When he is not poring over the accounts, Frank Plijnaar (b. 1952) enjoys sports. He already regularly gets on his racing bike, plays tennis, swims and skis. A few years ago, a new love for sports was added: golf.
His daughter Danielle advised him to just give it a try. For he was quite skeptical about this sport beforehand, he admits. "I always saw golf as marbles for the elderly, but by now I am elderly myself," laughs Plijnaar. He liked the first encounter with the golf course surprisingly well. "A very challenging sport that requires you to be very focused. You are in beautiful surroundings and cover a reasonable distance. It gives a huge kick when you hit that ball well. But I'm not very good at it at all.
He prefers to golf in sunny Spain, where he has a house on the Costa Brava. "In Spain the weather is almost always nice and that invites you to be active every day. People live much more outdoors there. Cycling is also much safer there. We live near a nature reserve, where it is wonderfully quiet and where there are several golf courses. We play golf three times a week and get to the most beautiful places in the middle of nature with ancient churches. The rules in Spain are not nearly as strict as in the Netherlands. There you can play on all courses without a license. I always play better in Spain. Maybe it has to do with the light. Or with concentration. In the Netherlands my thoughts may wander a little faster to work." Plijnaar does not aspire to membership in a golf club. "Golf seems to be the ideal sport for networking, but I don't need that golf club for that. I golf with family and friends. I especially like the fact that my wife also thinks it's a fun sport, so we can do it nicely as a couple. Working on my handicap is not important to me. I write down the points and if it took me 80 strokes and my wife 60, that means I lost. I don't like people who are very fanatical about it, especially at our age. I also don't like people who pat themselves on the back, which is what I associated golf with. But that turned out to be not so bad in Spain."
Joint strength
So he feels completely at home in northeastern Spain, where he spends about four months a year. What appeals to him about the region? "Well, almost everything: the food, the culture, the sports, and we have a very nice house in a lovely place there. I also really like the people in that region. Before we bought a house, we first looked around in the south. But we noticed that we were not received properly anywhere. As we drove north, the nature became greener, the surroundings more beautiful and the people friendlier." Plijnaar plans to spend a few more months in Spain in the future, but will not settle there permanently. "Our social life takes place in the Netherlands, we certainly don't want to let that go. You see that people who have been away for a long time lose their contacts here. And of course I still have my work too."
He works an average of about 15 hours a week. All of the hotel's financial matters pass through him. For example, Plijnaar provides the financial framework when an investment decision must be made. In his position, he often spars with his daughter, who is general manager at Mitland. He thought he had seen it all in those many years. And then came corona. "But we got through that, too. We don't moan then, but at those moments we put our shoulders to the wheel together. I am proud of that. When we want to accomplish something, a certain drive comes out and you see all the brothers going in a certain direction. Each brother does what he has to do and what he is good at. We have a lot of respect for each other's work. Out of that combined strength then comes something very beautiful. That dynamic process is always going on. When you finish at the front of the hotel, you can start again at the back. It never stops."
Birthday with brothers
The four brothers have since moved into a different phase of life. "We all work a little less. The kids do it and we have been given more of an advisory role. We have a little more time to enjoy the beautiful things in life, and there are plenty of them. Taking beautiful trips for example." For his 60th birthday, he invited his brothers to come and celebrate in Spain. He announced that day that this would become a tradition. And so it happened. "To this day, my brothers faithfully come to Spain every year for my birthday. Then it turns out that we have tremendous fun together; we are always weak with laughter. One brother makes the cross and the other heads it in. I think that atmosphere radiates throughout the company. Guests often remark that everyone is cheerful in the hotel."