Team
Meet the LFPI Hotels management team. Find out all about their background and careers at LFPI Hotels here.
Philipp Bessler - Managing Director
Philipp Bessler became director of development for the LFPI Hotel Group's expansion and acquisition business back in 2013.
He began his career by training as a hotel administrator at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, the launch pad for his career in the international hotel industry. After his training, he studied business administration at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Philipp Bessler was then instrumental in the European marketing and sales strategy at Hyatt International Hotels & Resorts.
Just a few years later, he was recruited by TREUGAST, a management consultancy specialised in hotel property, where he was latterly an authorised signatory and a member of the management team.
Mr Bessler has been in charge of LFPI Hotels in Germany and central Europe since 2015.
Philipp Bessler has more than 20 years' professional experience in the hotel and hospitality business.
Felix Herfurth - Commercial Director
Felix Herfurth joined the management team at the Cologne headquarters of the LFPI Hotels Management Deutschland Group as commercial director in early November 2015.
Mr. Herfurth's career started with vocational training at Depfa Bank (now the Aareal Bank) in Wiesbaden. He went to study business administration at the University of Bayreuth.
Mr Herfurth then joined the auditing firm KPMG in Frankfurt, working in corporate finance / M&A. Other roles in finance at Bank of Scotland and WestLB followed, where he specialised in structured finance.
Latterly, Mr Herfurth was director of Wiesbaden-based advena Hotelgesellschaft. His role included managing and developing the hotel portfolio and setting the strategic direction for the individual sites. In short, Felix Herfurth has wide-ranging experience not just in the transactions and financing business but also in the operations side of the hotel and hospitality sector.
Björn Müller - Head of Accounting & Controlling
Björn Müller joined the LFPI Group in September 2016 as management accountant, with responsibility for accounting and management accounting.
Following his hotel training at the Hyatt Regency in Cologne, he worked at the Hyatt Regency in Cologne, the Grand Kameha in Bonn, the Hilton Düsseldorf and most recently the Hyatt Regency in Düsseldorf.
He has purchasing management, financial accounting and management accounting expertise as well as 10 years' experience in the operations side of the hotel business.
Since November 2022, Mr. Müller has been responsible for the management of accounting and controlling for the LFPI Hotel Group
Stephanie Ley – Management Assistant & Development
Stephanie Ley has worked for LFPI Hotels Management Deutschland GmbH since 2016.
After a number of roles at reception at Maritim and Accor and in the bookings team at Dorint, the qualified hotel administrator became cluster reservation manager for the two LFPI hotels Hotel Indigo Düsseldorf-Victoriaplatz and Mercure Hotel Düsseldorf Zentrum in July 2016.
She then moved to the role of assistant to the management at Hotel Indigo Düsseldorf-Victoriaplatz in mid-2017, where she was the human resources contact person for staff and liaised between the management and the team.
Ms. Ley joined the head office in Cologne in April 2019 as assistant to the management focusing on development.
Reinier Franssen - General & Operational Manager
Reinier Franssen (business economist and hotelier) manages the first hotel in the LFPI Group's German hotel portfolio, Ibis Hotel Aachen Marschiertor, and is also the operational manager for LFPI's other Ibis Hotels, the Mercure Hotel "An der Urania" and the Best Western Hotel Kantstrasse in Berlin.
The hotelier began his hotel career in the Netherlands, where he completed five year's training as a chef and business economist after graduating from business school.
His jobs during this period included posts at the restaurant Le Patron in Epen, Schloss Bloemendal in Vaals and Toine Hermsen restaurant in Maastricht.
He then gained extensive operational experience in hotel chains in over 16 years at the Accor group. Before joining the LFPI Group, Mr Franssen held management posts at a number of Accor hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Katja Schnabel - General- & Operational Manager
Katja Schnabel has been part of the LFPI team since 2012. As general manager, she was in charge of rebranding the Lindner Hotel Rhein Residence, where she had previously worked for 15 years, as the Hotel Indigo Düsseldorf-Victoriaplatz, an IHG group lifestyle brand.
The trained hotel administrator has worked in the industry since 1995. Following an apprenticeship in Essen, Ms Schnabel left the Ruhr metropolis for Zurich, where she spent a year and a half at companies including Marriott before returning to North Rhine-Westphalia and continuing her career in the Rhineland.
She held roles including that of head of sales and deputy manager, resident manager and general manager. Alongside Hotel Indigo, Katja Schnabel is also responsible for the Mercure Hotel in Roßstraße, Düsseldorf.
She became regional manager at LFPI in summer 2019, which includes responsibility for the long-established Bielefelder Hof hotel in Bielefeld.
Sebastian Horn - Cluster und Operational Manager
Sebastian Horn joined LFPI Hotels Management Deutschland GmbH back in mid-2011.
He became assistant to the management at LFPI in 2012 after ten years' professional experience at Accor Hotels, Dorint and Azimuth Hotels.
After completing the hotel management programme in 2011, he joined the ibis Styles Hotel Hamburg Alster City as hotel manager in 2012.
He also took over the management of the ibis Styles Speyer as cluster manager in late 2012.
Over the years that followed, he acted as project manager at other sites for the repositioning and rebranding of hotels in the German LFPI hotel portfolio. Sebastian Horn is now the new manager of operations for north-east Germany at LFPI Hotels Management Deutschland GmbH and will initially continue as cluster manager for the Hamburg and Lübeck sites. Mr Horn joined the LFPI management team in mid-2016, where he is in charge of HR & employer branding. Digitisation and staff benefits are two of his key focuses in this role.