Having a wide range of jobs is typical of hospitality and is one of the benefits of working in the industry. One day you are in food & beverage, the next you are helping your colleagues in reception. You can easily switch between the things you love doing and if you get bored, you can move on to the next thing in the hotel you love doing. As long as you are always serving guests, you can do that in multiple outlets in the hotel.

I love getting such a close insight into guests. Even though they may be staying with you only briefly, they tell you their story, something personal, and being able to do something with that information to provide a service they didn’t expect, that’s what I love, being able to make a difference to someone’s life in a very short time.

I motivate the people I work with by being an example, by being enthusiastic, energetic, and showing them why I love hospitality. That’s how I try to influence them, and if they have done something fantastic, I tell them how that might change the perspective of a guest. I tell them, ‘someone will go home and remember what you did for a long time’. That motivates them and you can see how they smile.

Being a Heartist is about finding guests’ stories and listening to them and using that information to make their stay – the service level – better than expected by making it personal, giving them that little bit of extra attention, and creating memories they will never forget.

My proudest moment was when I was working at an airport hotel. It was a big property and a flight had been stranded and people were not able to get to their destination. The airline called to tell us they’re staying – that was more than 200 rooms that had to be handled with military efficiency. We arranged transportation, dinner, rooms, everything in a short time because they were already on the way.

The challenging part is that people are not happy that they are staying in the hotel rather than travelling home or on holiday, and we were able to change their mood and let their holiday or destination start in the hotel; we changed the way they were thinking about it – that was my proudest moment, that I had 200 guests standing in a queue and one by one they became a bit happier and more comfortable with the environment.

Someone looking for their first job might think about hospitality because it is flexible, you can move around; they can meet people from all kinds of cultures. Also, you are surrounded by passionate people; you cannot work in hospitality if you don’t have a passion for service and sharing, that is the best thing.