Last updated: October 2026
Out of the forty emails, one hotel answered: Sun Gardens Dubrovnik, a five-star resort by the sea in Orašac, about eleven kilometres from Dubrovnik's Old Town, independent and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. It had work for all of us. By then we were five: Milly had decided it was enough and that when we resigned she would go back to Argentina.
HR wanted to see us together if possible, and we could not take a day off as a group, nor go one by one five times: if they knew we were leaving, they would not let us go. So we used the weekly shopping trip: two of us went instead of one, did the interview first and the shopping after. Another day there were catamarans to wash in Dubrovnik and three of us volunteered: interview first, catamarans after. They hired all five and asked when we could start. We asked for a week, agreed it with the owner of the agency, and told the owner of the island that the next day would be our last. The day after, we left with all our things for Dubrovnik. We said goodbye to Milly, who went to the airport, and we went to the hotel.
The two Camilas went into housekeeping; Manu, Selva and I were breakfast servers. The pay was similar or a bit lower (about 900 euros, against the thousand or so of before), but the rest was something else: accommodation and meals included, fixed hours, two days off a week, overtime paid and tips when we worked events. With days off we could go to the beach and rest.
We made friends with many Mexicans: there were at least forty working at the resort. As far as I understood the hotel paid their flights, and they had the same benefits for a slightly lower salary. And I understood something about Southern Europe: in Portugal, Spain, Italy or Croatia salaries of around a thousand euros a month are normal, and 2,500 is not. That is the one «but» of working there. The rest, we had a great time.
At the end we had accumulated overtime, and the hotel let us use it as days off: they paid us to the end of the contract and we left earlier. I left about four days early, Selva a week, Manu five days. We flew home with Turkish Airlines, Cami C with me.
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