Nearly everyone dreams about travelling the world but there's always an excuse not to, whether it's money, family or personal reasons, there's always something stopping you from taking the plunge. But...there is a way of defeating these reasons & my answer is to work in hotels.
Hi, I'm Dorian, I'm a 27yo Brit, currently living in Los Angeles and I've been working in hotels since the age of 17.
Growing up, I wasn't from the most wealthiest family, my parents just had enough money to get by with myself and my 2 siblings, occasionally having a week away at a British seaside resort. I never really had the ambition to travel.
That all changed once I started working in hotels.
Now, the customer service/hospitality industry isn't for everyone, you're dealing with the needs of other people for at least 24hrs in hotels, there's always demands, complaints, round the clock shifts and occasionally tears. But, the opportunities are endless. If you have the determination, hotels have huge opportunities to grow within and also transfer to almost wherever you want.
My first hotel job was as a housekeeper for Travelodge, at the time it was the 2nd biggest hotel chain in the UK (according to numbers of rooms). I quickly took interest in learning the front desk operations as I felt I was more of a people person, and as soon as I turned 18, I was promoted and given different shifts around the clock. The main benifit of this was that I learnt the basic usage of the check in system which is used world wide, not by all companies, but is a great tool to promote yourself when wanting to move around.
Because of my eager to learn, I managed to get onto a management program with them which had me working in different hotels up and down the country. This was when I discovered my love for traveling. I had never really seen much of outside of where I grew up, and to now be going to cities all expenses paid was an incredible and eye opening experience.
Fast forward 2 years, I decided to go to university, where I joined a small upscale hotel chain, where all hotels within the group were 4-5stars.
This is next building block to aid in travelling.
Learning new standards of service, as well as new skills. I was part of the the food and beverage team, and basically took it upon myself to become the "bar champion". I now had new knowledge of stock controls, as well as alcohol laws and actual drink making.
I was with them for 3 years during uni and moved around different departments because of my background knowledge and willingness to help out my team.
At the end of uni, I really struggled with what direction I wanted to go, do I stay with hotels or do I move into somethings new.
This is when opportunity knocks, a friend asks me "do you want to move to Dubai?"
I had never even thought about international work, but I took a minute to reply "ABSOLUTELY".
As everyone knows, Dubai is world renowned for having incredible hotels, there was new opening hotel with Hilton. I'd longed to work for an international chain and now the offer was sat in front of me. There was a lot of paper work but within the month of being accepted I was there.
I managed to travel to Thailand with vacation days whilst living there, my thought was "well whilst I'm on this side of the world, why not?!"
I loved every second of it!
I can tell you, once you've become independent to live on your own in a foreign country starting your life from scratch not knowing anyone, your next move will come much easier.
"You wanna move to barcelona?" I'm asked after having lived in Dubai for a year..."yes!"
Now the benifit of being in the EU is that unlike Dubai, I could just move there without already having a job.
I got there, registered for my social security number and applied for jobs.
For a couple of weeks I was living in a hostel, and got friendly with the staff there. They were talking about needing a new person which is when I told them about my experience, I was offered the job there and then.
Going from working in a 5star hotel in Dubai to working in a travellers hostel, was a very easy transition as you can imagine.
Being in barcelona allowed me to experience such beautiful places around Spain, and the ease of travelling Europe was relieving.
The next question to myself was "where do I want to go next?"
The answer...
USA
Finding an available position was the easy part, how to get there was another thing. There are so many different types of visas as well as so much red tape trying to get to America I thought it would never be possible.
I was put into contact with a hospitality recruitment company based in the Netherlands, who specialised in a hospitality visa Program.
The process to 6 months but I eventually got here.
I've been in LA for one year now and have managed to get around a fair bit, having spent time in New York, San Diego, San Francisco & Las Vegas of course.
There are a lot of reasons to not enjoy working in hotels, I can assure you, however there are a lot of reasons and benifits to also love working in hotels, and if you dream to travel, then that Is the big bonus of doing so.
There's a lot of hard work involved, and of course different countries run hotels in completely different way, which allows you to become adaptable, but you just can't beat the thrill of planning the next journey, knowing that each move is helping you on your next adventure.
So my advise if you want to see the world but don't think you can afford it, start working in hotels, work hard and be an amazing employee. The opportunities are endless, and remember that there is a hotel in every country.
Where do you want to go?