Hospitality Internships Abroad

Top Reasons to Apply

Get a foot in the door which can lead to full time employment
Gain experience on your CV & give your career a kickstart
Make new professional and personal contacts
There are opportunities to intern all over the world
So many roles will suit you and help your career progress

Popular Destinations

You can find hospitality internships all around the world. Popular places to apply include:

Europe: UK, Spain, France, Italy
North America: USA, Canada
Asia & Middle East: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Thailand
Pacific: Australia, New Zealand

Paid Hospitality Internships Abroad

Some companies offer paid internships in hospitality in the UK and around the world whilst some hellp towards the cost of training, accommodation and food. Some international agencies charge a fee to participate but you will get a respected structured placement. If you already have experience you might want to check out our hotel jobs abroad.

Why Join an International Hospitality Internship?

Hotel may want to employ a foreigner intern for a few different reasons:

you are the right candidate for the role,
they believe you can offer internal training for the other staff, such as helping with English and help explaining western culture/etiquette, and
maintaining customer relationships and to be the first point of contact for international guests.

Duration

Typical programs will be for 6 or 12 months and the position will most likely be ‘Management Trainee’, a position where you learn the different roles in the hotel. You will get the choice of working in the Front Office or Food and Beverage, which ever one you think you will prefer, but you will only be offered customer facing functions.

Roles

Different daily roles can include:

check-in and check-out process,
guest complaints and guest correspondence (email and direct),
recommend hotel services and facilities to the guests,
staff training,
event planning,
basic administration including stock-taking, guest survey satisfaction monitoring, daily log keeping, and
table-waiting duties.

Accommodation

You will also be offered different benefits depending which chain/hotel you apply. If you are one of the lucky ones you may be offered to stay in a 5 star hotel with free hotel meals. Other hotels may offer you the chance to stay in the hotel staff dormitory located not to far away from the hotel with a free staff canteen meals. You may have to find your own accommodation in an unfamiliar city and may not be offered any meals. So make sure you understand your benefits when accepting the position. But the best part about a hotel placement is that you will receive an allowance.

Requirements

Some companies / hotels might require you to have a related degree. Other requirements are fluency in spoken and written English, strong customer service orientation and skills and the ability to establish direct and amicable working relationship with colleagues and managers. Additional language skills are also an advantage.

How to Gain Employment After an Internship

Before accepting the internship you must also fully understand the visa requirements and whether the hotel will help you apply. It is very common for hotels to offer a permanent position in the hotel after the contract has been completed and interns do sometimes take up the offer.