Skip to contentSkip to footer
      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      Portland Brown

      Engaged employer

      Portland Brown Reviews

      4.0

      78% would recommend to a friend

      (44 total reviews)

      Andrew Brown

      94% approve of CEO

      71% positive business outlook

      Portland Brown has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 44 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Portland Brown employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Hotel and travel accommodation industry (3.6 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      44 reviews
      1.0
      17 May 2017

      NEVER WORK HERE

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Maybe the 5 days stay at an apartment (there are flaws in that)

      Cons

      Very high turnover of stuff. Shoddy managers. Poor pay. Where do I start with Portland brown........there the worst company I have ever worked for in my working life. The managers are shocking, they don't know how to manage there staff of get the best out of them, there only thing they want is robots and "yes men and women", if you stand upto them they will just threaten you with the sack. Senior Management staff will often swear at you on a regular​ basis in your face. There will often send you you do jobs that are unrealistic in the time scales given to you and then if you don't get there in time they will penalize you. The "wonderful" bonus scheme of £2000 is a joke because they are always trying to take the money off you. Anyone who is thinking of working for this company I would strongly recommend them to "STAY AWAY" if you have respect for yourself. I would never recommend anyone to work here. Please don't be fooled by there there website of these wonderful happy faces and people, cause it is all a lie.

      avatar
      Portland Brown Response
      9y
      Thank you for your review and for the points that you have raised. Two of our ‘values’ that we promote at Portland at all times are Honesty and Integrity, with that in mind I’m more than happy to address your points below: Your reference to high turnover is correct in areas, it is unfortunately unavoidable in many cases, due to the nature of the roles. Particularly our Guest Relations department often made up of a young, diverse team in the UK on 2 year working visas. As a company, we’re focused on promoting from within and providing opportunities for our employees to develop their skills. This is something that we’re very proud of, however it does means that some of our middle management tier currently require some additional training in order to develop their skills further. One of our focuses for 2017 is the implementation of our training and mentoring programme and this is designed to ensure that all of our staff have the tools they need in order to be successful in their roles. This applies companywide, not just for our management team. We regularly run individual salary reviews and these are awarded based on performance where appropriate. We also look annually at our bandings across the company. We’re very transparent with our staff that the bonus element of any remuneration package is performance related and is designed to encourage all of our staff to strive to be the best that they can in their role. We don’t believe in penalising people and certainly don’t look to ‘take money’ from our staff but instead focus on rewarding staff for their efforts as well as providing focus points for development. Aside from bonuses awarded on performance, we run regular quarterly and bi-monthly incentive schemes awarding winners with experience vouchers of the value of £250. In addition, we continually provide staff ‘treats’ as surprises: from bacon sandwich mornings, beers on a Friday, to eggs at Easter as just a few examples. We are sorry to hear you clearly parted ways with us in an unfortunate manner, we would be more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have around this review or indeed that you yourself may still have if you could please contact me directly, Vicky Kenyon HR Manager
      2.0
      11 May 2018

      “We look after people” you look after guests not staff

      Arrivals coordinator
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Shift work meant a lot of time off which is obviously a pro and this meant that depending on how the rota worked out sometimes you could take 2 days annual leave and end up with 6 or 7 days off! I also found Andrew the CEO to be very nice, would learn everyone’s name and take time out to say hello and lead by example. Freebies - would often through a good party etc to no cost of the employee

      Cons

      Management from top to bottom that don’t know how to manage. They just tell staff what to do, no compromises, no chance for staff to ask questions or put ideas forward, just do as I say. Makes for a very unmotivated team. Some staff including those in management roles would look down on those who they felt inferior to them. You would make a mistake and this same mistake would be punished over and over again.

      avatar
      Portland Brown Response
      7y
      Thank you for your review – we’re always happy to receive feedback from both current and former employees in order to continue to improve the way we do things. As you quite rightly say, we’re all about looking after people at Portland, not only our guests but our staff too. It’s for this reason that, in addition to paying our employees competitive salaries, we offer other benefits like health insurance, our incentive programme and opportunities for promotion as well as some great parties and other treats on a regular basis. I’m disappointed to hear that you did not feel ‘looked after’ whilst you were working for us. At Portland we strive for an open and honest environment and encourage everyone to offer their opinions if they believe that something can be done in a different way or to let us know if they have concerns about their role. In a number of cases, our management team have been promoted from less senior positions within the company so they have direct experience of the roles that they are managing and know Portland better than anyone else. This experience of dealing with our guests means that sometimes they are best placed to decide how to deal with a situation and are encouraged to pass on that knowledge. As a result of receiving your review, we have met with our Arrivals Coordinator team so that we can ensure we further understand their day-to-day experiences. This information will then allow us to work with our management team, as well as our Dispatch team so that we can ensure that everyone is fully supported in their roles and has a great experience whilst working with us. Magda, our Chief Operations Manager would also be keen to discuss your personal experience of working with Portland so that we can further improve on the working environment for our current staff. If you would be happy to do this, please contact her on magda.kisielewicz@portlandbrown.com
      1.0
      14 July 2017

      Great Company - Awful Management

      Services
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Great team spirit amongst entry level employees

      Cons

      Senior management dreadful. False promises, aggressive and threatening behaviour, inappropriate language and hypocrisy. Witnessed numerous incidents where staff were verbally bullied. Not a nice environment.

      avatar
      Portland Brown Response
      8y
      Thank you for review. I’m pleased to see that you have highlighted the ‘great team spirit’ as this is something that we strive for at Portland. I’m sorry to hear that you were unhappy with our Senior Management Team and the working environment. Our Senior Managers have in most cases developed and worked their way up through the Company so they know Portland better than anyone else. In order to continue to deliver our promise of providing exceptional customer service, this sometimes means that they need to challenge members of the team, as well as supporting them and developing their skills. I'm sorry to hear that you have a different view and we take comments such as the ones above very seriously. If you could contact me directly on Vicky.kenyon@portlandbrown.com as I’d like to discuss this with you further. Vicky Kenyon, HR & Recruitment Manager
      Viewing 1 - 3 of 44 Reviews
      Related searches: Portland Brown jobs | Portland Brown salaries | Portland Brown benefits | Portland Brown interviews
      ReviewsPortland Brown reviews

      Glassdoor has 44 Portland Brown reviews submitted anonymously by Portland Brown employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Portland Brown is right for you.