The people behind the idea – Built by someone who never left hospitality.
A founder's story. A team built on trust. And a genuine love for the hotels that make travel worth something.
Fifteen years inside the world's finest hotels then one question that changed everything.
Coherence Collection exists because the hotels we love most — the small ones, the family ones, the ones with a soul — are fighting harder than ever to survive. And because someone, eventually, had to do something about that.
That someone is us. And below, our founder Sascha Schulze will tell you exactly why — in his own words.
We asked Sascha the questions we felt a future client or partner would really want answered. No scripts. No PR polish. Just Sascha.
This takes about four minutes to read. We think it's worth it.
Where does this all come from for you?
– Sascha
You know, I was six years old. We were on a family holiday and I walked into a hotel kitchen — not because anyone invited me, just because I was curious — and I remember the energy in that room. The heat, the speed, the way everyone was moving together toward something. I didn't have the words for it then. But I knew, immediately, that this was my world.
My grandfather built a hotel in Berlin. So hospitality was already in my family before it was in my career. I studied it, I trained in it — Relais & Châteaux in Dresden, Four Seasons in London during the Olympics, then Berlin, then the Ritz-Carlton, then Hyatt. Fifteen years of living inside some of the most iconic hotels in Europe. And I loved every single bit of it.
"But the more I grew, the more I could see something the industry didn't want to say out loud — that the small hotels, the beautiful ones, the ones run by families who poured their lives into them, were slowly losing ground."Coherence Collection is basically my answer to that. It's the thing I had to build.
You had a real career — Les Trois Rois, Brenners Park, Grand Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton. Why walk away from all of that?
– Sascha
To be honest, it wasn't a decision I made one afternoon. It was something I felt building for a long time. When you lead a commercial team, you get really close to the numbers. You see exactly how a hotel breathes — or doesn't. And what I kept seeing was the gap between what the big chains can do and what a family-run boutique hotel can do on its own. The resources, the tech, the marketing budgets — there's no comparison. And yet the boutique hotels, the ones with 20 or 25 rooms, often have more soul in one corridor than a 400-room chain property has in its entire building.
At Les Trois Rois I was part of a CHF 30 million transformation. I mean, we launched a Japanese spa, a new restaurant, a full digital and brand overhaul. I loved the work. But I kept thinking — what if I could take that kind of energy, that kind of commercial thinking, and bring it to the hotels that actually need it most?
I believe more in surrendering to what's right than in pushing hard against it. And this felt right. So here we are.
The name is unusual. "Coherence." Where does that actually come from?
– Sascha
The word comes from my personal life, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I've been attending retreats with Dr. Joe Dispenza for several years — usually in Mexico. It's deep inner work, and it has completely changed how I see leadership, how I see people, how I see business.
Coherence, in that world, means everything working together. Your thoughts, your body, your intentions — all aligned. No friction. No noise. Just clarity.
"I looked at what I wanted to build and thought: that's exactly it. A collection of hotels, advisors, people — all working in coherence. All pointing in the same direction."And yeah, honestly, I also love that it sounds warm and connected, not cold or corporate. Because that's what hospitality is about at its best — people who feel seen, teams that feel held, guests who feel that someone actually cares they're there. Coherence is the word that captures all of that for me.
A boutique hotelier is reading this right now — stressed about OTA commissions, next season, keeping the lights on. What do you actually do for them?
– Sascha
Good. I love that question because it's the real one.
Basically, we work on three levels. The first is Community — a newsletter and network for independent hoteliers. People who are doing what you're doing, who have solved problems you haven't encountered yet, who want to share and learn together. Because one of the biggest challenges in running a small hotel is that you're often very alone with your decisions. That doesn't have to be the case.
The second is Advisory — this is the hands-on work with my team. Commercial strategy, direct booking generation, reducing OTA dependency, brand development, digital transformation. Real consulting, not theory. I've done this at a very high level for fifteen years. We know what works and we know what doesn't.
The third is Coaching — leadership, people, performance. Because you know, the biggest difference between hotels that thrive and hotels that struggle is almost never the product. It's the team. It's the culture. It's whether your people feel good coming to work.
And long-term — I'll be honest, this is the big vision — I want to build a soft marketing chain connecting boutique hotels globally. Less than 30 rooms, family-run, four to five stars. So that these properties have collective power, collective reach, without losing any of their individual character.
AI tools for small hotels — are you really building that?
– Sascha
Yes. And I'm really excited about it, to be honest. We're building AI tools specifically designed for small hotels — the kind of tools that the big chains spend millions on, but that a family property in the Dolomites or the Algarve could never normally access. Tools that help automate the repetitive things, that help generate direct bookings, that lower OTA commissions without sacrificing visibility.
I mean, I got into hospitality because I love people. And, yeah — the irony is that hotels today spend so much time in front of screens, managing platforms and dashboards and data, that the actual human time with guests is shrinking. That's the problem we're solving. Give hotels the tools to do the boring stuff faster, so they can spend more time doing what they actually got into this for.
What does success actually look like for you — not the revenue targets, the real thing?
– Sascha
Success looks like a conversation I have one day with a hotelier — a second-generation owner, maybe, who inherited the property from her father — where she tells me that her hotel is still open, still thriving, and still hers. That she didn't have to sell to a chain. That she didn't have to sacrifice what made it special just to survive.
"That is why I'm doing this. Not for the business case — though the business case is very real — but because I genuinely love these places, and I love the people who run them."I've spent fifteen years inside luxury hotels. I know what it takes to build something great and keep it alive. And now I want to bring that to the places that need it most. That's what coherence means, in the end — everything working together, so that something beautiful doesn't disappear.
What we offer – Three Ways we work with you.
Depending on where you are and what you need most.
Community
The Network
A newsletter and growing community of independent hoteliers — sharing knowledge, asking the real questions, and building something collectively that none of us can build alone.
Advisory
The Work
Hands-on commercial consulting: direct booking strategy, digital transformation, brand development, OTA reduction. Real expertise from someone who has done this at the highest level.
Coaching
The People
Leadership, team culture, and performance coaching for hospitality professionals. Because the difference between a hotel that survives and one that thrives is almost always its people.
Our Team
Not colleagues.
People I've trusted
for fifteen years.
I want to be really honest about something. Coherence Collection is not a company I built with people I found on LinkedIn. It's a team I found in hotel corridors — in London, Berlin, Baden-Baden, Basel — over fifteen years of working together in some of the most beautiful properties in Europe.
Some of us first met when we were young and just starting out. Others came later, when I was leading departments and they were the people I trusted most to run things beside me. Every single person on this team has stood next to me in pressure, in uncertainty, in the kind of situations that reveal who someone actually is. And every time, they showed up.
That's who I wanted to build this with. And that's who is here.
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Sascha
Founder & Commercial Director
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Jan
Content & Social Strategy Lead
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Anne
Brand & Clarity Lead
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Ronald
Art Director
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Franziska
Words & Wellbeing Lead
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Pierce
Words & Narrative
"If any of this resonates – the way you'd want a conversation with someone who actually understands your world to feel – then let's talk."
We work with a small number of properties at a time, by design. The right fit matters more than volume. If you're running an independent boutique hotel and you're thinking about what's next — direct bookings, digital presence, team culture, long-term strategy — reach out. No pitch deck, no sales process. Just an honest conversation.
If any of this feels right stay close.
Join The Boutique Journal and we'll keep you in the conversation. Twice a month. No noise. Just things worth reading for people who care about independent hospitality