Employment Progression at Welcome Break
News
Susete's Story
Susete joined Welcome Break in 2015. She began her journey as a waitress in our Ramada Oxford Hotel, where she moved on to join the reception team after just two months. Susete quickly started supporting the General Manager and Guest Service Manager, allowing her to learn a lot of valuable information during this period. In February 2017, exactly 1 year and 2 months after joining the reception team, Susete was lucky enough to be promoted to the Guest Service Manager role herself. She remained in this position for almost a year and a half, until she was offered her first role as General Manager in June 2018, for our Ramada South Mimms property - where she won her first recognition on the hotel's Quarter Brief.
1 year and 8 months later, in July 2019, Susete's hard work and passion for her role brought her the opportunity to be a multi-property General Manager! She now managed both our Ramada Cambridge and Days Inn Stevenage hotels.
After a challenging time of closing and reopening both hotels twice during COVID-19, in February 2021 Susete was offered to manage our Ramada London Stansted Airport and Days Inn London Stansted properties where she still works today!
Simon's Story
Simon started his Welcome Break journey over 20 years ago in October 2002. At the time, he was a university student and began working in a retail shop within our Oxford services as a sales assistant, where he was soon promoted to supervisor in 2003. After just under two years of working in the position, Simon transferred to our Days Inn Oxford hotel to work as a receptionist - where he stayed for a year. However, after graduating, he was offered to work in the cash office while on ACCA training, but decided to take a short break from the company in 2010.
In 2014, Simon chose to return to our Days Inn Oxford hotel where he worked as both a night GSA and day SGA up until our rebranding to Ramada Oxford in 2015, after which he was promoted to senior GSA. In 2016, Simon was offered to work as Hotel Manager for our Ramada South Mimms property, where he was based up until 2018 when he moved to our Ramada Milton Keynes as a Front of House Manager for almost two years! Towards the end of 2019, Simon returned to South Mimms as a General Manager. After a dedication to his role and a load of hard work, he was soon enough asked to be a multi-property General Manager for both Ramada South Mimms and Days Inn Stevenage - the position that he still remains in today!
During his time at Welcome Break, Simon has been nominated for the Hotel Manager of the year award in 2017, 2020 and 2021 - winning one of them! Simon expresses the joy he has working in his region, with his team and alongside his leader, Thimmiah. Simon is a great example of career development at Welcome Break!
Apprenticeships at Welcome Break
Apprenticeships can be an excellent way to progress your career, so here at Welcome Break, we offer plenty! Our apprenticeships can not only help you learn while you work but helps point you in the right direction of endless employment progression!
Pavlin, General Manager at our Ramada London North M1 hotel, decided to take on an apprenticeship with Welcome Break to develop his career further. Pavlin is on a Level 5 Management apprenticeship and expresses the usefulness of the programme, in which he uses what he learns on a day-to-day basis. Not only is the new information he's learning useful within this current position, but it also develops his understanding of hospitality as a whole. Pavlin says that the most enjoyable part of the programme was speaking with many people from different industries outside of hospitality, such as managers who were studying on a Level 5 Operational apprenticeship, and would recommend the programme to everyone!