Hotelier Spotlight: The Fontaine's director of housekeeping

Karla Torres, director of housekeeping at The Fontaine hotel in Kansas City, Mo., only joined the hospitality industry in 2016 when she came to Missouri from her home in Puerto Rico. And while she had earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from the Universidad del Turabo, she did not have much experience in managing housekeeping teams.

After job hunting for several months, Torres secured an interview at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center and watched videos on YouTube to learn about housekeeping—and hospitality as an industry. Joining the team as a housekeeping manager, she studied English while she learned about the challenges of maintaining a large-scale hotel and working with a diverse team.

Torres spent more than two years at the Sheraton before her supervisor encouraged her to move up the ladder. “‘Fly, little bird,’ she told me,” Torres recalled. Wanting to remain in Kansas City, she moved to the Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza Hotel as director of housekeeping. The differences between the two Sheratons required some adjustments: The Crown Center hotel had 700 guestrooms to maintain, while the Country Club Plaza Hotel had 250. “Small properties [are] more complicated,” Torres said, noting that guest expectations seem to increase inversely with a hotel’s room count. “So it's a little more complicated—more time for me to spend with my team, more time that I have to spend on the floor.”

Similarly, a larger hotel also requires more employees, which means “more responsibility” for the managers and directors, Torres said.

At The Fontaine

The Fontaine, in turn, has only 133 guestrooms, and Torres oversees a team of 18. She had left the Sheraton to return to Puerto Rico and care for family members, but since her daughter was still in Missouri she opted to come back both to the state—and to hospitality—in 2021. A listing on Indeed.com led to a job offer, and three days after returning to Kansas City she was part of The Fontaine’s team.

At that time, the property had not had a housekeeping manager for several months. “Everything [was] a little crazy,” she recalled. The property’s management helped her build the housekeeping team and has been supportive since, she added. “They asked me, ‘What do you need?’ And I tell them, ‘I need to buy this, I need [that],’ and they help me to do it.”

That team, she added, has been like a family to her, offering support whenever needed and recommending people for jobs as needed. “Everyone helps each other,” she said. “It's hard to find people that help you no matter what, and they have your back. This company [has] your back and helps you.”


Karla Torres'...

Secrets to Success

Trust in yourself: “I need to trust that I’m doing well.”

Be thorough: “Every time I walk my rooms, I check everything.”

Never stop: “Continue to learn, continue to grow, continue in your career, invest in yourself so you can move up.”

Advice

Challenge: When Torres began working at the Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza Hotel, the property’s cleanliness scores were not what the managers wanted them to be, and she had to find solutions quickly. 

Success: Recognizing that a lot of changes needed to be made, Torres decided to break each challenge down into smaller, manageable pieces. “We can move step by step [and] not try to do everything just at once. And that helped me.” 


THE FONTAINE

Opening year: 2017 | Number of guestrooms: 132 | Owner: Artemis Real Estate Partners | Management company: Davidson Hospitality Group