Born and raised in Tallaght, Keohan was bitten by the travel bug early. At 17 she worked in a hospice “all summer long” to save enough money for her first trip by plane and “never stopped after”.
“Yas Island was a new exciting project for Abu Dhabi, and the general manager of the hotel who hired me was open-minded and looking for a young energetic team,” she said. “He wasn’t looking for that hotel experience; he was looking for someone who thinks a bit differently, he needed fresh eyes.” After overseeing IHG’s two properties on Yas Island, the Crowne Plaza and the Staybridge Suites, it was time to move again, this time to Dubai, a larger, busier city roughly 90 minutes drive north up the Arabian Peninsula.
“The Burj brought me right back to being in that office on the Belgard Road. I remember driving up thinking, ‘My goodness, I work here now’,” she said.While Keohan relished her role in the Jumeirah Group doing inspections in the royal suite, working at one the world’s best-known luxury hotels meant long hours. Marketing five-star properties might look glamorous, Keohan says, but the reality involves hours of clomping up and down stairs in heels and always being “on”.
“It really helped us when we were younger and couldn’t afford it at that time in our lives; the lifestyle was amazing.” In 2020, following the loss of her mother, Keohan re-evaluated her priorities and career path before deciding to set up her own business facilitating transformational travel.