A HOSPITALITY professional has become a budget hotel chain’s youngest-ever manager aged 23.

Tess Campbell, from Darlington, has been promoted to deputy general manager at Sleeperz Hotels Newcastle, just one year after joining the company to work at its hotel near Newcastle Central Station.

Ms Campbell was asked to step up to the challenge of running the hotel just days after her appointment, when the general manager took two weeks’ annual leave.

The firm, which has hotels in Cardiff and Newcastle and plans to expand into Manchester, Birmingham and London by 2015, builds near mainline stations at the centre of major UK cities.

Ms Campbell studied international tourism management at Leeds Metropolitan University and worked at Hotel Bannatyne, Darlington and at Malmaison in Leeds before being recruited by Sleeperz as reception manager at its first North-East Hotel.

David Myers, chief executive of Sleeperz Hotels, said: “Tess is an excellent example of how Sleeperz aims to develop and inspire its staff.

“She has the warmth and charm that people expect when they come to Newcastle and our customers inspire her to work hard and provide a first class service. We strongly believe in the idea that if you’re good enough you are old enough.”

Ms Campbell, said: “I’m thrilled to have secured my first management role with the company because we all muck in together and I get stuck into every aspect of the hotel operation.

"I am learning the business of hotel management in a truly rounded way that can only make me a better hospitality professional in the long term.”