In an effort to maintain all the grace and charm of the ageless European private hotels, Heidelberg's Hotel Europa continues the traditions of personalised service and attention to detail that began in 1865.

Ernst-Friedrich Von Kretschmann is a man who prefers to speak candidly. Not for him any lofty show of pretense or aloofness. He will tell you exactly what he sees as the problems and highlights of his industry, and spell out the reasons why when many other private hotels are selling out to large companies, he prefers to run his hotel his way with his wife, Sylvia sharing Management duties.

"The challenge for hoteliers here in Germany is that we Germans seem not to be prepared to spend money on five-star accommodation in our country", he says. "Yet this is not the case when Germans travel abroad however, where it is not uncommon for many to stay at the best hotels and pay top dollar. It has to be made clear to them, and to travellers in general, that people cannot expect to buy a Mercedes for the price of a VW, and so too with hotels. One cannot expect to have five-star service when one elects to pay one-star prices. My personal challenge therefore is to run a five-star hotel at a price which works with the client".

Challenge is however something that Herr Von Kretschmann thrives on, coming as he does from a family who have run the same business for over three generations. In this time the family enterprise has survived two World Wars, a Depression, and even annexation of their business by the Allied forces.