Our summer seaside special

Valentina Nurra is head housekeeper at The Grand Brighton, a position she’s held for just over two years at the iconic seafront hotel

About The Grand Brighton

July will mark 160 years since the stunning hotel opened to great fanfare, as the ‘Palace By The Sea’ was considered a superb example of Victorian architectural brilliance and was the first hotel outside London to feature lifts. The building cost was calculated then at around £100,000, but the modern equivalent would be many millions.

There are 201 rooms over the seven floors, now featuring all the modern touches today’s guests – and our housekeepers – expect, but all of the interior is a treat, with plenty of sights and discoveries, from the dramatic staircase to celebrations of Grand Moments with plaques featuring QR codes to scan which reveal fascinating stories and moments from bygone eras.

Another anniversary worthy of note in 2024 is that it’s 50 years since the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Brighton. The winners – ABBA with their song Waterloo – stayed at The Grand and celebrated their success there. Also in that decade, the film Quadrophenia had not just Brighton as a backdrop, but one of the main characters, ‘Ace Face’ played by Sting, turns out to be a bellboy at The Grand.

And Del Boy and the Trotter tribe stayed there for the 1992 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses after somehow selling ‘Peckham Spring Water’! Right up to date, the hotel supports sustainability drives and associated charities including Life Water in guest bedrooms, backing a local charity which helps clean drinking water projects around the world.

About Valentina Nurra

Q Tell us a little bit about how and when you came to the industry.

When I first moved to the UK in 2015 my English was very basic, so I had to look for a job where English language was not required. I have worked as a waitress and bar attendant. I started to work as a room attendant in one of the hotels in Brighton (Jury’s Inn). Then I was promoted, eventually becoming a supervisor and in 2019 reached the position of head housekeeper at Leonardo hotel in Brighton.

Q What does your working day involve?

My typical day at work starts at 7.30am, preparing the list for the room attendants and organising the day for supervisors and porters. Then I do some admin. I help check rooms and at the end of the day I do more admin, then do a final check so that we are ready for the next day. I would say that my job satisfaction is to see our guests happy, and my manager recognises the hard work I have put in. This gives me the motivation to improve every day. It can be challenging to keep the team motivated sometimes and to keep the standards high.

Q Do you have any family or social commitments which must be juggled alongside work?

Overall it’s been quite easy because working in housekeeping gives me more flexibility in terms of days off and holidays. Last year, I started a university course and have not had any problems managing all the deadlines for the assessments.

Q If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the world of hotel housekeeping, what would it be?

I would actually introduce AI robots in our department! Not to substitute for us humans but to work alongside us. Housekeeping is a physical job and I think having this kind of help could improve the performance of the room attendants and definitely the overall standard.

Q What advice would you give to any young person entering housekeeping or hospitality in general? What have you learnt from your own experience?

When you choose to work in hospitality you have to be aware that it could be tough sometimes and that you have to put passion into everything you do. Whether you’re cleaning rooms or preparing a cocktail, it does not matter, what matters is the quality of the service that you are delivering to the guest.