Kirsty Danks-Brown, Director of Sales and Marketing, Sofitel Cambodia
We first had the pleasure of meeting Kirsty when she was Director of Sales and Marketing for the Park Hyatt Maldives. We were in the early stages of organising the Abu Dhabi and Maldives Do and so we met with Kirsty in the Grand Hyatt Dubai (Dubai housed the DSM Maldives office) to start negotiations. Later, we met once again in London, when serendipitously, Kirsty was staying in the Churchill during the first Hyatt London Do. During the event, we had great fun at Virgin Atlantic, doing safety training and Kirsty attended the dinner in order to give the prize she had organised for the raffle, 3 nights in the Park Hyatt Maldives. During our two interactions with Kirsty, we couldn't help but be drawn to her warm and ebullient personality, as well as her openness and honesty. We were delighted when she informed us that she had been offered a job as General Manager for Hotel de la Paix Luang Prabang (a sister property of Park Hyatt Maldives and Park Hyatt Siem Reap), and immediately began to plan how to incorporate Laos into our next trip to the Far East. After a bit of tweaking, we arranged a 3 night stop in the sleepy UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang.
Writing this 'Meet the Manager' is a little different to others, in that we had previously met Kirsty and knew quite a bit about her. However, it was interesting to fill in the gaps and appreciate just how experienced Kirsty is in hospitality. After growing up with sailing-mad parents and spending half her childhood on a boat off the coast of Papua New Guinea, Kirsty studied hospitality in Australia (she describes this as occurring by default - she applied for PR and hospitality but received a place on a hospitality course first). Interestingly, during the 6 month internship (a crucial part of her degree) Kirsty chose to continue working at the Pancake Manor, where she had been waitressing, whilst others on the course chose to work with one of the large hotel chains. The result of this was that whilst her colleagues worked mainly as waitresses, Kirsty was a manager and learnt a number of skills including financial management. Her first job post-degree was in the Radisson Plaza on the Pier in Cairns, which is now a Shangri-La, where she worked her way through the ranks for 5 years, to the position of Duty Manager. Kirsty describes herself as having done everything in hotels, including waitressing, washing plates, working in a cocktail bar, housekeeping, sales and marketing.
After the Radisson post, Kirsty was headhunted to work in an hotel famous for it's casino, which she hated. She then worked as events manager on the Gold Coast, became GM of a hotel 'in the middle of nowhere,' worked as a training manager and front of house in sales and marketing for the Hilton in Cairns. A big change came about after working for a Japanese hotel chain that went bust. She describes sitting at an industry event dinner and being asked what she would do next. Her answer? To go to Dubai. She was there within a week working for HMC, the loyalty marketing company. After this, she switched to working for a destination management company, in order to experience travel from the other side of the table. Later, after working for Mövenpick in Dubai, she met with a Spanish company about a possible job. This meeting took place over a 16 hour (!) brunch, after which she received an offer of the job of GM, rather than DSM that she had expected. Unfortunately, during Dubai's financial crash, the Spanish hotelier went bust and this is when Kirsty first worked for Hyatt, as DSM in the Grand Hyatt Muscat. After this, she moved to the Park Hyatt Maldives as DSM, overlapping with GM Pierre Lang, before the owners of PHM asked whether she would be interested in her next job, GM of Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang. Although there were rumours about Hyatt interest in this property, the hotel is now managed by Accor hotels and, since our interview was written, Kirsty has since moved on to sales and marketing Sofitel hotels in Cambodia.
Talking to Kirsty, were were a number of challenges managing the Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang, which we had not foreseen. Obviously, there was a language barrier and, although slowly improved, it remained a problem for the Western staff and for guests. However, we had not considered how different and challenging the working culture would be. In addition to 18 public holidays, staff are by law allowed 30 days sick/casual leave. It iss to Kirsty's great credit that she and her Lieutenants lead by example; she was not above waiting tables at breakfast, which gave her the chance to interact first-hand with guests.
We loved our stay in the Hotel de la Paix Luang Prabang and look forward to returning and also staying in the sister hotel, the 3 Nagas, which has a fantastic Laotian restaurant. The hotel has great potential and we look forward to seeing how it develops over time and with future investment. Whilst working in Laos can be a lonely experience, despite the warmth of the Lao people and the loyal presence of Kirsty's dog Bessam, we had hoped that Kirsty would stay for the foreseeable future. Not only was it great having someone we now consider a friend living in such a beautiful destination, but she seemed perfect for the hotel. Now that Kirsty has moved to Cambodia, that gives us a great excuse to visit some new areas of this beautiful country. However, we still plan to return to the quiet, peaceful Luang Prabang and the beautiful Hotel de la Paix.
Writing this 'Meet the Manager' is a little different to others, in that we had previously met Kirsty and knew quite a bit about her. However, it was interesting to fill in the gaps and appreciate just how experienced Kirsty is in hospitality. After growing up with sailing-mad parents and spending half her childhood on a boat off the coast of Papua New Guinea, Kirsty studied hospitality in Australia (she describes this as occurring by default - she applied for PR and hospitality but received a place on a hospitality course first). Interestingly, during the 6 month internship (a crucial part of her degree) Kirsty chose to continue working at the Pancake Manor, where she had been waitressing, whilst others on the course chose to work with one of the large hotel chains. The result of this was that whilst her colleagues worked mainly as waitresses, Kirsty was a manager and learnt a number of skills including financial management. Her first job post-degree was in the Radisson Plaza on the Pier in Cairns, which is now a Shangri-La, where she worked her way through the ranks for 5 years, to the position of Duty Manager. Kirsty describes herself as having done everything in hotels, including waitressing, washing plates, working in a cocktail bar, housekeeping, sales and marketing.
After the Radisson post, Kirsty was headhunted to work in an hotel famous for it's casino, which she hated. She then worked as events manager on the Gold Coast, became GM of a hotel 'in the middle of nowhere,' worked as a training manager and front of house in sales and marketing for the Hilton in Cairns. A big change came about after working for a Japanese hotel chain that went bust. She describes sitting at an industry event dinner and being asked what she would do next. Her answer? To go to Dubai. She was there within a week working for HMC, the loyalty marketing company. After this, she switched to working for a destination management company, in order to experience travel from the other side of the table. Later, after working for Mövenpick in Dubai, she met with a Spanish company about a possible job. This meeting took place over a 16 hour (!) brunch, after which she received an offer of the job of GM, rather than DSM that she had expected. Unfortunately, during Dubai's financial crash, the Spanish hotelier went bust and this is when Kirsty first worked for Hyatt, as DSM in the Grand Hyatt Muscat. After this, she moved to the Park Hyatt Maldives as DSM, overlapping with GM Pierre Lang, before the owners of PHM asked whether she would be interested in her next job, GM of Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang. Although there were rumours about Hyatt interest in this property, the hotel is now managed by Accor hotels and, since our interview was written, Kirsty has since moved on to sales and marketing Sofitel hotels in Cambodia.
Talking to Kirsty, were were a number of challenges managing the Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang, which we had not foreseen. Obviously, there was a language barrier and, although slowly improved, it remained a problem for the Western staff and for guests. However, we had not considered how different and challenging the working culture would be. In addition to 18 public holidays, staff are by law allowed 30 days sick/casual leave. It iss to Kirsty's great credit that she and her Lieutenants lead by example; she was not above waiting tables at breakfast, which gave her the chance to interact first-hand with guests.
We loved our stay in the Hotel de la Paix Luang Prabang and look forward to returning and also staying in the sister hotel, the 3 Nagas, which has a fantastic Laotian restaurant. The hotel has great potential and we look forward to seeing how it develops over time and with future investment. Whilst working in Laos can be a lonely experience, despite the warmth of the Lao people and the loyal presence of Kirsty's dog Bessam, we had hoped that Kirsty would stay for the foreseeable future. Not only was it great having someone we now consider a friend living in such a beautiful destination, but she seemed perfect for the hotel. Now that Kirsty has moved to Cambodia, that gives us a great excuse to visit some new areas of this beautiful country. However, we still plan to return to the quiet, peaceful Luang Prabang and the beautiful Hotel de la Paix.