Week 15

Celebrity Guests 

Im getting close to the end of my internship. This is my last full week here at the Publick house and it's a bitter sweet moment. In the beginning of the week I get a email from my boss saying you are going to meet the Celtics hall of famer Satch Sanders. I was jumping up and down with excitement that I get to meet a legend who's number is retired and played with Bill Russell. I got to sit down with Mr Sanders for a good hour and just talked about life and basketball and the future. It was one of the best talks I had with anyone. He is such a bright and knowledgeable man and I learned a lot from him. One of the things that will always stick with me is when he said," no matter what be nice to everyone you come across, even if you have to fake it be nice because you never know who can help you in the long run. Look interested, ask questions, ask for a business card anything to get your name out there you can't be shy in this world." That's one thing I won't forget. 

How can I forget about the famous professor Conrad. She came and visited me at work and honestly that made my day because there aren't many people like her in this world who truly care about a students success and how the student is doing. When she came it meant to me that she cares about how I am doing and I'm thankful to have someone like that in my life. 

I know this blog has been on the softer side compared to my others but it's the little things I appreciate. 

WEEK 14

Chamberlain House 

As I mentioned before the chamberlain house has been under construction and they said July it will be ready! It's August and it's not even close to being done. So guess what we have to deal with this month? ANGRY BRIDES AND GROOMS AND FAMILIES! Many people were scheduled to be in the new and improved chamberlain house with 16 suites in there. Now we have to move everybody in house and let me tell you, no one is to happy. 

We had to go through every wedding this month and call each couple to break the news to them. We have gave so many discounts due to the inconvenience. We have to because if people aren't happy then it does not look good on us. We have a great rep for weddings and we want it to stay that way. So we have many people discounts on rooms. 

Another thing this means is that we have to be extra nice to the guests and anything they need they will get it without any questions. Already I'm attached to this place and care about it so I did whatever I could to make the guests happy and enjoy their stay.  Anything they asked for I did. And sure enough people were already starting to get in a good mood. 

Makes me happy seeing people's day brighter just because of our service and that's something I'm proud of. 

Week 13

PMC

So the PMC challenge is a bike ride that's over 100 miles long. It's a ride that goes from Sturbridge to Provincetown at the cape. It's a ride that raises money for cancer. I just heard about this now. Just like everything else it seems like. But we have the same bike team that rides with us for many years now. The two I'll always remember is phat Tuesday and ruby wines. 

Phat Tuesday because when I set up the breakfast at 4 am for them they basically whipped out everything before any team could even get there. They were all very friendly and was wondering if this was a punishment for me because I was up so early. The bikers departed at 5am. 

Ruby wines I'll remember because they gave each employee a bottle of wine. Yum. Too bad I'm not 21 until September though. But I will always remember the leader of that group because he had such a good sense of humor and talked for a good 30 min at 4:30 am. 

This experience has been a good one and it really shows you how many people are dedicated to do things for a good cause. One that raises millions of dollars and I'm lucky to have met a lot of people from the PMC. 

Week 12

Vacation

This is my first vacation as a member of the Publick House. So I guess this blog is useless but I figured I'd share that I went to the cape in West Yarmouth for 5 days and the weather is amazing. One thing I'm looking forward to is my boss tell me that the Friday I come back to get rest because I will be waking up at 4am for the PMC challenge :) 

Week 11

FIT

As soon as I walk in the door I hear, Dino I have a project for you! 

Great. 

My manager says you are going to do FIT contracts. What the means is foreign international travelers. So basically travel agencies. What we do is give them a block of rooms for a negotiated price and the foreign travelers book through them to stay at our property. 

So I got about 6 different companies that have contracts with us and update the rates and room types we offer to them. We had agencies such as tour mappers, travalco, city tours of Maine. So my job was to fill in all of our property information and our rates for high and low season and complete them and fax them out to the different agencies.  It wasn't a difficult task but these are very important so we have guests from other countries who might tel other friends how nice of a place we have. 

This to me was exciting and it could be something to look into after I graduate to maybe work for one of these agencies. 

Week 10

Calm after the chaos

After the crazy week of brimfield it was really really slow. I was finding myself playing with my thumbs after the crazy week. It was a great experience seeing brimfield and how it works. 

I feel like I've worked here for about 3 years now. Which is good because I feel really comfortable behind the desk and I honestly feel like I can run the desk without any help. It's good to not let the guest put you down no matter what they say. I had this one guest this weekend ask for a room for a coupon rate. I told him that we didn't have it available because we have a wedding and it's over 80% occupancy so we can't honor that rate. I got a ear full. "It says 7 days a week this is not right in reporting you to the better business buror". It was a bunch of nonsense I told him I understand your frustration but it does say bases on availability and we didn't have that. So it's important that you don't take things personal because of you do this business will eat you alive. 

Good thing I have no heart huh?

Week 9

Brimfield Antique Show

The Brimfield Antique Show the week of mystery for me.  So much hype and nervous workers at the desk I didn't know what to think.  I asked so many questions leading up to the week and wanted to know every little detail I could possibly know for this week.  

Brimfield is basically a massive antique show that brings people from all over the world together and many companies get together and buy/sell items.  It is the largest outdoor antique show in New England with over 5000 dealers from all over the world.  This show occurs 3 times a year, May, July and September.  I've been told that movie producers come here for items for the movies.  I've been told many things but I wanted to experience it and I worked through out that whole week and boy was it busy. 

I loved it.  I met guests from Australia, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Ireland, Greece and other countries.  Seeing all these travelers come for just this show how crazy this antique show really is.  To give you another look, hotels within a 30 mile radius were all sold out just so people would attend to the show.  

I spoke with many guests and asked what they do to be involved in the show and many of the guest that stay with us have stayed for many years and either sell items or buy collectibles.  It is really unique to see.  We had Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart's pickers/company come in and buy/sell.  Its incredible how dedicated these guests are and I have never even heard of it.  

Here is just a picture of a old cart to give you an idea of the great stuff they have.

Besides all the exciting stuff I saw the check ins each day were crazy busy and there was lines going out the door.  Many of the guests were very friendly and were easy to take care of which is always good so this week kept me busy and I met a lot of new people which was great! 

http://brimfield.com/

Week 8

End Of The Month 

So now that I have done all of the basics I was tasked by my manager to do some end of the month paper work for her and the general manager.  So going into this I was a little nervous because I have never really done paperwork for a company before let alone for a hotel with 2 restaurants and a bakery.  

Most of the end of the month paperwork that I was doing were fairly simple.  I have done inventory paperwork as well as end of the month final numbers for the general manager to review.  Some of the numbers include a weekly count of how many rooms we sold, revenue, rooms picked up, rooms booked for a specific even/wedding and the revenue for that.

Another set of paperwork I did this week was inventory from the bake shop.  This one was fairly simple I had to create an excel data sheet and just plugging in number and getting the total for the purchasing manager.  This sheet basically just shows us how many guests eat the complimentary breakfast with us and how much of the baked goods and coffee guest drink.  

Also, I have done wedding comp'd nights.  So all this does is figure out what wedding couple stayed with us for a comp'd night so our rooms manager can see.  This sheet is really simple I just go into the reservation and plug it into an excel sheet.  

The one that required a little more math and work was the rooms pickup and revenue for weddings.  So we have a sheet of maybe 20-30 pages that we have to go through and go through each wedding of the month and see how many rooms were picked up and what the revenue was and compare it to the original block.  So this one took a little more time than the others.

All the paper work done for the managers that I did were not difficult but it goes to show how much paperwork they have to do and I only saw a little bit of it. 

Week 7

Connecticut Problems

I think I have been sheltered in my house for about 20 years.

I have no idea where my job is even located.  I literally know nothing about this town or even the surroundings.  Week 7 and I cant help my guests with directions.  What kind of intern am I? 

I brought this up to my boss Michelle and she said you're going on a ride! Getting paid to drive around isn't so bad.  So I took about an hour of one my days I was scheduled and drove around town and got to know the area.   What I basically saw was a McDonalds, Burker King, some gas stations and 6 hotels.  Not a whole lot to offer.  What I did learn was where route 20 was which is the main road in Sturbridge ( I think the only road in Sturbridge).  Now I can help guests out with directions on how to get to route 20 which is very important to me because I like to help people out and that was one thing that has bugged me and I am glad that I got that out of the way.  

Week 6

Good Hospitality 

Working at a hotel you quickly learn that there are a lot of needy guests.  With the needy guests comes with a lot of stupid questions but you are there for them for whatever they need including turning the TV on.  Yes I have had to turn a TV on for a guest once.  Like I said there are all sorts of guests entering these doors. 

One thing I don't mind is helping others though because if that was me I would want help with whatever the case may be so that's one thing I enjoy doing. Doesn't matter how stupid the question is we want to make sure that the guest has a good stay with us and have no complaints. I have had plenty of guests in this week and previous weeks where they need help with minor maintenance issues such as; fixing the TV, fixing the room card situation and fixing any A/C issues.  Little things like that are very important to know when working at a hotel because when I work night shifts I will be alone so I need to be able to help a guest with whatever the case may be.  

When guests check-in I have recently been asking if they need help with their luggage since all of the rooms in this building are on the second floor.  So my first trip up with luggage I brought up were for these lovely people that were heading on a cruise the next day to the Bahamas and they actually tipped me $5 to bring the bags up so it was very kind of them.  I will be bring a lot more bags as long as I am working here.   

Besides the tips on luggage this week has been really good and going smoothly and I am getting really comfortable with the day to day tasks handed to me and making sure my shift is done right.  

Week 5

On My Own

I walk into work and my boss, "So Dino are you ready, this is your shift now so you are running the desk." Well then..

So I go about and do my job.  I got there in the morning, counted our cash drawer and made sure it was at $400 like it is always supposed to be, I check all the arrivals and make sure everything looks the way it should and complete all of my checkouts.  We have a checklist that we have to go by and just follow that.  So I did that and everything was going smoothly.  

A guest walks in and says I need to purchase a gift card.  I tried not to show like I have never done that before and played it off.  I ended up calling my boss Michelle and asked for help and she replies' "Whats the matter you can't do it? You're fired" Just an FYI she is a very sarcastic women! So she did indeed help me and everything went well.  The thing with gift cards is that there are four different types of gift card sales to do so it can get very confusing but that is just another thing I can cross off on my list that I needed to learn. 

I go on with my shift and completed all of my due outs (check-outs) and communicated with the housekeeping staff to see what rooms are then clean and ready to sell.  Some of the challenges I faced this week was that people who were assigned a certain room who came in around check in time there room wasn't ready.  So what I did was see what rooms we had available and see if they are opposed to changing rooms. If not then it can be done to accommodate the guest and it works for everyone.  

On the 3-11 night shifts that I do are a little slower than the mornings.  I get more calls in the morning shift than at night.  The only thing different about the night shift is at the end of the night all the waiters/waitresses from our dining rooms get a credit due back.  They go to their manager first then us.  What this process does is that they would come to us with there slip and we give them the cash amount owed.  We then right a due back slip at the end of the night and gets handed to accounting and they give us the money back the next day.

So this week I had a couple of shifts that were essentially mine and I can say that it went pretty smoothly and learned a couple new things.

Week 4

Wedding Reservations

After a week of taking reservations and answering phones I got the hang of the job pretty quickly. Actually much faster than I thought because I had no experience at a hotel before.  

So now I got pretty much all of the basics of my job down.  I am taking phone calls, making reservations, checking people in and out and any additional customer service that is needed.  This week I was taught how to do wedding reservations.  Honestly they are just as easy as making any normal reservation.  They must of thought that the new intern couldn't handle it all.  Well I did!

So basically any weddings that are booked through us go to our sales department.  They are the ones who do all of the details and the bride/groom have a block of rooms they would like for their guests to stay with us.  The sales department give them a negotiated rate starting at $115 a night for 2 queen beds in our motor lodge versus the $139 rate and it goes up from there based on the room.  Then what we do is when someone calls to book a room for a wedding they give us the name of the bride and groom and we see what they have available within their block.  If a room is available I simply just go ahead and do the same process as i would with any other reservation.  Easy right? 

Now I have most of the daily duty jobs down packed after week 4 and this was the end of my training period and next week is my first week as a full-time non trainee employee.  

Week 3

Reservations

Now that I have gotten comfortable with answering the phones and using our database OPERA my task for the week is to now apply all the stuff I have learned and turn this all into a reservation now.  

The phone rings and I answer and say my normal line, "Thank you for calling the Publick House, this is Dino, how may I help you." The guest says I would like to make a reservation.  First I say is this for dining or lodging.  Once the guest said it was for lodging here I am doing my first reservation. 

I go along and the first thing I ask is what date are you looking for followed by where are you looking to stay.  Once I get that information I go along and read them our rates.  The first person I got did not like the rate I gave them and said they have had lower rates then what I offered them.  What I did was I looked up the guest's profile and saw his recent history and what I did was just offer him his usual rate of $109 plus tax instead of $136.  It's a good thing I payed attention when I was taught how to work with OPERA.  

I went along with the reservation and just plugged in the dates the guest was asking for and I asked for his email so I could send him the email confirmation and then continued to ask for his credit card to secure the room. After that the reservation was booked and it was in our system.  My first reservation was in the books.  

This whole week I just got comfortable with taking reservations and using the first 2 weeks knowledge I had and using it for the reservation process which made it a whole lot easier.  One thing I was told not to do was wedding reservations.  They had a lot of faith in me huh?   

Week 2

Week 2 

Getting Familiar With The Computer

After the first week of getting used to the property and getting a hang of how to answer the phone I was tasked with learning how to use OPERA.  OPERA is a hotel database where you pretty much do everything on.  Using this system gives you many options such as; making a reservation, updating a reservation, checking people in and out, seeing if the rooms are clean or dirty, seeing how much cash you have taken in.  This is like my best friend here because I am constantly on the computer.

The front desk supervisor is the one who helped me with the learning process of most of the important things here.  Week 2 I was to learn OPERA or at least look over at the other desk clerks to make sure I get an idea of what it is like.   

While taking the time to learn our database, what I got very comfortable with was checking people in.  My shifts the first 2 weeks have been all afternoon shifts.  Since check-in is at 3 p.m or later that's what I have been doing.  The check-in process is very simple all I have to do is ask for the guest's photo ID and a credit card and then just swipe there card and click on OK which then checks them in which I then give them the room keys and show them how to get to their room.  

In the hotel business I quickly realized that you will see all sorts of people walking in and out.  I soon realized that I saw what may have been the rudest guest we have had.  The guest called from their room multiple times asking if we had DVD players or AAA batteries.  Unfortunately we are not a Wal-Mart, of course I didn't say that to him.  My supervisor has had a past with this guest last year and he caused a huge scene at his wedding apparently and now he had 2 free nights in our suite.  Well he wasn't finished.  He was cussing out my supervisor and demanding money so he can go buy the items himself and told her she was full of excuses.  So as he leaves I went to go buy the batteries and deliver it up to his suite.  Surprisingly he was pretty nice to me but he asked for a free breakfast on top of his comp'd room.  I simply told him he would have to speak to my manager about that. The next I find out he had a lot of nice things to say about me which made me feel good about the job I was doing.  

To cap up week 2 what I did basically all week was to continue to get used to the phone and how to speak properly as well as getting comfortable checking people in.  On the side I would get familiar with using OPERA and see the different options it has on there.  If I were to get a phone call for someone trying to book a room I would hand it over to my supervisor or an experienced desk clerk and I would watch and learn. 

Week 1

Week 1 

Introduction Of The Hotel Industry

I started my internship at the Publick House on May 18th.  Here are the three Lodging buildings that we have on property. We have the Publick House Historic Inn which is our main building and there we have 17 rooms including 3 suites. We have the Country Motor Lodge which has 90+ rooms and then the Chamberlain House is under construction and will open up with 20 brand new rooms including multiple suites.   

                                                                                   

      The first couple of days, my task was basically get to know the property since it is so big.  I walked in on the first day and the whole parking lot was full.  Come to find out we have 2 restaurants that Mon-Wed they have a buy one get one free entree.  So I got to get familiar with the restaurant fairly quickly as well as the hotel.  I met every front desk clerk in week one and there was even someone new just like so I didn't feel too left out! So I got a couple of tours of the property and it is so amazing at all of the history that is in this place.  Everything is so amazing and old but its not a creepy old.  I have never worked or been around anything like this besides my old Victorian house that my Mother is obsessed with.  On a serious note all the art work in here and the unique character it has is something everyone should take a look at.  A property like this that was built  in 1771 is something you don't see everyday.

                      

So after I got familiar with the property I was basically just hearing in on the phone calls that everyone was taking and learning more about how to answer and using proper hotel terms.  Right on the first they asked, "want to hop on and get your feet wet?" I didn't really have much of a choice I wasn't going to say no I just started here!  So here I am taking phone calls and saying, "Thank you for calling the Publick House, this is Dino how may I help you?" Right there I knew I wasn't going to struggle.  I never worked at a place with so many extensions so learning the extension numbers are not fun all though most of them are questions about our restaurant.        

The first week of work I was that excited intern ready to just learn anything and everything I could possibly learn.  Week one I would say was a success.