You've Been Served: Helen Wycherley, director Celtic Ross Hotel

The hotel opened in 1997 and I joined the family business in 2007. I didn’t choose a career in hospitality as such! I started working on the floor in each department for nearly a year when I first started.

Then I worked in sales, marketing, PR for a number of years.

With it being a family business, I was always involved at a management level from the beginning and as a chartered accountant by qualification, I always have one eye on the figures!

Everyone that works in the hotel is driven to serve our customers and they are always smiling, they go the extra mile time and time again.

That would have surprised me at the start and I am proud that the passion for the job is still the same.

My responsibilities are strategic and working with the senior management team, I do have responsibility for certain relationships like the West Cork Sports Star Awards, of which we are title sponsors. My days are exceptionally varied. It is important that I am connecting with people each day whether I am in the hotel or external. I don’t sit still for long! No one does in a hotel!

I love the West Cork Sports Star Awards. While the annual awards banquet is the pinnacle of the year, I really enjoy the informal monthly presentations where I get to sit and chat to the sports stars and their family and friends.

It never ceases to amaze me how much hard work these sports stars give to their chosen sport and even more so the support and time that their families give. They are all so humble and dedicated.

And I always learn something new about a sport. I am making memories here every month.

For ten years we organised and hosted the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Weekend in aid of Action Breast Cancer (2008 to 2017).

At the end of the banquet during the weekend, I asked all the staff from kitchen to housekeeping to reception to come out onto the floor to say thank you and the 200 ladies in the room at the event gave the staff a standing ovation. It was really touching.

It meant so much to me that the staff were recognised for all they do.

The best part of my job is meeting people. Everyone has a story and something interesting to say.

You never know how you will connect with someone!

Helen Wycherley is a director at the Celtic Ross Hotel in West Cork. The hotel has been in Helen’s family since 1997.