Tower Block Dreams

The Ashcroft Hotel

Six Years Later

Lena's POV

So I had thrown myself into my apprenticeship after I finished 6th form  it had been  hard graft and I learnt on the job.   I had worked in every department from cleaning, chambermaid, kitchens, bar to front of house.   I had met Benson who was an amazing mentor he taught me everything I know and helped me rise in the ranks pretty quickly.  Some of the tricks he taught me was mental one which he taught me which I still follow to this very day I remember him saying to me

"Lena, you are a young, beautiful and intelligent young lady but  you are also a threat to women and men will give you unwanted attention in front of their wife's or girlfriends....men just can't help themselves, you need to wear a wedding band darling – trust me it works makes the woman feel less threatened".

To be fair to Benson he was 100 per cent right. Before I wore the wedding band I did get men who was on their cooperate do's staying over night coming on to me – even in front of their wife's and it caused on a couple of occasion's an uncomfortable atmosphere.  It was usually when they was steaming drunk but the next day at breakfast they wasn't so brave.

Benson pushed me to do a Hotel management course which I did and passed with a distinction.  Benson done this all for his own reasons, he had build the Ashcroft up and had worked so hard for the reputation it currently had.  Benson needed a new mission that's how he rolled but he wanted the Hotel to be passed over to someone who had the same passion as him, he made me apply for his position and was on the panel of interviewers.

And now I am the Manager of The Ashcroft Hotel!! Benson moved to a run down hotel The Adrotie it was about 3 miles away from the Ashcroft but he had turned the place around we was still very close and if either of our hotels was booked up we would always recommend each others Hotel to the client.

I had a busy day ahead of me the hotel was fully booked and all the conference rooms was booked out. My staff had done 5 referrals to Bensons hotel, which Benson rang and thanked me for.

My shift today was 6AM-6PM but I never left on time when I was working I stayed at the hotel, staff perks.   Managers had their own suite when they was on duty to be fair it was a godsend it was pointless going home because I would need to leave at 5AM to get back the following day plus the hotel chain knew that if a manager was staying on site they could be called on if there was any emergency of any kind.

I looked through the list of check ins we had coming today.   I always looked I was nosey! No one I recognise I get to work.

I have a brilliant team Benson had taught me to look after your workers show them who is boss, but always thank them for their hard work and I did.  I had staff I could call on if there was a staff shortage I looked after them something simple like a free lunch for their family if they had massively helped me out and it went a long way.  I respected my staff and they respected me.

I go to each department and everything is running like clock work everything is going well.  My deputy today is James and I love working with James he is brilliant we have a laugh and get the job done which is more then I can say for my other DM Lorraine....she is older then both me and James and apparently is a hitler when I am not around I've had to pull her up a few times.

I walk through reception and its filling up I head to my office and look at the bookings for the conference rooms, one is for a charity, one for a company in Leeds, neighbourhood meeting – they are regulars and the last one is booked for some speaker.

I always head into each conference and introduce myself, something else Benson had taught me.  It was all about return custom and we got a lot of that thanks to our team and all our hard work, the personal touch treating each guest as they was the only one staying.  Seeing to their every need well most needs.  We had the odd guest that had requested a "Midnight caller" which we declined we did not want that kind of reputation, if they had checked in together that was different, we know what goes on in the rooms! 

 We I first started and was a chambermaid some of the rooms was left in a disgusting state, used condoms just left on the floor....spunk on the mirror.....underwear, lube, vibrators, cuffs, gimp mask you name it was often left behind.  Often you would see the remains of the cocaine residue on the services something we could not police.  We kept a track of who they was and when they tried to book again we was always fully booked.  We had a reputation to maintain and I wasn't letting anything slip on my watch.

It was Thursday and I was looking forward to the weekend it was my first weekend off in around six weeks and that family was having a BBQ something that always ended up in a good old knees up.