Some people learn hospitality from a textbook. I learned it from both and then spent 19 years living it.

Hi, I’m Aurora — and this is my story.

I hold two university degrees, one in Public Relations and Marketing Management and one in Business and Hospitality Management, but honestly, my real education happened the moment I stepped onto my first kitchen floor as a young girl in Europe with a dream and a lot of determination.

I didn’t start at the top. Nobody really does in this industry. I started at the very beginning, in the kitchen, learning the rhythm of a busy service, the language of the pass, the pressure of a full house on a Saturday night. From there I moved to the bar, then to the dining room as a waitress, then head waitress, assistant manager, restaurant manager. Every role taught me something the classroom never could.

Eventually I found my way to reception and guest relations, where I’ve spent the last 8+ years, and where I truly fell in love with what hospitality is really about. Not the tables or the menus or the bookings. The people.

I’ve worked across Europe and now call Dubai home, a city that has reminded me all over again why this industry is so extraordinary when it’s done with heart.

Nineteen years. Every department. Every type of guest. Every kind of day, the magical ones and the impossibly hard ones. That means I understand hospitality from every angle, academically, operationally, and deeply personally. I know what happens behind the scenes when you make a complaint. I know why your upgrade request gets approved or denied. I know what your guest relations manager is really thinking … because I am one.

The floor where it all begins.

That’s what I bring to this blog.

From the Floor Up was born from a simple belief that guests deserve to understand the world they’re stepping into, and that people building careers in hospitality deserve a space that truly gets their journey.

This is not a blog written from the outside looking in. It’s written from the floor, the reception desk, the guest relations office — from someone who has lived every corner of this beautiful, chaotic, deeply human industry.

I’m so glad you found your way here.

Welcome. I’m Aurora — and this is hospitality, from the floor up.