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Guest Character Profiles > Penny Shrewster Jessica Husband

Penny Shrewster 2023, 2024
Occupation: Lassiters Hotel Housekeeping

When Reece Sinclair arrived at Lassiters Hotel, seemingly to check out the business that her father’s company, Sincast, had invested in, it soon emerged that she had an ulterior motive for the visit. Reece was actually searching for her half-sister, Krista, the wild child of the family who’d gone missing, her last contact being a postcard from Lassiters. As Reece started trying to work out whether Krista had definitely been at the hotel, she started asking staff to do ‘market research’ for her, eventually working out from the records that Krista had stayed in room 302. As Penny was cleaning the rooms - and about to sneak some biscuits from the trolley - Reece then approached her and asked when room 302 would be empty. Penny checked the records and told her that the guests would be checking out in two hours.

A few months later, Penny was one of the hotel staff working at the Lassiters Longest Lie-In. The event was designed by Krista - who'd since turned up and was working for Lassiters - to improve hotel business, and involved people signing up to see who could spend the longest in a bed in the Lassiters complex, with the winners receiving an all-expenses paid stay at Lassiters New York. Penny, in her usual style, managed to annoy Krista by checking her phone, and caused drama by moving Melanie Pearson's bed away from outside the entrance to Harolds cafe, and putting her right next to Melanie's ex-husband Toadie and his new wife, Terese.

A few weeks later, after repeated lateness and complaints from colleagues, not to mention the mistakes she made during the Longest Lie-In, it was decided that Penny would have to be fired. With Paul Robinson wanting to give Krista more responsibility at the hotel, he tasked her with giving Penny the news, and the young employee didn't take it well. Despite having already had her three warnings, she claimed that it was unfair dismissal and that Krista was going to regret it. Penny later returned and, whilst everyone was distracted by the news that Krista had become trapped in the hotel sauna and had passed out, she helped herself to some cosmetics and bottles of wine from housekeeping. When she was caught by acting manager Chelsea Murphy, she claimed that this was her 'golden handshake' but was made to give it all back.