HotelChatter

Sean Paul: I used to work in hotels for my work experience. I went to school for it for three years. The college had things like engineering and business administration and computers and that sort of thing. I was in hotel management. So for six hours every Tuesday and Thursday I would just cook. Then it was learning how to be a front desk person, then administration, then maintenance. To be a hotel manager, I had to learn and be everything.

HotelChatter: What was it like?

Sean Paul: I got the work experience. Every summer for six or seven weeks I had to work in a hotel. They wanted to put me in the country and I wanted to stay in town so after I finished work I could go to the dancehall, I could go to parties. My work experience of those six or seven weeks for three summers was good, I got a taste for everything. I worked at the Wyndham Hotel in Kingston [which closed a few days after Sean Paul chatted with us!] and the Liguanea Club which is more of a tennis club. They’re right across the street from each other.

HotelChatter: What hotels do you recommend in Jamaica?

Sean Paul: Now, (laughs) I don’t really like going to hotels in Jamaica but I like Half Moon in Montego Bay. It’s good. It’s a nice hotel. Each place is a suite and more like a house with a pool.

I just got back from Portland in Jamaica and they have the best eco-tourism in Jamaica. It’s not touristy. There are tourists there but they have to take a little boat or canoe up to the Blue Lagoon and they come swim and walk and hike. It’s just beautiful.

It’s not like, Hey Mon! and jerk chicken. It’s not like that. It’s like when I went to Tahiti, I was like, "Whoa! This is like Portland." I was amazed by Tahiti. It was just so natural. I also like The Sanderson in England.

HotelChatter: Will you share some funny hotel stories from those summers you worked?

Sean Paul: I remember when I was working in those hotels I had this guy call down and say, "Excuse me Sir, why is there a fly in my room?" I was like, "Oh, yes Sir! I will have someone come down and take it out for you immediately."

I would get calls like, "Why is it raining?! Can you turn it off?" And then I would say, "OK, I will turn it off immediately. Sorry about that." Oh yeah, and one summer when it was week four and I was a waiter, there was this old girl who tipped me and then she squeezed me on my ass. I was like, "No, this job is not for me." She gave me 500 Jamaican dollars. At the time that was a lot. I was like, "WOW!"

[Photo: Wikimedia Commons]