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So, The Resort has been open two weeks now. It’s starting to calm down as we get into the flow of things, but opening it was chaos. I thought I’d highlight some of that chaos.
Note: according to my BFF who helped open a similar hotel many years ago, this is about the norm, so if you ever get a job in a similar position opening such a hotel, consider yourself warned.
Training? Hah! Now get to work!
So when the owners bought the hotel, they set an opening deadline less than 60 days from when they bought the property. This did not leave much time for, well, anything, including hiring and training.
We had two weeks of “training”. A week and a half of that was learning the new computer system. Much of the rest of our time was spent working on getting the hotel into shape. We spent six hours before opening day actually going over hotel procedures and such. That’s it. Now off you go, sink or swim. Have fun!
We’ve been slowly gaining more training as we go, but there was a lot of “I’m not sure, sir, let me see if I can find out” going on that first weekend!
Computers are great, except when they aren’t
So before we even had computers up on our end, we were booking rooms through the Internet. Of course, once the phone lines were set up and people figured out our number, they were calling wanting to book rooms and were rather perturbed when we said they could only book online because even with the few computers we did have, no one had been trained on the new system yet. (I was in training alongside Big Corporate Boss Lady who hired me. When I say no one in the company knew the system, I mean literally no one.)
After the first week, they figured we knew enough to at least book rooms, and threw some of us on the phones. Almost half the calls were people who booked online wanting to change or cancel things.
Here’s the rub: our online system wasn’t interfaced with our in-house system. We couldn’t see any of the reservations. We could only write down names and requests and say we’d call people back when our system was fully integrated.
Our systems didn’t finally interface until opening day. Meaning we had no idea how many online bookings were made until then. Meaning we had no idea how over or undersold we were for opening day.
Also fun answering phones: people wanting to know what spa services we had, how to get fitness center memberships, what the restaurant was doing for Thanksgiving/Christmas, etc. Since we’d had literally no training other than the computer system at this point, it was a lot of putting people on hold and desperately trying to find someone with the answers.
Site still under construction
I mentioned in another post, but we’re still under our soft opening. Rooms are still being renovated and such.
One thing that has been a source of many headaches is where we will have booked rooms and our inventory will be fine, and then all of a sudden they decide to take another block of rooms out-of-order and suddenly we’re oversold.
I don’t know who is in charge of setting up the out-of-order rooms, but I want to grab a rolled up newspaper and smack them while screaming “STAHP! STAHP IT NOW!”
So far we’ve found rooms for everyone. We’ve had to give discounts to guests who wanted two queens and ended up with a king and a rollaway. But everyone has ended up with a roof over their head. (Opening weekend, for instance, everyone was booked within an hour radius at least. Walking a guest would not have been an option. So we were very lucky everyone got a room, even if it wasn’t the room they wanted.)
It gets better
The opening weekend was chaos. We’d been informed that rooms would be ready for early check-in and that the restaurant would be open for lunch, and had given this info guests. Turns out that no, at around midnight before launch day they’d decided no early check-ins, no one even allowed in the building until 4pm because there were still renovation workers everywhere, and the restaurant would only open for dinner.
Cue the many pissed off guests.
Things went significantly smoother the following weekend, though. We were able to get rooms turned around early. Guests were greeted with champagne (and sparkling apple cider for the little ones) and spa employees were giving free hand massages in the lobby. We had actual bell staff to carry luggage, which we didn’t have before. Guests were loving the rooms and the food coming out of the restaurant. Opening weekend was a bit of a flop, but we rocked that second weekend!
We’ve slowly gleaned more training as we’ve gone. A lot of what I’ve learned on the job I’ve had to figure out myself, but we’ve had a few brief meetings. Every day things start to run a little bit smoother and communication gets a little bit better. Despite all the challenges and stress, I really do love this new job. I love the coworkers, I love the bosses…the pay and benefits aren’t bad, either.
Not to mention, the resort is in a very scenic area, and my commute is thus gorgeous. The building...it is a bit of a labyrinth, but it is gorgeous!
It’s been crazy tough, getting tossed into the whirlwind with very few resources, but that’s also made it fun and exciting. Everyone else is in the same boat, so we have to share what little tidbits we learn with each other. You always hear about “being a team” in other jobs, and it feels more like fluff being passed down by Corporate. At The Resort, though, it really does feel like you’re on a team, and that you’re actually making a significant difference. And I love it. I love my new job!
Note: according to my BFF who helped open a similar hotel many years ago, this is about the norm, so if you ever get a job in a similar position opening such a hotel, consider yourself warned.
Training? Hah! Now get to work!
So when the owners bought the hotel, they set an opening deadline less than 60 days from when they bought the property. This did not leave much time for, well, anything, including hiring and training.
We had two weeks of “training”. A week and a half of that was learning the new computer system. Much of the rest of our time was spent working on getting the hotel into shape. We spent six hours before opening day actually going over hotel procedures and such. That’s it. Now off you go, sink or swim. Have fun!
We’ve been slowly gaining more training as we go, but there was a lot of “I’m not sure, sir, let me see if I can find out” going on that first weekend!
Computers are great, except when they aren’t
So before we even had computers up on our end, we were booking rooms through the Internet. Of course, once the phone lines were set up and people figured out our number, they were calling wanting to book rooms and were rather perturbed when we said they could only book online because even with the few computers we did have, no one had been trained on the new system yet. (I was in training alongside Big Corporate Boss Lady who hired me. When I say no one in the company knew the system, I mean literally no one.)
After the first week, they figured we knew enough to at least book rooms, and threw some of us on the phones. Almost half the calls were people who booked online wanting to change or cancel things.
Here’s the rub: our online system wasn’t interfaced with our in-house system. We couldn’t see any of the reservations. We could only write down names and requests and say we’d call people back when our system was fully integrated.
Our systems didn’t finally interface until opening day. Meaning we had no idea how many online bookings were made until then. Meaning we had no idea how over or undersold we were for opening day.
Also fun answering phones: people wanting to know what spa services we had, how to get fitness center memberships, what the restaurant was doing for Thanksgiving/Christmas, etc. Since we’d had literally no training other than the computer system at this point, it was a lot of putting people on hold and desperately trying to find someone with the answers.
Site still under construction
I mentioned in another post, but we’re still under our soft opening. Rooms are still being renovated and such.
One thing that has been a source of many headaches is where we will have booked rooms and our inventory will be fine, and then all of a sudden they decide to take another block of rooms out-of-order and suddenly we’re oversold.
I don’t know who is in charge of setting up the out-of-order rooms, but I want to grab a rolled up newspaper and smack them while screaming “STAHP! STAHP IT NOW!”
So far we’ve found rooms for everyone. We’ve had to give discounts to guests who wanted two queens and ended up with a king and a rollaway. But everyone has ended up with a roof over their head. (Opening weekend, for instance, everyone was booked within an hour radius at least. Walking a guest would not have been an option. So we were very lucky everyone got a room, even if it wasn’t the room they wanted.)
It gets better
The opening weekend was chaos. We’d been informed that rooms would be ready for early check-in and that the restaurant would be open for lunch, and had given this info guests. Turns out that no, at around midnight before launch day they’d decided no early check-ins, no one even allowed in the building until 4pm because there were still renovation workers everywhere, and the restaurant would only open for dinner.
Cue the many pissed off guests.
Things went significantly smoother the following weekend, though. We were able to get rooms turned around early. Guests were greeted with champagne (and sparkling apple cider for the little ones) and spa employees were giving free hand massages in the lobby. We had actual bell staff to carry luggage, which we didn’t have before. Guests were loving the rooms and the food coming out of the restaurant. Opening weekend was a bit of a flop, but we rocked that second weekend!
We’ve slowly gleaned more training as we’ve gone. A lot of what I’ve learned on the job I’ve had to figure out myself, but we’ve had a few brief meetings. Every day things start to run a little bit smoother and communication gets a little bit better. Despite all the challenges and stress, I really do love this new job. I love the coworkers, I love the bosses…the pay and benefits aren’t bad, either.
Not to mention, the resort is in a very scenic area, and my commute is thus gorgeous. The building...it is a bit of a labyrinth, but it is gorgeous! It’s been crazy tough, getting tossed into the whirlwind with very few resources, but that’s also made it fun and exciting. Everyone else is in the same boat, so we have to share what little tidbits we learn with each other. You always hear about “being a team” in other jobs, and it feels more like fluff being passed down by Corporate. At The Resort, though, it really does feel like you’re on a team, and that you’re actually making a significant difference. And I love it. I love my new job!