Hospitality Work Experiences

Maureen de Vries from Holland worked as a Head Receptionist for The Aval du Creux Hotel on The Island Of Sark in the Channel Islands

Duties involved reservations and planning, deparment informations (housekeeping, restaurant and kitchen), checking guests in and out of the
hotel, invoicing, reception, telephone traffic, handling complaints, invoicing travel agents, payments, taking large restaurant bookings. For the
restaurant bookings you can think of a barbeque, lunch, dinner, stag or hen nights and weddings. I also did a lot of travelling preparations for hotel guests.

I enjoyed seeing a lot of happy faces! One day, me and my colleague even received a gift from one of the hotel guests as a 'thank you' for all
our hard work. It makes you happy when people are grateful and have had a great holiday, and that you have done your best to make that work!

The most enjoyable part was working with people from different nationalities. This way you learn so much more about culture!

There was actually nothing that I did not enjoy. Maybe the fact that you only have one full day off could be a point, but it didn't
really bother me.

I would definitely recommendid this job to others. They have great staff accommodation and food (not that I liked everything...) and they
really make you feel at home.

If you get the chance to go abroad: do it ! It changes your view on things, in a good way. And you learn so much out of it !

Zara from the UK worked as a Bar Maid in a Hotel in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia Through Workstay

Duties involved setting up the bar and writing up the specials boards, preparing the eating area for service, serving customers and reception / reservations work for the hotel / motel where required. The evening was the same, but involved closing down the bar at the end of the night instead of setting up.

I enjoyed talking to the customers, who were a mixture of local regulars and travellers passing through on the road. It was great never knowing who would walk through the door next and seeing them walk out more refreshed than they came in.

The most enjoyable part was getting to know all the local characters and learning about the realities of life in the outback.

The least enjoyable part was the long periods of time spent off shift in a town with not a lot to do in your leisure time with no transport and little money, and the boss, who was somewhat difficult to please and had a tendency to watch you as if looking for you to do something wrong and who treated his temporary workers as cheap expendable labour rather than interested, often well educated, travellers in search of cultural exchange as well as employment.

I would recommend the workstay concept of working in Hotels and on stations in the outback to people looking for a unique experience, but I would urge them to be careful of being exploited by employers looking out for cheap expendable labour, and to go back to the agency for a transfer if they are not happy.

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