Matthew Harrington

Kelly Simmons

As a front desk supervisor, Harrington, a Buford, Ga., native greets guests as they check in to the hotel.
Photographer Ezequiel Korin

Matthew Harrington was working the concierge desk at the UGA Hotel on Friday before a home football game in 2023, when he met a couple from west metro Atlanta.

They were there for every home game, adopting the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel as the venue to gather with their children and grandchildren, who live nearby.

At the end of the season, Harrington received a letter from the couple, thanking him for his friendly service.

“That’s the fulfilling side of it,” he says.

Harrington had two internships at the Georgia Center as he earned his Hospitality and Food Industry Management degree in 2023. In fall 2022, he worked in housekeeping and at the front desk. In Spring 2023, he worked only the front desk, which gave him a better perspective of the job. During the summer, after he had graduated, he trained to be a part-time supervisor in addition to working the front desk full-time from fall 2023 through spring 2024.

The hands-on experience working the front desk and serving as a part time night manager at the UGA Hotel cemented his commitment to launch his career as a hotel concierge—perhaps in a city, like Atlanta or Denver, Colo.

There is a lot of interaction with people. It’s the first point of contact with guests.

Hotel management sometimes comes with challenges, and his interpersonal skills have also helped him handle the occasional stress.

For example, he was on duty the night a tree fell on the hotel shuttle during a storm. Fortunately, no one was injured and Harrington was able to address the situation without it affecting guests.

Another time, when a conference attendee arrived to find the hotel deck marked full, Harrington grabbed his keys and headed over to relocate his car so that she could have a space.

“We found her her own spot,” he says. “After that I saw her a couple of times and she’d say, ‘there’s my hero!’”

Harrington’s enthusiasm and his experiences at the Georgia Center have helped launch his career in hospitality so that he can go into his next job confident that it is where he belongs.