Brain Splatter
It’s the end of my first week and I feel like my brain is about to explode. There is a lot to learn working in the hotel industry and working at recpetion is not as easy as people make it out to be. Not only are you the main person guests will rely on, but you are responsible for taking bookings, quoting prices (the correct ones), and there is a lot of administration and finance to calculate. Definitely not for the faint hearted.
So far I know how to do these things;
Check people in
-Remembering what information I need to tell them
- Has the room been upgraded
- Where can they park
- What floor their room in on
- What time and where is dinner/breakfast
- Do they need help with luggage
-Remembering which internet companies require the guest to pay on arrival or not.
Check people out
- Checking and charging outstanding balances
- What to do if there is a missing key
- Calling guest rooms that haven’t checked out at the correct time
Enter Internet bookings into the system (which has to be precise)
Answer the phone within 3 rings (and give the right information)
Post room ccount bills and credit card bills
Ensure the PDQ and Cash sales are balancing from the bar and reception
Find, print and check reports
I know I said my brain feels like it’s about to explode but it’s really not that bad. I seem to be quite a quick learner and am quite confident in what I am doing - the majority of the time. I’m not quite ready to do a shift on my own yet but hey! I have only worked 7 days!
Apart from learning and containing a lot of information, this first week has been pretty good. All of my colleagues are really helpful and there is a nice atmosphere to work in. They understand if I don’t do something right as I am learning, and are always willing to show me how to do it correctly which makes it feel a lot less pressurising.
All in all I think I am going to like it here. You do get the occasional rude guest but then again, you also get guests who like you so much they give you their details so they can show you around next time you are in France. We’ll see about that one.
Until next time…
