Meet The Team : Dwight Hopfauf

Name: Dwight Hopfauf
Title: General Manager

1. How long have you been with Hotel Julien Dubuque?   

It will be seven terrific years in September of 2019.

2. What path brought you to Hotel Julien Dubuque? Please share a little bit about your professional background and what led you to this industry.

My first love really is medicine, so one needs to associate medicine to hospitals, and then hospitals to hotels, then hotels to hospitality, and there you are, both are about taking care of people, thus the career path.

3. What are you most passionate about professionally?

Creating the feeling for the guests that they are in the right place, at the right time, all the time. Shock and awe experiences!

4. What are you passionate about personally? What is your favorite way to spend a free weekend?

With my family, my bride Lynn, and my two teenagers, Mackenzie and Jacob, though free weekends are hard to come by in this industry.

5. What are some of your favorite things to do in the Dubuque area?

Everyone needs to ride the Fenelon Place Elevator, sit in the bleachers at the Field of Dreams, enjoy a great dinner at Caroline’s Restaurant, and ordering a burger and a beer at Paul’s Tavern.

6. What do you love most about Hotel Julien Dubuque?

It is an absolutely beautiful old grand dame of hotel of the past, rich in history, whispered secrets behind every door, and appointed amenities that provide a really warm sense of arrival at every turn, though “my most loved about Hotel Julien Dubuque” is the staff that work here tirelessly hard each and every day to fulfill our #1 Vision of “Create the feeling for the guests that they are in the right place, at the right time, all the time!”

7. As a leader, what strategies do you implement to keep your team motivated and energized?

We need to be getting better faster than our competition or we are only getting further behind. Create the environment for each other so in the morning, afternoon, or evening, we wake up and shout “I get to go to work today! I get to go to work today at Hotel Julien Dubuque!”

7. What is your personal motto?

I don’t have just one, so I will share a few that I work at: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”, “Address everything and leave nothing to chance.”, “Schedule everything, and you will have much more time to be spontaneous.” and to always express “Thanks for coming to work today!”