Interview with Brenda Olson, Executive Housekeeper – Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa

A Q&A session with Brenda Olson, Executive Housekeeper at Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, conducted by Liz Lycette.

Q: Where were you born and where did you grow up? Go to School?

A: I was born in Coos Bay, Oregon USA. My family stayed in USA until I was 3 and then we moved to Australia. My mom is an Aussie and my dad American. My mom went off on an overseas adventure early in her life and ended up meeting my dad in Spain where they married, moved to the USA had 3 kids and thought Australia would be a great place to raise us. I have lived in Coober Pedy in Western Australia and later near Windsor in the Lower Blue Mountains. I went to school in Penrith west of Sydney.

Q: What was your career path until your first Executive Housekeeper position?

A: I first worked in Hospitality at Australia’s Wonderland after a while I started working in Visual Merchandising. I did this for 12 years in the Sydney Metro area.

Q: Where have you been Executive Housekeeper? Hotel? City? Country? Number of rooms? Challenges of each position?

A: Like my mom I took off on an overseas adventure to the USA, ended up in Alaska where it was more about the location and experience than the actual job. I applied to be a Housekeeper, and was accepted. Soon after I was promoted to a Supervisor and then asked back as an Assistant Manager the following season. I loved the job and the atmosphere so much I applied for the Executive Housekeeping Manager position and was successful! I have been in that position for the past 6 years.

The McKinley Chalet Resort is on the boarder of Denali National Park right in the middle of Alaska, USA. The Resort has 480 rooms, room set up of TW/DB mini suites, 2 x Queen rooms and King rooms. On any given day there was at least 53 Housekeeping employees needed to operate the resort – Assistant Managers x 3, Supervisors x 12, HSK x 52, Housemen x 5, and PAC x 6. Most of the seasonal employees were from eastern European countries like Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland also Dominica Republic and USA Students, they worked on a 4-month visa.

Challenges were staffing accordingly.  Opening and closing the resort, motivating the staff and keeping morale high, check out time of 10am and new arrivals at noon meant a short turnover time between rooms, team work & organisation was key.

Q: What was your last position in Alaska like? How long were you there and what made you come back to Australia?

A: My position as the Executive Housekeeping Manger was certainly challenging at times. Working a seasonal property, opening the property from being closed for 7 months to ensuring everyone was trained in enough time for our first guests, losing staff during the season, to closing down the property. I loved meeting new people every season from all over the globe.

I worked in Denali at the McKinley Chalet Resort for 6 years.

The decision to return back to Australia was certainly a hard one. I worked 10 months out of 12 so we came home to Australia every 2 years or so seeking a warmer climate for the winter. It got harder to leave family & friends each time, so we decided to see what opportunities opened up in Australia for us before our return tickets to Alaska were due.

Q: Why did you choose Housekeeping?

A: I think Housekeeping choose me  - I like to clean, I like things in order and I like an end result. Housekeeping appeared as a great opportunity in Alaska for me to live and work in such an unbelievable environment. Not many can say they clean rooms where moose and grizzly bears walk by …

Q: What do you love most about it? And what is the hardest part of being a Housekeeper?

A: The hardest part of housekeeping is being the ‘unsung hero’s’ in a hotel, being unappreciated or under paid.

What I love most about Housekeeping – guest satisfaction, seeing an end result, the closeness within the team

Q: When did you join Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa? What are your first impressions from the first 2 weeks?

A: I joined Wolgan Valley Resort in February 2010. My first impressions were surreal, everything was organised, policies and procedures were in place and the property was amazing

Q: What are the biggest 3 challenges? Working in a remote property?

A: Staff retention, isolation, boredom etc. Dust is a huge challenge, it blows in from everywhere!

Communication with other departments. a sense of urgency or lack thereof.

Q: Describe Wolgan Valley – setup – number of rooms? Physical layout? Housekeeping staffing and structure of setup of staff. Public areas?

Room rates? What type of guests?

A: Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa is Australia’s first luxury conservation-based resort. Located on Australia’s Great Dividing Range, within the heart of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The resort occupies only 2% of the 4,000 acres.

This secluded resort features 40 individual suites surrounded by private decks, each having it’s own indoor/outdoor swimming pool, separate living and sleeping areas, luxurious en suite bathroom and double sided fireplace.

The Housekeeping Department has a staffing of 14 – breaks down to Executive Housekeeping Manager, Supervisor, 4 PAC and 8 Suite Attendants. Generally we have 2 am PAC and 2 pm they do our turndown service that all guests receive during their stay. Our suites are like being in your own home so the timeline of cleaning them is around 45 min – 1 hour, larger suites 11/2 hours.

Room rates vary from $1,660 up

Our guests come from all over Australia and the world.