Declan Fitzhenry, managing director at Citystay Living, shares his passion for hospitality
Cambridge Edition: When did you join Citystay, and what first attracted you to the role?
Declan Fitzhenry: I had worked in various hospitality roles across the early years of my career – learning the value of hard work via long and unsociable hours. I knew that my passion was for hospitality and I was looking for a more suitable work-life balance, while being able to remain in the industry.
During my interview, I made an immediate connection with the business owners, who shared the same values as myself, including a commitment to the delivery of consistently outstanding customer service twinned with a desire for growth and development.
CE: What does a typical working day look like for you?
DF: One of the beauties of my role is no two days look the same, whether that’s managing our large corporate contracts; providing direction, leadership and support to our team members; managing shareholder engagement; or contributing to the industry’s policy development and thought leadership at a local and national level. I particularly enjoy exploring strategic growth ideas or identifying new revenue opportunities. A constant challenge for myself as managing director is ensuring a healthy balance between achieving strategic and operational balance in my workload.
CE: Who stays in your Cambridge apartments, and for what reasons?
DF: Through our recent rebrand and adaptation into Citystay Living, we have proactively broadened the net in terms of who our accommodation is available to. We are ‘for everyone’, whether that be the business traveller or relocator to Cambridge, the long weekend gig-goer, graduate intern or language school student. Our different models include sleep, stay and live options, and allow our customers to get precisely what they need from our flexible accommodation.
CE: What, in your opinion, is the single most important quality of good accommodation?
DF: This is almost impossible to answer in one go, as different people have different needs. The short-term business traveller’s primary requirement may be a superfast and secure Wi-Fi connection, while a weekend city visitor may prioritise location, clear guest service communications and transport connectivity over other factors.
So, we ensure our accommodation stands out across a broad spectrum of requirements – from consistent furnishing and attentive communications pre-, during- and post-stay to reliable Wi-Fi and hand-selected locations – to be certain that our guests’ experience goes beyond the four walls of their accommodation.
CE: Have you ever had an awful accommodation experience?
DF: Fortunately, I have never had any nightmare experiences, although through my professional life, I’d like to think that I have become quite adept at choosing the right places to stay. I have, however, had lots of other misfortune with travel, from lost luggage to impounded hire cars, missed flights and problems getting into airports. Not ideal when travelling with a young family!
We would consider ourselves pretty independent travellers and we tend to prefer places where we can control our own trip – self-catering all the way and in off-the-beaten-track locations to get a more local experience.
CE: Have you drawn on your own personal experiences, both good and bad, to help you in your work?
DF: Of course, I am always on the lookout for anything that I feel is transferable from one hospitality experience to the next, whether that be examining customer touchpoints at a local cafe or noticing the end-to-end experience when booking a nice restaurant. Anything that makes me stop and think, I will try to find a way of introducing into Citystay Living.
CE: Finally, when you’re staying away from home, what do you always hope to see on the tea tray?
DF: Without a doubt, Yorkshire Tea – nothing else comes close. I probably drink more coffee than tea in general, however, and wherever we go I am always on the hunt for an independent coffee shop to stop at for breakfast – and with two small children this is often a pre-requisite to starting the day!
