Page 26 - INSIGHT MAGAZINE - NoBleed_Neat

MEMBER PROFILE

There’s no

place like home

VANESSA STEVENSON, GM OF HOMEWOOD SUITES BY HILTON CAMBRIDGE/WATERLOO
POSES WITH SOME OF HER TEAM AT THE EAST END HOTEL

The expression ‘home is This is not a complaint, in fact, it means “Here was this classroom filled with
quite the opposite for the career hotel students studying airport codes from all
where the heart is’ really operator who first fell in love with the over the world. It was like a geography
resonates with Vanessa industry in 1994 while living in Mississauga, class on steroids,” laughs Vanessa, who
several years after her parents brought the also seriously considered a career in the
Stevenson. family back to Ontario following time in veterinary field but decided after a co-op
Alberta and B.C. placement at a vet clinic that it wasn’t for
As General Manager of Homewood her either. “So now it was time to reinvent
Suites by Hilton Cambridge/Waterloo for “I totally fell into this. I was 22 and I needed myself and I just started looking for work
more than a decade, she and her team to find work and they were the first to find over the summer.”
continually go that extra mile to ensure me,” says Vanessa, reminiscing about her
their guests feel at home. In fact, she often early days working behind the front desk Initially, she was there to fill a maternity
refers to extended stay guests as ‘living’ at at the Delta Meadowvale Hotel (now Hilton leave, but Vanessa quickly realized the
the busy Jamison Parkway hotel. Mississauga/Meadowvale) in Mississauga. hotel was an environment she thrived
“I sometimes have to shake my head Initially, she had toyed with the idea of and through hard work and determination
quickly found her place.
because this isn’t my home,” jokes Vanessa, working in the travel industry until a visit
while seated in one of several meeting to a Sheridan College tourism class while “I realized there was more to this business
rooms the hotel provides. “But sometimes still in high school changed her mind. than just checking someone in or out, or
it feels like it is because I spend so much more than just someone cleaning a room,”
time here.” she says. “It’s like an island.

26 Fall 2023 www.cambridgechamber.com