François Meynier
” I conducted my internship at O’Callaghan Collection from the 15th January 2018 to the 29th June 2018 as a Groups reservations intern. I didn’t have any experience in reservations or hospitality before but O’Callaghan Hotels trusted me and gave me an extraordinary opportunity for what was my first professional experience abroad.
In a few words, my job consisted of processing the requests for group’s reservations for the 4 O’Callaghan hotels in Dublin, from the first request for quotes to the specific requests of the guests, I was in charge of the booking process. I followed groups from the first quote to the moment they left the hotel.
I was under the direction of Kelly Moore, Groups reservations agent, and Lorna Mac Neaney, the reservations manager. From day one, and despite the fact that I was the only French person (and the only man!) in the reservations team, I quickly became part of the team which immediately accepted me as a full member. I would like to thank all the girls again for their extremely warm welcome.
On the first two days, I started by observing what Kelly was doing, who was explaining to me what my responsibilities would be. By the third day, I was independent and started to deal with clients. I greatly appreciated Kelly and Lorna’s confidence in me by quickly giving me a great deal of autonomy.
This internship allowed me to meet a very large number of people in many departments and services of hotels: receptionists, cooks, marketing, IT, sales, accounting and coming from a huge number of different countries. The multicultural aspect was also something new for me, but it was a really great pleasure to deal with. People share their experiences and it allow us to learn a new way of thinking. This was perhaps one of the things that I enjoyed most, with obviously the outings with colleagues at the Ginger Man!
It was also a great way to discover the Hospitality field and how a hotel is run, as I did not know at all. I may work again in this area in the future, but for now I have to complete my Bachelor’s in Digital Marketing here in Marseille France.
Once again, I would like to thank the entire O’Callaghan Collection team for the trust they have placed in me and everybody’s kindness. I wish everyone the very best. ”