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And it’s made stars out of some of the staff, like chef Kyle Greer who has been asked questions about his new car by complete strangers.

The series is made by Waddell Media for BBC Two and BBC One NI with more than one million viewers tuning in every week for each episode. Those figures are expected to be even higher when consolidated and iPlayer ratings come in.

Kyle is the Europa’s youngest ever executive head chef at the age of 34.

Originally from Antrim, he started out his career working as a kitchen porter when he was 18.

From there he went on to live in London and Dublin working in acclaimed restaurants, moving through the ranks.

Of the fame the show has brought Kyle said: “I went into Victoria Square to buy shoes. I was walking across the car park on the way out and a boy says to me, ‘Kyle, Kyle’. I didn’t know who he was, he came over to me and he goes, ‘how’s everything, how are you finding it, how’s business?’.

“I’d got a new car and I put up a post on Instagram. He goes, ‘how’s the new car going for you, and what about the wee girl, what class is she in?’

“I didn’t know the guy from Adam, it was so surreal, so weird. I’m going to have to put my Instagram on private.”

Aine Finnegan is the housekeeping manager at the Europa.

The 35-year-old from Belfast completed a degree with the University of Ulster in International Hotel and Tourism Management in 2006.

Her placement for her degree was at the Europa in the housekeeping department, where she found her love for what she does now.

She said: “It’s strange, something you’ve been doing for so long and now people are coming up to you and saying hello. I don’t really know what way to act around it.

“A guy had been giving out to me for pulling facial expressions, I found myself apologising for rolling my eyes.”

Sam Denning from Larne is the food and beverage manager at the Culloden.

He said: “After the first couple of weeks I forgot the cameras were there. Sometimes that shows in the way I get on.

“We didn’t have training for TV, the mic was put on under your uniform and you got on with your job.”

The 29-year-old is dedicated to his work, but when he gets time off he heads for his sister’s tattoo parlour for some fresh ink.

While working though his collection of tattoos remain hidden under his smart attire.

He said: “Not so long ago guests weren’t even allowed to have tattoos or football tops, things like that. Times are changing but from my own professional case I would never show any tattoos in work.”

In the last episode of The Hotel People, Kyle underestimated how many people would order beef at a banquet dinner – roughly based on the male, female split of guests. After running out of pre-cooked beef he had to end up microwaving the last few servings.

He said: “Everyone ordered beef, no one ordered hake, the cameras were rolling. There’s been many instances since were the cameras weren’t rolling and it did work out.

“You have to think on your feet, you have to get it done. As long as the customer is unaware, then you’ve done your job right. It doesn’t matter how you get it done, as long as they are unaware there has been an issue in the background, then everything is good.

“Only because of the TV show now do people see it. Especially my department and Aine’s department because we’re not exactly customer facing. They wouldn’t see the drama that goes on whenever the doors close.”

Aine said: “We’ve still got jobs at the moment so I suppose we haven’t said or done anything we shouldn’t have.”

The Hotel People is a six-part observational series following the team at Northern Ireland’s largest family owned luxury hotel chain as they try to bounce back from some of the toughest times the hospitality industry has ever faced.

After nearly 18 months of closures and uncertainty, the Hastings Hotel Group reopened their doors in May 2021.

Having suffered over £16.5 million losses during the pandemic, the team have to find inventive ways to bring back business, fast, but the challenges they face are great.

As they prepare to welcome back guests and events, the managers are faced with staff shortages. And with few overseas guests, finding ways to stand out in the local market has never been more vital for them.

The series features the Europa and Grand Central hotels in Belfast as well as the five-star Culloden estate and the Slieve Donard resort, which is now no longer in the Hastings portfolio.

The other three hotels in the group – Stormont, Ballygally and Everglades – don’t feature in the programme.

In the final episode of the series which goes out on Monday night, Liam Neeson pays a visit to the Culloden.

Sam said: “He’s quite a regular here. When it comes to the VIPs coming to the hotel there’s only a select few told.

“We had a very high end actress staying here, I’m not going to name any names, then six months later we had another famous actress and she was asking for me because she’s been told all about the hotel and how well she’d been looked after.

“It was good to know they’re talking to each other over in Hollywood and passing on recommendations.”

James McGinn, who is now managing director of the Hastings Group, was the general manager of the Europa when the six episodes were filmed.

Kyle said: “He’d walk from one side of the hotel to the other and he’d ask the camera to follow him, whatever he finds along the way is recorded. You literally could have just jumped in and Aine and two housekeepers could have been having a barney, he could come into the kitchen when I’m screaming and shouting at somebody, you can’t hide that.

“It makes good TV because it’s genuinely natural, but in that moment you can’t change it because the red light’s on and it’s being recorded.”

He added: “Gerard Stratton who was our camera man would have literally just walked through the door with the red light on, whatever you were doing he was able to capture, that’s the deal that you sign.”

On the heated nature of the kitchen, he said: “There’s never anything serious about what happens, when Callum and I would have differences of opinion. The corporate answer is we’re very focused on the customers, but genuinely we are.

“We just have such a laugh in the Europa, at Hastings in general because everyone gets on.”

Aine added: “You have to be thick skinned because there is days that you’re really up against it.

“You’re screaming at each other one minute, the next thing you’re friends again. We are one family.”

Lobby Lives set the standard for television hotel documentary format

The forerunner to The Hotel People was Lobby Lives, which went out on the BBC between 2005 and 2008 and made James McGinn a household name.

Aine said: “Everybody knows James, he’s a character, he’s made for TV.

“He’s very theatrical in what he does, but he’s very good at what he does.”

She added: “I’d just started with the Europa on placement when Lobby Lives was in its last season. I think I might have been in one or two clips with my hand over my face so it was a bit of a difference this time.”

A visit to the Culloden by Chelsea FC attracted a lot of viewers to the last episode of The Hotel People.

Sam said: “We’re well used to football teams here. The thing with Chelsea was it was changing right up to the last minute what the food requirements were. Because they were so high profile we wanted to get it right.”

In the end players missed out on one or two items like coconut water. “They didn’t even notice,” said Sam.

He added: “The Northern Ireland team would stay here a lot. They’re so easy to look after, when times were hard and we were short of staff they were very forgiving.”

Asked what the worst room she’d ever had to clean was, Aine said: “There was a person in an entourage, they’d stayed over for the weekend in several rooms. I can’t even begin to describe the mess, they had to be put out of the hotel. It seemed like they’d been trying to cut holes in the bed, a glass table was broken. It was just really, really bad. You just have to be prepared for anything.”

What to expect in next episode

It’s boiling point at the Europa with a drag show, a beauty pageant, an awards gala hosted by actor and singer Keith Duffy and an international boxing ringside supper.

Meanwhile, the Slieve Donard has a very unusual booking - a living wake where an elderly gentleman wants his funeral to take place while he’s still alive.

And this week’s guests in the Culloden include local legend, Liam Neeson, who orders his favourite comfort food.

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Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Belfast News Letter, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.

Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Belfast News Letter, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.