I’ve been awaiting the chance to address the public for a while now to tell a day in the life of Alanna Kelleher, Deputy Manager.

Hello Everyone,

I started here at the Riverside Hotel 4 years ago; previous to this, I had worked in every city in Ireland but wanted to move closer to home, which is a beautiful town by the sea called Caherciveen (I had to give it a mention).

I joined the team at the Riverside at the start of a busy season, June 2004 & have never looked back

I did leave for a few months but had to return due to the great staff & working conditions (nothing to do with a pay increase).

On a serious note I do enjoy my work, especially meeting new interesting people, facing new challenges each day. There is never a dull moment.

What do I do every day?

I deal with many aspects of the hotel. I am the deputy manager, covering shifts from 7am -3pm or 3pm-11pm.

The 7am-3pm Shift is my favourite; I arrive at the hotel around 6.45am where I get the hand over from the Night porter. Also I give him some vital information on what happened last night with Grison or Horatio on CSI.

I then check who’s on duty with me that morning & make sure that all staff are accounted for.

Each morning is different; sometime we have tours up for breakfast early, other times we have private bookings that arrive down a little later than the planned tours, off course, the Irish like a good sleep in! The great thing about the morning shift is of course we get to enjoy that full Irish Breakfast, good for the hunger but not for the figure. No matter how late our guests go to bed they always arise for the black pudding. I think people can smell sausages & bacon in their sleep as they awake & are downstairs within minutes, waiting in anticipation. 

We are blessed with a great restaurant team that are highly trained (just a mention I do a lot of training within the hotel not praising myself of course) so it makes a busy morning go smoothly.

The morning always fly’s by! So when the restaurant quietens down I‘m on the move to reception for check-out time. As a manager, we try to be where we are most needed at the time to ensure all is running smoothly.

No rest for the Wicked as they say.

At Check –Out, we make sure everyone enjoyed their stay, I’m here to handle complaints but we never have many of them, so that makes life easier.

It’s nice to hear good feedback on departure from our guests, as it makes it worth while. I think to be a manager you really need to genuinely care that people enjoy themselves as if you welcomed them into your on home. I have made many friends along the way that return to us every couple of weeks, and look forward to them arriving.

After check-out,  its full steam ahead for lunch & preparing for the night ahead. I make sure that all is ready for the next duty manager that takes over. So when he /she comes in, they can concentrate on check-in’s throughout the evening. I keep in close contact with housekeeping all day to see if they need any help or if any maintenance issues need to be dealt with.

At 3.00pm it’s time to go home & unwind.

Looking forward to the evening ahead.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Hope to see you in the Riverside soon.

Alanna Kelleher

Deputy Manager

Im hitting 43 this year and have been in the hospitality sector for the past 18years. Three of those have been at the riverside hotel. And what an amazing bunch of people to work with – everyday is an experience!!

My weeks work as a barman starts on Friday. I work most weekends-it keeps me busy and away from harm (ie the social scene) 

Friday is a day of intense cleaning around the bar as we prepare for our weekend guests. Most of Friday is spent getting to know the new weekend guests & their favourite tipple. I am very much a people person so by the time Saturday comes I’d like to think that I can help people in deciding what they would like to do for the weekend around this beautiful town and its surrounding areas. There is something for everyone in Killarney-if not on a bicycle or a jaunting car then one can explore the lakes and mountains, alot of which is in walking distance from the hotel. That alone is an incentive to come to stay with us.

Friday & Saturday nights always fly by as it’s always so busy what with serving drinks and bar food.

Sunday seems to be the more relaxed of the weekend. People chill out with their Sunday papers while sipping on their drinks in the lobby

Monday & Tuesday nights I’m on my own as the Night Porter on duty-this is the time we use to catch up on cleaning duties etc. Wednesday & Thursday are my days off –time to catch up on my sleep and then its back to the weekend again.

I was born and raised in London to Killarney parents. I arrived in Killarney for the first time in 1977 just on a holiday. Our second holiday to Killarney was in 1979 and we never went back home-what a holiday!

The next time you are in Killarney call into me for a drink and a chat. Who knows you might never go home either!!

Hello, I am Rachel Nolan, the latest Receptionist to join the Front Desk team in the Killarney Riverside Hotel.

Six weeks ago, I located to beautiful picturesque Killarney from my home county of Wexford on the Sunny South East coast, to start my new employment in the Killarney Riverside Hotel.  Truly, the very first day I stepped into Killarney town in the Kingdom county I felt so welcomed.  The people are wonderful.

I work two different shifts throughout the week on a five day roster. Today I am on a 7-3 shift which means the alarm goes off at 5.45am and in to work for 6.55am and a bus load of Americans are there in the lobby to greet me-I don’t know how they get up so early while on holidays-Id prefer to relax and have a sleep in. First job is to get their bills ready as they will be checking out early and then prepare the bills for the rest of the guests that are checking out that day. 

Throughout the morning, I handle the busy switchboard; whether taking reservations or making sure the staying guest’s needs are all meet. Once all of our guests have checked out its time for lunch and a break away from the desk to stretch the legs and clear my head. After lunch its time to start organising the arrivals for today-cutting key cards and checking that everything is in order for their arrival. Today we have a mixture of guests arriving to us- one tour of Germans and the remainder are all privates-and what a mix of guests they are. Just a short while ago I was surrounded by a crowd of leather clad bikers –down to Killarney for the Annual international bike rally- normally I might be a bit nervous if I came across a gang like this but having had a chat with them on check in I found out that they come from all walks of life-solicitors, bankers, teachers, accountants etc all with one thing in common their lust for the open road and their fabulous bikes!!

My day at work is quickly over –as they say time flies when your having fun. And its off out touring for the afternoon- Ive been in Killarney for six weeks now and every day I hop on my bike and explore another bit of the beautiful surroundings that are all so close to the hotel- the people of Killarney just don’t know how spoilt they are they take it all for granted. There is just so much to choose from-the National Park and gardens, Muckross House, Torc waterfall, the Lakes-I for one will never get bored with Killarney-I just feel sorry for our guests they couldn’t possibly get to do it all during their short stay with us but I suppose it’s a great excuse to come back again and again

Hey, my name is Gearoid Murphy, I’m 23 years, I’m a duty manager in the Killarney Riverside hotel. I’ve been working for the Irish Court group for almost six years now with a little sabbatical in between to fit in a nightclub job before realising late nights behind a bar serving people who couldn’t see their nose wasn’t exactly my calling in life, but fun times were had by all.

I’ve yo-yoed between the Killarney Riverside and the Killarney Court hotel’s a few times now, and put in some time in the Kenmare bay Hotel in Kenmare, so hopefully this is the last move across the town, I get motion sickness and it’s a lot of jumping. In my first incarnation I was the barman in the Killarney court hotel, since then I’ve gone from there to duty manager due to a mix of me being good at what I do and being given the opportunity to move hotels which suits me to the ground.

It’s great to work in a group that gives me the chance to go somewhere and move up the ladder, while still letting me know there’s always that bar job should I start to get any ego issues, so I’m hoping to hang around here for a while.

The hotels are very good to me and always have been. I have a lot of extra curricular activities that I’m involved in and the hotels are always more than accommodating. I’m involved in a lot of youth work outside of the hotel, helping to run a youth empowerment program and a drop-in centre as well as taking weekend and day drips, this added to the two nights a week I play football can cause a serious headache for Ciara Roche, the General Manager, so she’s either being really nice to me or she’s saving it all up to guilt me into something in the future, possibly repainting her house or valeting the car.

My time in the hotels so far has been great, can’t honestly say a bad word about it, had some great experiences, some funny dramas, plenty of stories, and some more than colourful characters on both sides of the reception desk. And no trip into my daily life would be complete without a mention of the magical place that run our central reservations office, the people we never see. Olive, Elma and Caroline, who could quite possible be robotic answering machines, only time will tell…………