The director of business development shares how she manages a healthy mix of work and holiday travel
When you are travelling, there’s nothing quite like experiencing a place like a local. Homestays offer a certain authenticity, but the Pulitzer Amsterdam does one better by throwing you in the midst of the city’s famed heritage—while immersing you in tasteful luxury. We are talking about 25 canal houses of prosperous tradesman having been converted to a luxury hotel along the city’s most picturesque canals, Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht. And Yvonne van der Klaauw was in the midst of it all as the hotel’s director of business development.
Yvonne had no doubts about what career she wanted to pursue growing up. She set foot into the hospitality industry soon after graduating with a degree in hotel management in Zwolle, cutting her teeth in many luxury hotels across the globe. She started as a guest & public relations and sales manager at Prince de Galles in Paris and moved on to various high-level positions in the industry and across many luxury hotels around the globe. Although she confesses to “a fear of flying” the quintessential Dutch in her didn’t allow that to come in the way of her love of exploring her surroundings and enjoying life for what it is worth. Yvonne made the most of her overseas sojourns.
In 2015, her career path brought her to the Pulitzer Amsterdam, which was going through an extensive refurbishment and brand repositioning. The hotel, which was the brainchild of publishing heir Peter Pulitzer, initially opened only with 12 converted canal houses. The refurbishment, which spanned one and a half years was to take it up to 25 canal houses and a total of 225 individual rooms under the stewardship of creative director Jacu Strauss. The hotel is today one of the go-to design hotels in Amsterdam and a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts’ Legend collection.
