My Career: ‘I enjoy what I do too much to think about retirement anytime soon’

Name: Davina Murphy

Age: 48

Lives: Youghal, Co. Cork.

Job title: Accommodation Manager at the Cork International Hotel.

Salary bracket: Enough to pay the bills and have a few holidays.

Education background: Leaving Cert.

Hobbies: Travelling, Cork hurling and football, eating out.

Describe your job in five words: Fast-paced, people-focused, unpredictable, demanding, and rewarding.

Describe yourself in five words: Professional, creative, resilient, warm, and driven.

Personality needed for this kind of work? You would need to be hard-working, positive and patient, and team-focused.

Overall, a practical, dependable, and resilient personality thrives in housekeeping.

How long are you doing this job? I’ve been working in the Cork International Hotel for just over seven years, but in hospitality for over 20 years.

How did you get this job? I started out in hospitality in my 20s when my parents opened a bar in my home town. I loved the rush of the busy nights. I started my first job in hotels at The Castlemartyr Hotel cleaning rooms. My Manager, Tracy Wallace, gave me my start as a supervisor in the hotel, in which I learned so much under her guidance.

In 2018, I went for an interview with Carmel Lonergan for the position of Accommodation Manager in the Cork International Hotel, and I was thrilled when she offered me the job. I learned so much from her and will always be thankful for her confidence in me.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience? No specific qualifications are required to be an accommodation manager, but you would definitely need to have hands-on experience in housekeeping/accommodation, leadership and people management skills, strong organisational skills and attention to detail, and a knowledge of standards, hygiene and guest service.

Describe a day at work: We start the day by reviewing occupancy, arrivals, departures, stayovers and traces, followed by organising room allocations and setting daily priorities.

We make the team list and add the daily jobs to the list. I am responsible for managing and briefing the accommodation team

Throughout the day, we check on room standards, including public areas, corridors and back of house as well as the bedrooms. We handle guest requests and complaints and last-minute changes as well as coordinating with reception and maintenance throughout the day. It is also my responsibility to manage stock, linen, and guest supplies as well as ensuring quality checks, audits, and reports have been completed.

How many hours do you work a week? Between 40 to 50 hours per week.

Is your industry male or female-dominated? It is male-dominated, but looking at my own hotel, the Cork International Hotel, which is part of the Trigon Hotel Group, women hold four of the eight senior roles.

Does this affect you in any particular way? No, not directly.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: For the most part, I would say no, but of course some days can be more stressful than others because team members call in sick, rooms pick up, etc, but I always say everything is fixable and the work itself is hard so if we can do it with a smile, it helps everyone to get through the day better.

Do you work with others or on your own? In the accommodation team, there are 30 team members.

When do you plan to retire or give up working? I enjoy what I do too much to think about retiring anytime soon.

Best bits: The team - without them you don’t have a hotel. Also, there are great opportunities to learn.

Worst bits: Early mornings, and it can be physically demanding work.

Advice to those who want your job? Be ready for hard work, gain experience in all areas of accommodation from rooms to public areas to linen porters, develop your people skills, be detail-oriented, you must be flexible and adaptable, understand the hospitality standards, and, above all, show initiative and reliability.

Any other comments? Working in hotels can be so rewarding - only recently I was awarded the IHI Accommodation Manager of the Year, something I never thought I would achieve, but it just shows when you have a great team and senior managers like Eoghan Murphy, Carmel Lonergan and Aaron Mansworth believe in you, you can achieve your dreams.