“All you need is passion” – PIHMS Grad, Shrikant Borishaha

PIHMS graduate Shrikant Borishaha completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Hotel Management. We caught up with him to find out what he has been doing since he graduated in 2017…

“I am currently working for Peppers Parehua Martinborough as the Operations Manager which has been the highlight of my career to date. I have been part of this team for a little over 2 years. Our property was named the New Zealand’s Best Regional Property of the Year 2020 at the recent HM awards held in Melbourne at the end of last year. This certainly is the biggest success point one can ask for especially when you have a say in how the place needs to be managed.

I graduated from PIHMS in Oct 2017 with a Postgraduate Diploma in Hotel Management. As part of my programme, PIHMS found me a paid job/placement at the Novotel Queenstown Lakeside working in their Night Audit team. The property was centrally located and held the crown for the largest number of rooms in the South Island. I was very fortunate.

After completing my paid Industry Placement, I worked for a couple of high end luxury hotels like QT Museum Wellington and Peppers Clearwater Resort in Christchurch in Duty Manager positions.

“I do thank PIHMS personally as their unique operations style and the talented team of staff is what makes PIHMS different from other schools”

Shrikant Borishaha

Since May 2020 after the Covid-19 lockdown here in NZ, the Wairarapa region has seen the highest occupancy rate registered in the last 5 years. A miracle happened! This changed everything and helped the management retain the entire team here at Peppers and we never had an opportunity to discuss the word “redundancy”. This result, combined with the positive word of mouth for the property and the outstanding reviews finally led us to with the Property of the Year award 2020.

I am really proud of what I do here and my passion has changed from being a true blue hospitality child to a being a better manager. I feel it needs to evolve in every stage of your career. I still would be very much keen to check in a guest and flaunt my customer service skills and I still would be very much keen to even make a bed when the housekeeping team seems to be struggling or help in the restaurant when it looks like a busy service.

All you need is passion to do what you do and the reward will be just around the corner.