In our 30 years of operation, we have collected so many great stories, from our humble beginnings in Perth, our expansion into the New Zealand market and how we survived and thrived through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

But at the heart of everything we do is our people. So, we thought there was no one better to hear from, than one of our longest serving team members. Join us as our Quality and Training Manager, Verena, shares her incredible career journey from housekeeper supervisor to the leadership role she continues to make her own.

Verena’s Career Journey with ahs hospitality

It is so surreal to believe that I have been with ahs hospitality for almost 23 years when it only feels like yesterday that I first started my journey with this company. I started with ahs hospitality as a Supervisor in Melbourne back in November 2000. I have seen significant and positive changes within the hotel housekeeping industry and have made so many wonderful memories along the way.

Back in the day, there was such thing called a fax machine:

Back in 2000, when the ahs hospitality head office was in Perth, WA, we were required to fax through our time sheets. As you can imagine, due to the large number of documents from all team members, the fax machine often got jammed! When they got approved, the Housekeeping Managers would take out their ahs hospitality cheque books sitting in their drawers to pay us weekly.

Love and celebrities:

One of the cool things about working in hotels are the high-profile guests what walk through the doors. I vividly remember when an International Cricket Team was touring Australia and were staying at my hotel during the Boxing Day Test Matches, they required a live Christmas tree in every room they occupied - we were finding pine needles in these rooms six months later!

But it was not just pine needles we were finding at our hotel; it was love too! A story which could be turned into a rom-com, our Housekeeping Department acted as cupid as one team member’s daughter fell in love and got married to another team member’s son. It was certainly the wedding of the year that everyone taking about in the hotel’s corridors, and yes, I was one of the lucky ones who was invited to the wedding.

It was not all sweet love stories at our hotel. Together we also experienced high-maintenance and demanding celebrity guests that really kept us on our toes. One memory that really sticks out, was when we had a high-profile Beverly Hills socialite and her team stay with us who requested only a certain type of candle to be placed into her suite which was not available in Australia. You can certainly say, she had a scent for the finer things in life.

Then there was another high-profile celebrity who rose to fame for her eye for fashion. She had a pair of exquisite, jaw-droppingly expensive boots that she left outside her room for ‘Shoeshine Service’. However, there was just one tiny hiccup, we did not actually have a Shoeshine Service! Panic quickly followed us when the shoes went missing, but as fate would have it, they were eventually found, and we let out a collective sigh of relief.

In 2014, I was given the opportunity to transfer to a new hotel, which sparked my passion for Quality and Training within the Housekeeping Department. As their newest Quality & Training Manager, I had the privilege of introducing the prestigious 'Forbes standards' rating qualification. I feel like this was my career defining moment, and I became the Forbes Guru in the hotel, leading the charge in implementing and training our team to meet these high standards.