Sector:
Accommodation
Overview:
If you like working in a team, are attentive to detail and have the initiative to think of ways to continually raise standards, you might find the Rooms Division a rewarding area.
Within the Rooms Division of a hotel, cruise ship or venue, ‘front of house staff’ are the people who deal with guests face to face (through reception and reservations) and ‘accommodation staff’ are responsible for keeping the bedrooms and public areas clean and perfectly maintained, as well as running the laundry.
They are often the first people to greet guests in the morning, so first impressions are very important. Accommodation staff should be friendly and knowledgeable about the facilities in the hotel and surrounding areas.
This section will tell you the day-to-day work of people in the Accommodation area and the typical career path.
Find out more about working in Accommodation
The Workplace:
Where you would be working could range from cosy guesthouses to hotel chains like Jurys Inn or Maldron Hotels, to gigantic cruise ships with thousands of staff. Arguably the jobs biggest perk is its variety. Usually working within quite a large team, you’ll be applying your skills throughout the venue, making sure all areas are looking their best.
The Career Path:
Many people start out in the tourism industry with a part-time job as an accommodation assistant or housekeeper. It’s a good way to gain an understanding of the very crux of how a hotel operates. An accommodation assistant is essentially responsible for the quality of the ‘product’, by ensuring that guest bedrooms, corridors and public areas are cleaned and maintained to the highest standards.
An accommodation supervisor looks after all of the above while also training and overseeing the assistants. To do this job you’ll need to be experienced, enthusiastic and proactive. To enjoy this role you’ll need to be good at identifying and quickly resolving problems or issues.
The accommodation manager is ultimately responsible for pulling all the strings and making sure the hotel runs smoothly. Often the accommodation manager will have a large team of staff working for them, so they need to be very good at, and enjoy planning and people management. You’ll have to be driven and determined in this role to ensure that cleanliness, health and hygiene standards are constantly met.