OF COURSE, ONLY STELLAR PEOPLE WORK AT WESTCORD. THEIR DRIVE AND PASSION FOR DAZZLING GUESTS IS ADMIRABLE AND WE WOULD LIKE TO PUT TWO OF THEM IN THE SPOTLIGHT. ONE OF WESTCORD’S BEST IS JESSE THEUNS. HE IS TWENTY YEARS OLD AND HAS BEEN WORKING AT WESTCORD FOR FIVE YEARS. IT’S FUNNY TO MENTION: HIS FATHER KARLO THEUNS ALSO WORKS AT WESTCORD AND HAS BEEN WORKING AS A FINANCIAL MANAGER FOR TWENTY YEARS. A DOUBLE ANNIVERSARY! THE OTHER WESTCORD’S BEST, LAURA BERGFELD, STARTED AS AN INTERN AT HOTEL JAKARTA AND NOW HAPPILY WORKS THERE FIVE DAYS A WEEK. ALTHOUGH THEY ARE BOTH STILL ROOKIES, THE WESTCORD SPIRIT IS ALREADY VERY MUCH IN THEIR BLOOD. WE ASKED THEM ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES.

Jesse Theuns | Various WestCord Hotels

You’re still young (20 years old) but have been working at WestCord for five years now, an anniversary! How did your career at WestCord start?

‘I actually really wanted to work at WestCord from a young age and when I turned fifteen I finally did and started on Ameland because we spent a lot of time there as our family had a holiday home on Ameland. I started with all kinds of odd jobs like lugging the guests’ suitcases, which must have been a funny sight as I was only five foot one. Later, I started helping with breakfast and lunch and eventually dinner. I now work at several WestCord hotels.’

Karlo, you started working at WestCord twenty years ago, what was the reason for you to start working here?

‘I was an accountant for ten years and in my final years WestCord was one of my clients. They had the foresight that WestCord might become very big. That’s why they wanted a finance specialist internally. They approached me at the time and it came at exactly the right time for me.’

Working for WestCord runs in the family. What do you enjoy most about working for WestCord?

Karlo: ‘It’s a real family business. As chief financial officer, I am constantly on the road with the Westers family and we have been able to do a lot of great things. We have grown from five hotels to now sixteen hotels. These are truly milestones that make it interesting to work for this team every year. I am really proud to work for this company every day.’

Jesse: ‘For me, WestCord has also always been like a family. In a photo from back in the day, when I was just able to walk, you can see me standing in the hotel playground on Ameland. As a family, we often went with our father to the hotels on weekends, so I grew up with it. Now, of course, the circle is complete because I have also been allowed to work there for five years. The social interactions with guests really make my job fun. I like getting to know more people, I’m a real people person. I talk to guests about all kinds of topics, how they are in life and what they find joy in. We devote a lot of energy to our guests, but you also get a lot of good energy in return. Of course, this work can be physically demanding at times, but that has also shaped me into who I am today as a person.’

Do you sometimes bump into each other on the work floor?

Jesse: ‘I occasionally did study projects for WestCord and then I regularly bumped into my father. This is no longer the case now. Of course, it was very convenient for me to do some study projects for WestCord. After all, I already knew a bit about the company, then you start experiencing it from a different point of view. It’s a win-win situation.’

Karlo: ‘I really enjoy hearing a lot from my children about what goes on in the workplace. My daughter Amber now also works a lot at WestCord. Their experiences draw my attention to certain happenings at the workplace. These make me particularly enriched in my experience of the company and I really like that.’

Jesse, do you also see yourself working at WestCord for another 20 years?

‘I’m currently studying business administration so it could go either way in the future. Of course it would be an ideal picture if I could start working at WestCord after my studies, but I’m not sure what that will be like at the moment. I do know that by working here for so long, I am building a very good foundation. If you want to grow somewhere, you have to start from the bottom. In any case, I could easily add another five years.

Laura Bergfeld | Hotel Jakarta Amsterdam

How did you get started at Hotel Jakarta?

‘I had to present a pitch during my studies and that’s how I was chosen to do an internship at Hotel Jakarta. I liked it so much that I really wanted to keep working there. I was given the chance! I was given a zero-hours contract at first and if I proved myself, I would be offered a 38-hour contract. I succeeded! Now I work there five days a week in the restaurant service. I really wanted to work at Jakarta because it is practically the only truly green and sustainable hotel in Amsterdam. That attracted me a lot. And I felt I could learn a lot here. I am now really incredibly happy that I get to work here.’

What is the best thing you have experienced at Hotel Jakarta so far?

‘I really enjoy giving people a nice day so that they can leave with a pleasant feeling. I also sometimes consider it very special that guests remember me. For instance, there are French guests who regularly come to the Netherlands and then stay at Hotel Jakarta. I met them during my internship and we immediately had nice conversations. I now work permanently at Jakarta and recently met these guests again. They instantly called me by name and were thrilled to see me again. I thought that was a very special moment.’

What are your qualities and what are things you would still like to learn?

‘What I was already very good at was interacting with guests and remembering small but important things about them. When I worked at Xenos before this, I always had nice contact with the people who came to shop and I also remembered when they went on holiday and the like. Those qualities obviously come in very handy in my current job. I still really had to learn the practical side, such as serving and carrying techniques, but now I am better at this. I now also help other trainees who experience the same beginner’s difficulties as I did then.’

What are you looking forward to?

‘Looking back at myself in two years’ time and seeing how much I have grown! And what all I’ve learnt. I really want to keep working at Hotel Jakarta and even hope to be a supervisor in a while. I think that when I look back in a few years I will be very proud of all that I have already achieved.’

What do you think makes Hotel Jakarta such a great place to work?

‘The team is really incredibly nice, I received a very warm welcome at the time. I am a curious person and asked a lot of questions in the beginning, but nobody found that annoying. They actually enjoyed teaching me new things. And I really like the green theme, it really feels like a sustainable place in Amsterdam. That makes it really special.’