Jennifer decided at the tender age of 7 – while sitting in the lobby of the Royal Dublin Hotel on O’Connell Street – that this is what she wanted to do in the future! Ten years later, she did 2 weeks’ work experience in the five–star Conrad Hilton Hotel, and that was it, she was hooked!
Having attended her own Start Your Own Business course back in 2020, Jennifer has had a full circle moment when she came on board with the Entrepreneurs Academy in 2024 to train others as they started out on similar paths! It’s a unique opportunity to be able to train where she was once the student!
Jennifer enjoys the in-person Start Your Own Business training that she has been facilitating, offering business planning advice, along with Sales and Negotiation trainings. Her experience as an onsite coach and mentor to many sales and marketing teams has given her ideal experience to be able to move into the formal training roles.
Having studied in Cathal Brugha Street, Jennifer graduated with her B.Sc in Hospitality Management, and her career began. Jennifer chose the Sales and Marketing path in hotels, and worked with many hotels over a 20–year period. From O’Callaghan Hotel in Merrion Square, then back to where it all began in the Conrad Hotel, 12 years with Tifco and Crowne Plaza Hotels, and then other independent hotels such as The Morgan, Dunboyne Castle and the Dylan Hotel.
When Covid arrived, redundancy arrived too, but not to be deterred, Jennifer decided to start out on her own, offering sales and marketing assistance to hotels that had short, medium and long–term gaps in their knowledge or manpower. It turned out to be an exciting opportunity for Jennifer, as she is now thriving with her own business, McKenna Hospitality.