By Capucine Viguier, MBA in
Hospitality Management, France, 2014-2016 2nd Year
As I
planned to follow the apprenticeship program offered by IMHI, I was fortunate
enough to continue my adventure within the AccorHotels Group in Paris as a Hotel
Preopening Project Manager for the Luxury and Upscale department. At the same
time I joined the Accor Student Ambassador program in order to promote the
group internal event for my school community such as the Wolrlwide Take Off
Student Challenges.
During
the last 12 months, I had the opportunity to join the preopening team of 2 challenging properties opening: Les Cures Marines de Trouville a 5-star
MGallery by Sofitel, and the Pullman Roissy CDG Airport 4*. At the end of these
two operational experiences, I started working at the headquarters on a hotel
pre opening tool kit for the next MGallery franchises openings. This was such
an enriching mission, as I wanted to keep a foot in the operational side while
being involved in the Global strategy of each brand.
These two pre
openings experiences were a lot of hard work but so stimulating and
rewarding. I had never stopped learning in the last past 12 months. For both
mission, I was right away emerged within the hotel when the construction was in
progress. I started the adventure from the scratch, as there were only the GM
and the Director of HR. Everything had to be created.
From October 2015
to March 2016, it was an intense period as I combined classes at ESSEC for 3
days a week then work at Trouville for 2 days. Once the two first trimesters were completed, all apprentices were required to spend 9 months full time in their
respective companies. At that time, I moved from a seaside hotel to an airport
property in Roissy. The key objective of my job was to ensure that the project
was delivered on time. For that I supported every head of department in term of
Human Ressources, Sales and Marketing, Revenue Management and Food &
Beverage. My mission covered a large area of topic: from the implementation of
standard operating to furniture and fixtures equipment ordering and social
media campaigns (just to name a few). There were also nice aspects such as food
and wine tasting.
I was the coordinator of the
project between the Headquarters and the operational side. Project Management
is captivating because it allows me not only to support on various topics but
also to work with multiple departments on cross-functional projects. It was a
challenging experience as for each property we had to face unexpected events
and always adapt ourselves to come up with solutions, especially in case of
delay of the opening date. As you can see, there is no time to waste when it
comes to opening a hotel, I never count my hours and I love it. I was fully dedicated to my job as I was considered
myself as an employee as a whole. I had the chance to be trusted and to work directly
with both General Managers who gave me many important responsibilities and
missions to achieve. I had the opportunity to participate to strategic meetings
and I often interacted with the Brand Regional Directors. It helped to develop
my communication and leadership skills. Some of my managers acted more as
mentors than direct superiors.
It was the opportunity to provide my
competencies learnt in course but also to bring my expertise from my previous
experiences in Revenue Management and Marketing. Nevertheless, one challenging
aspect of this apprenticeship was switching from one team to another and
finding my place to get the trust of my managers in some stressful period. It
was also emotionally hard to leave one team for another when you have shared
such strong moments. Indeed, it is above all a human experience and it would
have no value if it would have been easy. I developed strong relationship for
life with people from different background. Last week, I came back at the
Pullman Paris Roissy CDG Airport for the inauguration party, and it is always
the same emotion of accomplishment
of 8 month-hard work and pleasure when entering this
hotel and meeting my former colleagues.
Needless
to say, my apprenticeship was my best professional experience so far and I could not have imagined better with two-hotel preopening at this stage of my professional early career.
It was truly a fantastic and unforgettable experience with amazing memories
remaining with me forever.
