Nice job (shame about the Web site)
Russell Durnell, 37, moved to Australia 13 years ago from England, having grown up in Bristol. He is sales and marketing director for the W hotel in Sydney, which opened last summer in time for the Olympics. His salary is in the region of Aus$90,000 (£31,650).
I get up at 5.45am, have Weetabix and fresh fruit, and go for a run. On Mondays, I run through Centennial Park; Wednesdays, out to Bondi Beach then on to Bronte; and on Saturdays, I run from Bondi to Coogee Beach and back.
When I get into the office, I talk with reception and find out what's happened overnight. I read the guest arrivals list and then read the Sydney Morning Herald - I love that paper.
If I don't have an early morning breakfast appointment, my first priority is to answer e-mails from the night before. Then I'll have a sales meeting with managers and the banquet co-ordinator, and discuss what they are doing for the day and how the previous day's events went.
At 9.15 each morning, there's a managers' meeting for department heads to discuss the day's events.
After that, I might meet with the marketing revenue manager regarding our Web site. At present, it feeds off information loaded from our in-house reservations system, so the site is really boring. It says things like: "Our rooms feature telephones." I can see the headline now: "Shock, horror: hotel room features telephone." So we're looking at making it more interesting and relevant.
We attract a fair amount of media and film business. Yesterday, I had a lunch meeting with 20th Century-Fox Film Distributors to discuss the press launch of their next big film, Bandits, starring Cate Blanchett. Lunch was at Nove, an Italian restaurant in the Wharf building that houses the hotel. I believe I should be able to eat and drink what I like as I've paid for it with my morning run. So I had pizza, pasta and salad. And a glass of wine.
After lunch, I'll check my messages but not my e-mails - I save that to the end of the day. Then I'll meet with another client regarding a conference later this year. Before I leave the office, I'll do the e-mails and admin, which I really hate. Then I'll have a drink with a visiting journalist or meet and greet VIP guests.
At 7.15pm, I leave the hotel and go to the gym, where I work out for 45 minutes. Most nights, I get home around 8pm and either I or my partner will cook something quick. We go out about three or four times a week.
I'm in bed around 10 and I sleep like the dead.
Interview by Sara Guild
Just a minute…
What was your worst experience at work?
Last year, I was manager on duty for the hotel on New Year's Day. The F&B manager assumed we'd be quiet and didn't roster enough staff on. The other caf‚ on the Wharf was closed, and every man, his dog and his dog's cousin came for brunch. It was panda-flipping-monium. I gave away the day's takings in complimentary food, and then I closed the joint. I felt terrible for the guests and the staff - they were capable of running a caf‚ if it had 20 guests in it, but not 220 guests. I was furious.
Tell us a secret.
I got a bar job in Brisbane when I was first backpacking around Australia. My first night, I was sent outside to the cold room to fetch a bottle of wine. The shelf of the fridge was upside down, so when I removed a bottle, all the others fell domino-like, crashing around me. I couldn't think how to explain to the stern manager how it had happened so, uncharacteristically for me, I ran away.
Who would you invite to dinner?
Mum and Dad, because they still live in the UK and I don't see them often; Michael Parkinson, because he is such a fantastic interviewer and he could ask lots of questions of Ridley Scott, the film director, who would be my other guest. I've yet to see a bad movie from him.
What would your last supper be?
Heinz beans on toast.
W hotel
6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, Australia.
Tel: 61 2 9331 9000
Owner: Starwood Hotels
Style: boutique hotel
Number of bedrooms: 104
Average achieved room rate: Aus$260 (£91.40)
Occupancy: 65%
Turnover: Aus$10m (£3.51m)
