Lior Lipman, CEO of Atlas Hotels: Ethics in Crisis
During Israel’s recent conflict, hotels faced extraordinary challenges in keeping operations running and supporting evacuated families. In this interview, Lior Lipman, CEO of Atlas Hotels, shares how he and his team balanced rapid decision-making, ethical dilemmas, and financial realities to lead through the crisis.
—What are the biggest operational challenges you’ve faced during the war? Can you share an example of a quick solution?
Lior’s response:
The main challenge was: what do we do — do we close hotels or not? Do we keep the staff or not? In what situations, and how do we manage the hotels?
We decided not to make any hasty moves in a reality of uncertainty. In the initial stage, we didn’t close hotels at all and didn’t send any employees home until we understood what was happening. We started communicating the uncertainty to employees — especially to headquarters staff, because the hotels kept operating.
Some hotel employees stayed home with their children. Some were afraid to come to work. Overall, we kept the hotels operating.
We understood we might eventually have to take in evacuees, so we tried to prepare. Every time there was a request for evacuees, they filled a specific hotel with them and didn’t spread them among multiple hotels. Eight hotels received evacuees.
One of the decisions was not to take evacuees in every hotel, because operationally, if you don’t fill a hotel only with evacuees and you have paying guests alongside them, it’s harder and more expensive to manage and creates a worse experience for everyone — the employee, the evacuee, and the paying guest.
The decision was that some hotels, at least in the beginning, wouldn’t take evacuees at all. They would remain “sterile,” ready to host paying guests.
We also decided that some hotels would not host evacuees so we could keep hosting paying guests, with the understanding that if the war ended quickly, we could return to normal operations. Because once evacuees enter, you don’t evict them, they stay until they leave.
And soon we could host standard guests — tourists, not people without homes. Which, overall, we are glad to take part in, but it’s not why we opened the business.
—What were your first decisions when the war began? Did you use existing emergency plans or improvise?
Lior’s response:
Basically, it was half-adjustment. We didn’t know exactly what to do, but we’d been in this scenario before, especially in the first weeks of October 7.
We were well practiced, had been through the uncertainty, and knew which decisions not to make — like closing a specific hotel or sending employees on unpaid leave.
From so much experience, we already had half a plan ready. On the day the war broke out, it was clear how much easier it was for us compared to last time — everyone knew what they needed to do.
We still had to make decisions, coordinate, understand the situation — but nothing surprised us anymore.
—What motivated Atlas to take in evacuated families? Was it mainly moral, business, or both? How do you balance ethics and finances?
Lior’s response:
That’s an excellent question, in my opinion. This is truly a question we have faced many times. On the one hand, we understood we had the opportunity to do something good — to contribute, to be good people in this world — and we really wanted to be that.
On the other hand, our business has been bleeding for years. It’s a tough situation. We’ve gone through so many crises in recent years and can’t afford to do certain things because we might lose business altogether.
Within this situation, there was still the desire to be good and do good, despite a conflict of interest.
Before the government woke up and before the municipalities understood what was going on, we opened our hotels as soon as we realized there was a need.
We launched the solidarity campaign — not to maximize profit, but to survive and still do good. It was an initiative to offer significantly reduced rates so people who needed a safe place to stay could afford it. And that did bring us revenue — about 700,000 shekels in a few days at the lower prices.
It was both for morals and to keep the business alive.
We also immediately accepted donated room bookings, before the official evacuees arrived. We took them gladly.
In our internal discussions, our message was clear: we had an opportunity to give people a home. Some had lost everything, so it was a painful situation. We wanted to do good for them — to care for them and make them feel comfortable.
We did have to reduce certain services. For example, we stopped happy hour and removed some premium food items like salmon at breakfast. However, we didn’t cancel all amenities. We continued offering things like tea, coffee, cookies, and other small touches to maintain a sense of hospitality.
At the same time, when we host evacuees, we have no idea how long it will last, and we expect to fight with the government to get paid, which won’t be easy.
When the war ends, paying guests will start coming back, but the evacuees will still be staying with us. We won’t be able to return to normal quickly, and that will hurt the business.
It’s very complex, but ultimately, when the situation happened, it was very clear to us that we were part of this. We’re giving people a good home — and we’ll cope.
In the short term, it allowed us to keep hotels open, to give our teams work, to protect their livelihoods. That’s very important, because looking ahead, you don’t want to face a future where your staff is scattered, and your hotels need rehabilitation.
In the end, it felt like the right thing — to maintain that balance between ethics and business.
—How financially sustainable is housing evacuees? Do you get government support, or cover costs internally?
Lior’s response:
The prices we get from the government, compared to what we could get from regular guests or the open market, are much lower. Meanwhile, the cost of hosting evacuated families is much higher because we must provide three meals a day.
And more than that — we are not equipped for this. Most of our hotels aren’t kosher, and we don’t have kitchens that can provide three meals a day in most of them, so this costs us much more.
It’s not ideal for us at all, but when there’s no other work, you can’t be picky. If there’s no work, you take what you can get, and you do what you must.
A kosher hotel serving three meals daily quickly filled up with evacuees, making it sustainable and even profitable. Other hotels without this setup and lower evacuee occupancy are not profitable and operate at a loss. But it’s still less bad than having no guests at all.
The state doesn’t really help. It pays for what it chooses, and if you want it, take it; if not, look elsewhere
Then you have to fight. Today, we’re fighting with Ramat Gan municipality — they sent evacuees who never showed up, despite us preparing food, staffing up, and holding rooms. They refuse to pay, so we’re fighting the state, which doesn’t help and even makes things harder. We knew it would be like this, but we went ahead anyway.
We’ll fight as much as needed, hoping to recover what we can. But we don’t rely on the government or the authorities. The past years proved it to us — they help but not enough. During this war they hardly helped at all.
—How has your 16 years of hands-on experience shaped your leadership during this crisis?
Lior’s response:
I know the people, the hotels, the operations, the needs, the challenges, and the sensitivities. I know the character of the people personally, from hotel to hotel. So, I also understand what challenges are greater in one place compared to another.
When you know your product — your strengths and weaknesses — and what a day looks like, not from above in an ivory tower, but in the reality of operations and departments, you understand the differences between hotels and people. You see what helps a hotel succeed, fail, or get support. That insight is priceless.
My teams reflected my leadership during this time. It helped me better understand what’s happening on the ground, with the people, how to make the right decisions, sensitively and with care.
Without the journey I went through, I wouldn’t be able to make decisions from this connected place — understanding, taking different circumstances and sensitivities into account.
And that’s very important — certainly in our business.
—How have you adapted Atlas’s service model for evacuated families instead of typical tourists?
Lior’s response:
It depends on whether we took evacuees or not.
We didn’t change anything in hotels without evacuees. Everything continued as usual. Paying guests still received the same product.
As for hotels with evacuees, we didn’t have much choice but to adapt. We had to offer meals, which we don’t usually do.
If you provide meals, you also have to consider Happy hour and hotels that serve free wine in the lobby. We couldn’t allow free alcohol at these rates.
Cleaning also changed. From our experience during October 7, we changed housekeeping policy:
- Full cleaning once a week
- Every two days — towel and trash replacement
We also stopped mid-shifts at reception.
We stopped Happy Hour in hotels with dinner service — but still offered tea, coffee, cookies — each hotel did something different.
At breakfast, we removed the most expensive items — like salmon.
Some hotels stopped serving brunch, though we still offered a generous meal without alcohol or the full menu. We stopped taking reservations through our booking platforms. In other hotels, we kept brunch the same — same price, product, and service.
—How will this experience influence Atlas’s strategy and brand after the crisis?
Lior’s response:
We’re expanding beyond city centers — this started during COVID, continued with the Gaza war, and now this reinforces it.
We want resort hotels outside cities.
Right now, for example, we are working on a hotel on the Kinneret with 150 rooms. It will be different from our usual hotels, though still very Atlas-like. It’s a vacation hotel, a large property with many public areas.
The type of lease agreements we’ll make going forward will be much more sensitive to crises like war and pandemics. Even now, we were relatively prepared, but this period has shown how crucial this is. These agreements are our lifeline in difficult times.
We will also be more focused on real estate. In other words, looking ahead, we plan to rely as little as possible on leasing and instead try to purchase properties whenever we can, even if that means taking on commitments, mortgages, and so on.
Essentially, becoming property owners — in other words.
