Something I'm debating

[king4aday]

So when I came to work tonight at the hotel, my boss brought me in her office to ask me if I would be willing to work 3rd shift. This would mean doing all the audit paperwork and closing out all the business for the day.

Here is where I am entering into my debate though. I am kind of concerned about dealing with noise complaints and all of the general complaints when there isn't a manager around. As far as the noise complaints go, we do have 24 hour security which is pretty nice so I would just have to call them to take care of it.

Just a question for those of you who work in hotels, have you ever worked the 3rd shift audit? How do you like it? It would mean a $1 per hour raise for working the shift. Is it worth doing?

Thanks for the info, I am really just trying to make up my mind.

[cleorose]

I loved working the night audit. I worked at Disney for their overnight shift and at a comfort inn for their overnight shift. All total I worked just shy of four years on the graveyard shift. I have kids so I prefer it. I can sleep when they are at school. Depending on where you work can determine what kind of fun you will have. Comfort inn overnight was easy. I did alot of reading and writing. We got truck drivers which were easy peasy.

Disney was interesting. You had nights that were normal. People check in and go to bed. YAY! And then you have crazies. Disney used to have a airline check in desk in the hotel. Closed at 10pm. Opened at 5am. We had a few people get irate with those check in folks thinking they were part of our company. They are not. They are part of the airlines. We had a guy take a few swings at the poor clerk and then jump OUR desk because they could not check him in at 5am cause his flight was at 545. He should have already been gone to the airport but he waited to do the check in a the hotel thinking they could do his luggage (they usually do) and everything then. But he waited too late. Not only did he miss his flight. He was arrested. Was banned from Disney property and I believe the airline banned him as well.

[king4aday]

Thanks for the advice cleorose...I think Im going to tell them that I will try it. On a side note I used to work at WDW as well. I worked at the studios in the gift shops . We had our share of crazies there as well.

[KatherineB]

Yes, ask them for a trial period to see how you feel about it, and make sure you can revert to your old shift if you don't like it.

[Antares]

I'd consider discussing whether or not they'll be second guessing you after you leave. If someone cries for a manager, is that person going to back up whatever decision you make?

[Kittish]

Ask your manager for a list of the most common complaints and the appropriate action to take for each if you feel comfortable doing so. This gives you a guideline also for the inevitable oddball ones that happen once every blue moon.

[BroSCFischer]

I am currently a Night Auditor.

Let me just say this, complaints in general do NOT occur during this shift. Most of them happen on 2nd shift. However, most manager's will give the auditor a bit more leeway to deal with guest complaints, so they don't have to be woken up in the middle of the night or deal with them the next day.

By far, most of the time I deal with drunks who locked themselves out of their room, or people needing wake up calls. And even those are pretty rare.

Be aware that the Night Audit position can get very boring if you have nothing to do. Find out the policies on what you can and cannot bring into work (sometimes management allows the NA to have stuff the other shifts don't, example: me and my laptop ). At the very least you will want to have books/puzzle magazines to do.

You also may be responsible for doing clean up tasks such as mopping, dusting and vacuuming, since you will have far fewer guests to deal with than the other shifts do.

I personally love my shift, but if you are not a ntural night owl, it will take some getting used to.

Feel free to ask me (either here or in a PM) any other questions you might have. Skarredmind is also a NA, and I think Mr. Hero is one to, and they may have more/different insights into the position.

Have fun!

SC

[HotelMinion]

I prefer doing the overnight shift than the day. Worked both once. To put it succinctly, guest are more lethal when awake than asleep.

[sms001]

Above and beyond the work associated with it, make sure you can handle graveyard - some people simply cannot adjust. If you've done it here and there for short periods of time, that may be an indicator, but is by no means a guarantee.

You'll also need to make sure that the out-of-work part of life is conducive towards switching - quiet place to sleep, shops/amenities available and open when you'll be out and about, etc. It does you no good to make an extra buck an hour if you have to constantly pick up last minute items at a c-store, for instance.

I hope you can do it if you want to - I really enjoyed my years of being "out of sync" with the majority of the world.

[king4aday]

I agreed to take the shift after reading a lot of the comments on here, and I am generally excited about it. The hotel I worked in is HUGE (600+ rooms, 5 restaurants, a bar...), so audit paperwork pretty much takes about 8 hours from what I have been told. We have 24 hour security so if I have noise complaints I just hand it off to them. I really talked to the other night auditors about it, and they all think that I will love it.

I am going to be really happy about not being on the 3-11 check in shift and having to process 500 check ins in one day. As some of you have said, I am really excited to be working when most people will be sleeping. I used to be a bartender so the shift and the drunks really don't bother me all that much.

I am probably going to be starting on audit on the next schedule which starts this weekend!

[sms001]

Woot! Have fun. Bump this thread if you need any advice being a nightwalker.

[Moirae]

I've worked in hotels 11 years in every department except accounting and maintenance and including night audit.

So to give you a bit of reality on the situation...

Night audit means that everyone around you will be awake while you are sleeping. You will rarely see your family and friends, and you will need to deal with the insanity. While you will have security on (lucky you, alot of hotels don't), if there is a problem like a toilet needs plunging, it will be you that does it. Yes, $1 an hour more is nice, but its not the be all and end all of things.

Would I do it again? No, not if you paid me a million dollars an hour. Then again, everyone in the company I worked for at the time worked night audit at least one weekend a month. What this means is that it takes about two weeks to recover from those two days, and then you have to do it again almost right away.

It was incredibly aggravating.

But do consider this... its great experience to put on your resume. Most people aren't willing to work it for the same reasons I already noted for you.

[king4aday]

Just to give a quick update, I have been on night audit for about a week, and so far I'm really enjoying it. I don't have to deal with the days when we have 300 check ins, and I get the desk to myself for most of the night. I have security on with me in addition to another auditor at the other desk so if I need someone to talk to I can call the other desk.

There is a TON of paperwork, and it takes me about 6-7 hours to do it so it keeps me busy. This week they actually switched me to 10 hour shifts to see which one I like better.

[sms001]

Awesome! Glad it's working out. How's sleeping been? Are you going with 1) bed as soon as you get home, then up hours before work, or 2) home and unwind and life and then sleep until work?

[king4aday]

I typically get home and go to sleep for a few hours (until around noon) then I wake up and eat lunch, spend some time with the parents (since I live with them currently) and then around 4pm I go back to sleep until about 7pm then I watch my prime time shows and its time to get ready and go to work.

It works out pretty much because I really dont have that much of a social life right now so Im not really missing out on much. I'm currently typing this at work because I have reached a point on my work where I cant do anything more for a couple hours. Now its time for netflix or hulu