Claudia decided to pursue a goal she had developed during her years as General Manager; obtaining a Master’s Degree. She took a break from work, relocated with her husband and son to Switzerland, where she did the MBA study, specialising in International Business. She finalised the study in October 2015 and graduated with merit. Eager to re-join the industry, Claudia was very happy to have taken on the General Manager’s role at Nira Alpina since the 1st of November 2015. In this lovely alpine design resort, which was opened under Nira Hotels & Resorts management in winter 2011, Claudia found a great team and she is fully committed to further enhance the guest experience and improve results together.