I started working in my university library and although I liked working with people, I didn’t enjoy the administration. But when I came to work in a hotel, I discovered it was similar – that I liked to work with people and talk with them.

Because I was still at university, I did the hotel training for just six months and I learned things that made me realise I wanted more. Then, in the front office, one of my colleagues had maternity leave; they needed someone to work as front office manager and Accor offered me the opportunity, so I had three months’ training, and I enjoyed it; I learned a lot. Then she didn’t come back work to because of Covid and her baby was young, so I continued to be front office manager, and I did that for all almost two years.

Then, in the past year, my General Manager went to another hotel, so I was offered the opportunity to do that. It is different, I need to be in contact with guests all day, some of my job is back of house but after I while, I feel I am falling asleep in front of the computer and I miss contact with guests, so I go to reception and talk to them!

I like to be in contact with guests – it’s creative and I didn’t expect that, but I enjoy it. If someone is here on business, I can do something special for them, just with a small detail, if they have had a bad day. If we have a lot of children, we give them a booklet – or something to keep them occupied; it’s sometimes boring travelling with your parents!

I have had seven years with Accor and I’ve done really well. We are a small hotel, nearly 48 rooms, so it’s easy; with 600 rooms it might not have worked out like that.

We are a franchise property but Accor offers a lot of courses and webinars, you can learn a lot; you can also do it by yourself because you have all the resources at your fingertips and do not need to have someone to teach you. If you like it, you can do it alone and learn a lot.

The hospitality allows you to discover what you like because in a hotel, there is a lot of departments front of house and back of house and you can try everything. For example, I learned I was not good at administration but I enjoy being in reception, organising trips, making reservations in restaurants, but you may prefer to be in back office. You can try many things to find your best option.

Being a Heartist® is being supportive to guests. It is not possible to meet guests’ every request but we can make them confident we are doing our best, and that creates warmth.

Last year when I became general manager, we won Best Spa award at Accor – it was unexpected. To have that recognition from our guests is special for us. We focus on making their stay memorable, so the spa award was incredible.

My advice to newcomers is to try anything; you may make a mistake but that is better than not trying anything, it is the best way to learn and if you don’t like it, you can try something else. If you only work in one area you won’t find out what you like. And try to be creative. It’s important to try.