Portree Hostel

We are a hostel and guesthouse in Waterford city in the sunny south-east of Ireland. Due to Covid restrictions we have closed the hostel until Spring 2022 so the business is currently operating only as a guesthouse. Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland (1100 years old!) - it's an hour and three quarters from both Cork and Dublin and well served by rail and buses. The city itself has lots of festivals and plenty to see and do. Nearby there are some of Ireland's nicest beaches and surf spots at Tramore and Dunmore East. The property is split between a hostel and a guesthouse and we are looking for help with all aspects of the place - cleaning, changing beds, laundry and very importantly, talking and socialising with the guests. Sometimes in winter we also need help with basic maintenance (painting & decorating etc.). Other than that a big part of the placement is to look after the guests and be sociable with them (invite them to play cards if you're playing, or out to the pub if you're going out). We want guests (and of course helpers) to find our hostel a friendly place and to have a great experience in Waterford and having friendly helpers is a really important part of that. Otherwise we do expect volunteers to look after areas when they're in them (so if there are dirty dishes in the kitchen or a bin needs to be emptied we expect volunteers to look after those issues). This part of the job probably only takes 5 minutes a day but is really critical as we need all areas to be nice and clean and looking well for the guests. We also require all volunteers to speak English (you don't need perfect English but we don't like guests feeling excluded from conversations so require helpers to attempt to speak English). If you would like to apply, please let us know when you think you would like to come, and also if you have any specific skills that might be useful - we're keeping an open mind. Where we offer a space for the next few weeks we can only hold it for a couple of days before offering to someone else if we don't hear back. We generally ask for at least a month from volunteers. The help is 4 hours a day, 5 days per week (some weeks we may need you to work an extra day but you'll get the extra day off the previous week or the next week if that happens - at the end of a full month everyone has their first and last days free as well as eight others). We can only take people with EU passports or valid work visas for Ireland - please confirm in your application that you have one or other of these (otherwise we will assume you don't and will have to decline your application). You will be sharing a room with other volunteers but we are accepting fewer volunteers this year so are unable to be sure how many there will be (The staff room is quite often mixed male / female). We prefer people travelling solo as we've found they soicalise with the guests more - we do occasionally take pairs of friends but not couples I'm afraid. Thanks!

You will get a bed and basic breakfast (toast, cereal etc) every day, - if volunteers wish to cook dinner together as a group we provide a modest budget to do so. Where volunteers cook only for themselves no budget is provided. Beds are in a shared room with other staff and may be mixed. Otherwise, we will do whatever we can to make your trip to Waterford as enjoyable as possible. Since the dynamic of the hostel & guesthouse changes all the time, it's hard to know exactly how things will be, but we think is an enjoyable opportunity for someone looking to see the South East of Ireland and help with what we think is a fun, sociable place to work. You'll definitely learn something - apart from improving your English, volunteers have fun and hang out together and tend to learn lots from each other - how to cook weird dishes from each others countries, how to play guitar, how to draw, paint, etc etc etc.