My Hotel Management Internship in the beauftiful city of Amsterdam

Anna B., Leisure and Tourism Management, 7. Semester, Hotel Management Intern at Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam – North Riverside, Amsterdam, Niederlande, Wintersemester 2021/22

My name is Anna, I am 23 years old and I spent my internship semester aborad in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as a Hotel Management Intern at Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam – North Riverside. I study Leisure and Tourism Management in Stralsund and have always loved living aborad as well as dreamed off working in a hotel. As I got closer to my internship semester, I started searching for internships mostly online on LinkedIn or other websites. I found the offer for my internship a few months before I started over LinkedIn and applied directly there. Personally, I have found that applying for an internship abroad works best over LinkedIn. I have sent many applications to different organizations outside of LinkedIn, but two of the three offers I received in the end, happened over LinkedIn. On the same day of applying for my internship, I was called by the HR Manager of the hotel and talked with her about my application, expectations, experiences and about the hotel. She was very friendly and shortly after, invited me for an online interview together with the Operations Manager of the hotel, who would function as my supervisor during the internship. We talked about the internship itself and if my expectations matched it as well as the team of the hotel. I had a very positive feeling and was happy when I received the confirmation I could do my internship there.
The internship was an operations oriented internship in which I got to try out all the departments a hotel consists of, but was also able to take on responsibility and contribute my own creative ideas in individual projects. I started my internship with working in the Food and Beverage Department as well as at the Front Desk as a receptionist. After understanding those Front of House tasks I got to work Manager on Duty shifts, which means, in my shift I was the manager and the one responsible for what happened in the Front of House with the guests as well as beneath the team. I had to report to the management, take the blame when something went wrong, attend meetings, communicate between the different departments, supervise the team, talk to guests, resolve conflicts and complaints and, very important, be the one to handle the fire alarms! This was a great experience, as I received very early on a lot of responsibility and grew from it.
Other than that, I worked on a regular basis in many other departments, such as the Reservations Department or the Finance Deparment. In between I also had some shifts in the Maintenance Department, which was a nice change and actually very educational, and even a day in Housekeeping.
Additionally I had some projects I worked on, for example a new menu design and interior design for the restaurant in the hotel, which was partly executed during my time and was wonderful to see coming alive. Furthermore, I worked on multiple social media projects, review analysis and ideas and strategies to increase revenue as well as an inventory project.
There was not much I did not do and thats why I loved this internship so much. I really learned and expereiced how every part of a hotel is organized and operated and I know that I will benefit from this highly in my future career.
The internship was not only so special because of its diversity, but also because of the people I worked with. The team at the Holiday Inn Express Amstedam – North Riverside is very international. It’s a big hotel with 438 rooms, but with a relatively small team of about 50 people from all over the world. The language spoken all over the hotel was always English and we all loved to share bits and pieces of all of our differernt cultures. The team is young and vibrant, very supportive, patient and always helpful and we were more like a big family or group of friends. I spent a lot of my free time with my colleagues. We went out miltiple times, into bars for drinks, clubs for dancing, bowling and karaoke, or just shopping and relaxed dinners. I never felt lonely being surrounded by those people

and never felt the need to actively search for friends outside of work, since I spent so much time just with them. To work in a team with a dynamic like this is very unique and special and you will not find it often in companies. The hardest part at the end of my internship was leaving this wonderful team.
As of living in Amsterdam, it was so much fun. The city has so much to offer and a possibility for everything. I loved going for a stroll with a coffee in hand or shopping in the Negen Straatjes, enjoyed sunshine and art conventions at the NDSM plein or going out with my colleagues, who were as I said my best friends, to the Exit Bar (perfect for dancing) or The Waterhole (perfect for drinks and pool with live music). Those are just a few of my recommendations in the city. There is so much to do and see, it never gets boring. I also recommend going to Central Doctors right at central station whenever a doctor is needed. They are focused on expats and travellers and accept most foreign insurances.
As wonderful and fun as the city is, as challenging was it to find accommodation there. I knew it would be more on the expensive side and started rather early to look for a place to live, which turned out being a very good idea, since it was not easy at all to find something and took a long time. To find housing in Amsterdam, I recommend to use the website „kamernet.nl“ and groups on Facebook. There, a lot of rooms or apartments get rented privately for a limited amount of time, which is perfect for when you will only stay for an internship. Also the budget for a place to live definitely needs to be higher than in a small town like Stralsund. I got very lucky and ended up finding a place on the north side, where I also worked. It made it easier for me to get to work by bike and I did not have to pay as much as you need to in the city center. The north side was well connected to the city center and it was never a problem not to live right in the center. Also important is to get a bike when living in Amsterdam. I was lucky and bought my bike for little money from a neighbour, but I can recommend to use „Swap Fiets“, which is an organisation that rents bikes longterm and whenever something is broken, you can swap it with another of their bikes. Very convenient especially when you’re living in Amsterdam temporarily.
Culturally, there have not been too many differences between Germany and The Netehrlands, especially because the city of Amsterdam is a city of expats and so there are many different cultures you will find. It was very enjoyable to be part of this international city and experience the Dutch lifestyle, but also so many others. My favorite dutch snacks were Poffertjes and Stroopwaffels, freshly prepared on markets in the city.
Living in Amsterdam and doing this internship was so educational, fun and also eye-opening for me. I grew so much as a person, learned so much more than I could have expected and met the most amazing people that will stay freinds for life. I also understood better what I want to do in my future and which departments of a hotel interest me the most. It got never boring living in this city or working in this hotel and the six months went by way too fast. I can higly recommennd doing Erasmus in Amsterdam and working at Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam – North Riverside.