Do you take part in any mentoring programmes at your hotels?
Debrah: I’m mentoring someone at the moment. She works for Mandarin Oriental and her dream is to become GM of a five-star deluxe hotel and I’ve been her mentor now for 18 months. Brilliant girl, amazing CV, five-star all the way, beautiful pedigree, but she has always had this fear of putting her CV forward for that five-star deluxe role.
I think there’s one thing a woman should actually accept and move on from and that is rejection — if you get rejected it doesn’t matter, just move on — because a guy would do that and sometimes a woman’s confidence goes. A woman takes it personally.
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Anke: We have a mentoring programme but not just for women, for anyone.
What will be your next leadership step?
Eleni: Obviously to continue further. I’m still fresh so I’d still have to take a bigger property and to move on to five-star luxury and later on, group, area — but definitely not to stop here.
Anke: I’m the same; the one reason I left Rotana was because I wanted a smaller property. I’ve been there a year-and-a-half. I want to be a good GM, it was never the title, I wanted to be a good GM so I’d like to learn more, progress more. I’m sure there are lots of openings and opportunities. I’m not worried, I enjoy what I do.
Chantel: I think the hospitality industry is always changing. I’ve been a general manager for a bit longer than these guys so I’d hate to say I want to do this and close doors on other stuff. But I’ve always loved hospitality and I wouldn’t want to do anything else but what I do, and where I move to I don’t know. Before I used to say ‘I’ll do it for five years’ but if the opportunity arises tomorrow and I want to do it, I’ll do it!
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