From Family Roots to Industry Leader: Ger Alley’s Journey in Hospitality
A strong work ethic in the hospitality world is something that Ger Alley has grown up with and which has stood to him. Today, he is the General Manager of the Killashee, outside Naas in County Kildare. His origins in interacting with the public go back to his youth, helping his parents with the family restaurant in Durrow, County Laois.
Ger has been working with FBD for 6 years. One of his more impressive ‘calling-card’ experiences was overseeing the refurbishment of The Heritage in Killenard in his native Laois.
“I was in my mid-thirties,” he says, “which is relatively young for a General Manager. That was a huge journey; that property changed hugely, where we went from a 5-star resort down to a 4-star hotel. That was a brave decision, but as a business decision it made sense – the revenue more or less doubled.”
Ambition was never a problem for Ger in his younger years, however. Having worked in the family restaurant and then at Castle Durrow Hotel at the age of 15, he opted to attend GMIT to study for his career. From there, his first hotel placement was for a year at the former Jury’s Inn in Newcastle, northern England – a city he still loves to visit.
After a second year of placement in Boston, Ger returned to Ireland to work at Killashee as duty manager, before moving to the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone (where he also met his wife) as Senior Assistant Manager.
Over the next 8 years, he moved through a number of quality properties, becoming Director of Food and Beverage at the K Club immediately before being appointed GM at The Heritage in 2019 and GM at Killashee in 2022. Ger is still based in Laois, where he lives with his wife and family, making the hour-long commute to Kildare every day. He is very much integrated with the local community, however, sitting on the Kildare Chamber of Commerce.
The Reserve: A Bold New Venture in Luxury Hospitality
The Reserve at Killashee is the newest property in the FBD stable. As a high-end add-on to the Killashee Hotel & Spa, it was purchased 2.5 years ago by the group for €1.2 million and has undergone a huge refurbishment to become an exclusive country retreat within a 4.5-acre site; located just across the road from the 50-acre Killashee Hotel & Spa.
“We’re just about to open the doors,” says Ger. “It’s a nine-bedroom facility of what Fáilte Ireland would classify as an ‘ultra-luxury’ product. The refurbishment started about nine months ago. It’s been really exciting and a huge learning curve for everyone involved it’s not something that FBD have done before.”
What The Reserve offers is an unexpected level of tranquillity just outside a busy town, where people can appreciate the Kildare countryside all around them, including the seductive sight of horses from neighbouring stud farms galloping in the background. It’s aimed at a high-end market. Companies can do team-building here, for example, and there are two treatment rooms on site.
FBD had their first board meeting at the property in February and it’s hoped that by Easter, the property will get fully off the mark in terms of bookings.
“We’ve a sales & marketing plan rolled out and a 3-year plan rolled out,” says Ger. “We’re really excited by it and it’s going to greatly enhance what Killashee has as well. In other words, we hope that it will help sell Killashee as well.
“We’ve got some bookings already. We’d see it as a high-end place for your senior team or your CEO where they would have delegates in the hotel. We’ve two examples of that this year; where you’d have your pre-meetings here in a less formal setting before going across to the hotel to talk with their teams.”
Where it also works extremely well as a concept is in the context of a bride-to-be staying with her family on the day or days immediately before the wedding. From the initial showroom event, they received two such bookings immediately, seeming to
confirm the market for this unique product.
Empowering People: Leadership and Culture at FBD
The FBD Hotels & Resorts are very much at the forefront when it comes to staff and ensuring they are equally invested in.
“They back up what they say they’re going to do,” says Ger. “They invest in the physical place but, as their CEO says, it’s about people as well. So, it’s about getting the right people in place, getting the right structure in place too. When I leave the property at a certain time each day, for example, there’s somebody else in charge then and they have the power to carry out their day-to-day role.
“We try to treat our staff like our customers. That’s what I always try to do. We’ve just under 350 staff in Killashee… you have to know your role as leader, understand what you carry when you walk into a room. You have to be that leader and guide them along on the journey as well.”
This kind of empowerment comes from instilling the right values in the staff members and it’s a culture, he says, that comes from the top in the FBD Hotels & Resorts. A sign of that investment in people is also manifest in housing their staff. With 19 staff already staying in on-site apartments, the plan over the next few years is to increase this number. It’s a happy arrangement, Ger says:
“They love it there – for the fact that they have accommodation and they love the sense of community.
” It’s also a reflection on how the hospitality sector has evolved in recent years, with better organisational structures that allow people working in the industry to have a better life-work balance.
“I do find now, for example, with four young children, that there has to be a balance. It’s hard to switch off – I would often contact the guys at certain times when I’m off to make sure everything is okay. Recently, I deliberately completely switched off while I was away and feared I’d come back to mayhem when I returned. But everything was fine, of course.”
Looking Ahead: The Future of Hospitality in Ireland
Ger sees the tourism industry as being in a very positive place. Like many others in the sector, he is enthused by the choice of tourism minister and the fact that it’s in a business- oriented department. The main challenge for hospitality, however, is getting the people.
“It’s about attacking that education system and getting (tourism) back in there,” he says. “If we can get more young people into hospitality… you can travel the world for a start.Every day is different.
“I was lucky enough to be approached by two parents in my own local village in Laois whose children were doing their Leaving Cert. One guy works already in Castle Durrow. He wanted to either be an electrician or pursue a career in hotels. He was fantastic. No more than myself at his age, he was probably thinking that he was going to be a General Manager in two or three years, but he’ll do well in the business if he stays in it.
“It’s a career where you often gain a great skill set and you see people develop their careers quite quickly if they’re good with people. And people want to meet people now. Whether you’re an accountant or in HR, there are so many areas you can work in, it’s a fantastic career.
“We’ve had some people recently who had left and who have come back to us. We don’t preach some of the rewards we give our staff: something like getting your lunch, for example. If you were a builder, you could be spending €15 a day on food. We put a lot of pride into our canteen and staff have free reign on tea or coffee. With the cost of certain things these days, that’s important.”
The development of the Killashee and the creation and development of The Reserve are taken very seriously by FBD, Ger says. Crucially, the investment in the bricks, mortar and acreage is seen as equally important as the investment in the people.
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