Introducing the Hotel Tourism Students' Association!!

A Busy Monday

November 9, 2009 was a big day for us, we, Alice Zheng and Candy Miao, went to Radisson resort to take Manager for a Day programme. It was a rainy day, however, we were very pleased to follow Jenny Mulholland who is the HR manager in Radisson to act as a “real manager”.


We arrived there at 8:20a.m, and after introduced by Jenny to other departments, we started by checking emails with her. Firstly, she told us checking email is crucial to her and other top management because it reflects the procedure and customer feedback. For a hotel, customer feedback is a key issue help them not only to be aware of existing problems, but forecast contingencies. Secondly, email is one of the best costly ways for recruitment, HR manager can use Internet recruitment instead of agency, and the information on the Internet can be updated in time.

Last but not least, we want to talk about the special software system which is used throughout whole Carlson named Medallia. It is an evaluation tool for each hotel under Carlson to check their ranking and customer feedback every time. The guests will receive the email sent by Medallia after they leave the hotel 24 hours. It is remarkable advantage of Carlson on its hospitality management.

At 9:30 a.m, the management had a meeting as usual and the meeting is held every day in order share information among all the departments. In that meeting, we learnt a lot, for instance, how to arrange the shifts in front desk, how to make sure the transportation and concierge for banquets and how to make an appropriate approach to adjust staff performance.

It was a lucky day for both of us because the admin office held a small celebration for Jenny’s birthday. We both not only shared the harmonious environment in the office, but also the delicious birthday cake. Despite of high pressure working condition, we still could feel the enjoyable and positive working atmosphere. It is a kind of incentive way to encourage and retain staff in the hotel.

We had lunch with Jenny and Sarah who is the coordinator of HR at 12:00p.m. It was a nice and neat lunch we had in that hotel. On the table, we talked about our education and future planning, and Jenny gave us some suggestion on how to study better in hospitality. Moreover, we talked something about cultural difference between western and eastern countries. It was a interesting conversation and all of us had a good time.

We finished at 3:30 p.m, and we were satisfied with most of the trip. However, we still desire to know something about organisation structure and problems solving methods in hotel industry. It is because we had a very short time and it was busy Monday. So we hope we could have another time to experience more in that hotel.

A Vivid Impression

This Monday I went to Radisson Resort for the “Manager for a Day” event, and I was really excited about it. When I tried to apply for it, I was worried about being rejected because I do not have little experience in hotel industry and my oral English is far away qualified for this position. To my surprise, they offered me this wonderful opportunity to have an insight look towards this fantastic industry which I will work into.

I had been in a fuss before this Monday for my casino report, which made me busy, no time to check my bond email for two days. As a result, I made it to Radisson at 8.00 am as planned. However, my friend told me I was supposed to be there at 6.00 am when the morning shift got started!

Anyway, Paul, my tutor for a day, the front desk manager, is a very nice man. He showed my friend and I around the resort, explaining all the specific functions of those blocks. To lead us to think about all the details noticeable like why the tennis courts are closed until 10 am, he asked questions first and explained the reason thoroughly after our responses. After his explanation, I had a basic understanding of the whole resort, and also were aware of the reason why getting familiar with all the stuff around us was important-cause guests would fire questions really unexpected and weird which we have to respond, and we have to help customers to find their way quickly at any time especially as a front desk manager. This would be quite tough for me at first, for I am such a person who always gets lost in the street! If I am planning to take this job, I really have to improve my sense of direction.

After getting a rough understanding of the whole resort, Paul took us to his office to prepare his everyday meeting report, which is a routine for him. He told us how to deal with a program called Opera to check all the trivial like wages paid yesterday, and to decided how many people he needed for next day’s operating in an economic way.

At 10 o’clock, we went to the meeting with all things to report done. Persons of every department in charge reported last day’s operating details in front of the general manager and managers from other departments. After the meeting, Paul had to make some adjustments according to the report from another manager to minimize the lost revenue.

After that, Paul showed us all the five different rooms available one by one and then had lunch together.

At that time, I was really tired for listening to English all the morning –I am not comfortable with English till now for I need to concentrate hard so that I will not get confused with what people are talking about.

On that day, we attended another meeting called yielding meeting, which was also the first time for Paul because he was not here before April. The yielding meeting has a lot with finance control and forecast, and they even discussed about the problem accrued when Chinese New year comes. Because they had a clash between their group customers and potential Chinese visitors which was quite implicit for me and I was not able to tell this clash from the materials provided.

As a manager, you have to forecast your profit and loss and then to make decisions according to that as well as doing all the routines, which needs intelligence and experience-big challenge!

When the meeting was over, Paul showed us how to do the check-in procedure in a quick and efficient way. Paul said that it took him almost three months to be that quick so I guessed I needed more than three months!

Getting comfortable using all the software in computer to control the daily operating within the hotel is the key point so far as I know.

This is the first time I have such a vivid impression towards this industry, which is not quite the same as what I thought before. It’s really tiring but joyful to work in the hotel environment. After this event, I realize I have to get rid of some unrealistic fantasy towards my future job and get started to learn more and gain more experience.

How time flies...

"Manager for a day” in Radisson Gold Coast is a wonderful program. I leant a lot of knowledge and at least got familiar with front desk even though it was only one day.

Before I received an email from Sara that is about whether I could get Radisson at 6:30am. I understood that I would follow the morning shift at front office. So I got up early at 5:30am. At that time, I was so sleepy…

Radisson GC has a relationship with a Golf Club. And they have huge area for customer playing golf there. It has beautiful scenery. For hotel, it’s not a big one with only about 300 total room numbers. I feel relaxed there because no one rush there, no one yell there, no one push things there. Everything and everyone are just at the right place.

I followed the front office manager for a whole day. His name is Paul who is a lovely and patient guy. He just came here at Feb this year and had a period of honey moon before. He came back to work at Sep. So actually, he is also a fresh man. But he seems like very knowledgeable and confident. We went through the daily routine in the early morning, like checking morning report and making sure the figures correct, doing roster and cash security, filling some figures and preparing stuffs for daily meeting. Everyday, each head of department will get together and have a morning meeting. GM goes through everything of every department. Paul talked about some customers’ complaints and other relevant things. It lasted half an hour. After meeting, Paul taught us some jobs he got do. We used Opera to check the customers billing and balance some revenues.

Before the lunch, Paul showed rooms for us. There are over 10 room types in Radisson GC. Some rooms have golf court views with higher rates. This hotel is planning to update some facilities like TV and room type to cater new demands. One interesting thing is there is a pink parrot standing beside the door just like a doorman to welcome the customers.

We had a relaxed lunch with Paul and Jenny who is the manager of HR. We chatted about our education, plan and thoughts of hotel. I think it lets us know each other better.

There was another meeting afternoon. It’s kind of the revenue forecast meeting which they do once a week. GM, conference manager, sales manager, revenue controller, front office manager and two of us trainee were attend the meeting. It’s about the forecast of occupancy and rate in six months and some proposed groups. They discussed how to maximize the revenue and push which part of sales to get more business. Later, Paul taught us more about Opera. He operated this system very fast and proficient.

How time flies. I finished my “manager for a day” but Paul needed continuous to work. It seems like working in hotel equals to working overtime. In additional, I asked Paul some questions about working in hotel. He suggested that first of all, we need to have higher English level to make sure we can handle some unexpected requests. And then, be enthusiastic and follow the brand standard. Last thing is always smile. One day is not enough to learn and to see. But this is awesome program for students to know better about hotel industry and have the main idea about hotel.