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  • Question for our hotel workers

    Especially people working for a certain chain made more famous by the "celebutante" daughters of the namesakes.

    So my mother was at a conference last week and had to stay at the conference hotel. No problem, she made her reservations and was all set to go.

    Now, as well as this hotel being the host hotel for a conference, it was also housing, the same night the conference attendees were getting there, blocks of rooms for five separate weddings with lots of out of town guests. Meaning that the hotel was almost completely sold out to people that would all be arriving pretty much the same day and around the same time.

    So my mom gets there to check in and they have ONE person working the desk. My mother had to wait an hour and a half to check in! When she got to the desk she said the poor girl looked ready to cry and Mom was very nice to her. Later, when she came back down and it was a little calmer and there was finally another person, Mom actually asked the girl if someone was sick.

    The girl said that no, that's how the schedule had been written -- her, alone, at the front desk during the time when pretty much the entire hotel would be checking in.

    Is that normal? Is it corporate trying to save money? Stupid manager? What's going on? Mom said she didn't blame the employee, of course, but she and a lot of other people were livid with whoever caused the situation. They knew these people were all coming and did not schedule well.

    Are y'all getting corporate mandates to run minimal staff to save money or was this just a stupid manager at one hotel?
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  • #2
    Quoth persephone View Post
    Are y'all getting corporate mandates to run minimal staff to save money or was this just a stupid manager at one hotel?
    I don't work at a hotel, but I worked at a residence that rented out as a hotel during the summers, so I can answer this much at least. It's neither corporate nor at one hotel. It's just how they work. We'd get days where 500 people are arriving *together* and we'd have 2 people working the desk. Why only two people? It's assumed the majority of the work is done already. Keys are supposed to be ready, forms ready for people to sign, that kind of thing. But if one previous person slacks off, it throws off everyone else. And even if nothing does get missed, anything goes hinky during the check-ins, and you're hosed. But management usually tends to plan for best-case, not worst-case. After all, it's better to have someone work their ass off than to have someone standing around doing nothing
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    • #3
      Not a hotel worker, but I'm guessing a mix of both.

      Something I've heard about this recession is that it's hurt the very wealthy more than the middle-class or lower. If that's true then the high-end stores, restaurants and hotels would be getting squeezed more than the Wal-Marts and McDonalds and Motel 6's of the world.

      This might mean fewer leisure travelers for this particular hotel, but convention business could still be alright, and there were the weddings, so that means a lot of people in the hotel when there might not have been so many in days and weeks past. In which case there should've been more people working to get these people checked in.
      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

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      • #4
        At the hotel I know of (which for like half the year has 1-2 rooms rented at most), staffs 3-5 people at the front desk in the day! But then, when they know "hey,we're renting out 90% of the rooms today! Who's working?" the answer? "one person -- we need to cut back hours".

        Of course they do have an idiot manager -- when they had a gas leak (the guests were complaining) he ripped the front desk person a new one for calling the authorities to report it because "nothing bad would happen".

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        • #5
          The short answer is, yes that's typical. Not because of bad scheduling, cutting hours, or corporate hijinks. Simply because finding reliable staffing for a hotels sucks. Typically, you'll have a core group of front desk staffers and then this revolving door of high school/college age kids who want a job but don't want to work. The hotel I worked at didn't have enough reliable people to staff more than one to a shift, even during peak times.
          If today is an indication of the rest of the week, I'm going to need to start drinking. - Mongo Skruddgemire

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          • #6
            Sadly, yes, this is normal for a variety of reasons. Management not wanting to hire more staff, poor scheduling, lack of good workers to help during the shift, etc.
            Like Crawley said, finding someone who is reliable and responsible enough to work in a hotel can be challenging, especially when 90% of the people who apply to work for our hotel would have no chance in hell of being hired (nice job showing up for your interview in jeans and nose piercings, douchebag).

            Fortunately, I work night shift, so I don't have to deal with more than 2-3 check-ins on an average night. So much nicer to work when you don't have to deal with a steady stream of idiots all day.
            That, and if I had to work a 10 hour shift with the people who work here, I'd strangle someone...

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            • #7
              I fully concur with Merc. Any time you do have more than one person on front desk, it's always one who works hard, and one who's just barely hanging on to their job sitting around pretending to be trying to look busy.

              Also, I couldn't handle dealing with real people for an entire day shift. Give me nights, give me drunks, give me freaks. Them, I can deal with.

              Speaking of which, I've got a very, very good story coming up about the most deranged f'd-up guest I've ever personally encountered, but I can't say anything until after the trial. I guarantee it won't go that far though, the charges will be dropped and this whackjob will be remanded to psychiatric assessment. Stay tuned, and expect to see it sometime next week.
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              • #8
                Yeah, that sadly is pretty typical. Poor scheduling is part of it... management doesn't look at when people are arriving, just how many are arriving... and if it's all groups then the desk person is fracked. Also, even if management wants to put more people up front, even with the high unemployment hotels are always short staffed because of the nature of the industry. Bad hours, bad schedules, often times a poor work environment, low pay, very little chance for advancement... most people get into the industry as a last resort (a lot like fast food) and as soon as something better comes along they get out. I've been at the hotel for going on a year now... there is only 4 people who have been here longer than me, two are shuttle drives, one is a breakfast attendent, and one is a housekeeper. Of those, no one has been here longer than 2 years. There used to be a manager who had been here for 7 years, but she left for a better job. Now, (namesake) hotels isn't exactly low end, but you don't have to be low end to be affected by the fact that within this industry the only way to move up within the industry is to go to another higher end hotel. The franchise I work for is never going to need a manager or an accountant (it's owner operated... always will be)... only way I can go either of those routes is to move up to a franchise that either owns more hotels or larger hotels. Even then, I'd be going into the smallest place that would need an accountant, so I'd be a lowly bookkeeper only, want to move up to a full ride accountant, I need to move to an even higher scale place with even more hotels or even larger hotels. Staying at the lower rungs... the larger the hotel and higher the star rating, the better the pay and benefits... they won't hire without experience. So, yes, it is quite possible that was the ONLY employee who could work that shift.
                If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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                • #9
                  I hear ya on the "no advancement" stuff...I've been here going on two years now, and I've worked here longer than anyone in the hotel, except for the head of housekeeping. Everyone else? Moved on. Including upper management. I've been here a year and a half longer than the current GM.

                  Do I get any kind of respect for it? NO.
                  (No respect, I tell ya, no respect...*fidgets with tie*)

                  I haven't heard anything about any advancement, because our current management decided to get rid of the assistant manager position. So basically, at our hotel, you either work a desk position, or you're a god damn GM. No in-between.
                  Did I mention we don't get benefits because the owner is a cheap ass? And that my yearly raise was a whopping 55 cents?

                  Yeah...I need to find a better hotel to work for. Night Auditor spots are usually the hardest to fill, so at least I'd be able to find somewhere. Hopefully. But with the economy being as it is, I doubt anywhere would be hiring. So I'm stuck here with Condescending Bitch Manager and White Guy Wanna-Be Rapper. Ugh.

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                  • #10
                    Mercenary Muffin, you got 55cents

                    that's just slightly more than twice what I got
                    If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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                    • #11
                      Yes, typical stuff there. Luckily, my GM is smart enough to put multiple people on the desk during the really busy times.

                      I dunno about the no advancement part guys. I'm being trained for Front Desk Manager for next year.
                      Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

                      Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

                      Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

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                      • #12
                        you work for a larger hotel though... most people don't start out at the larger places, most people start out at the dinky less than 100 room hotels where the only way to move up is to move out.
                        If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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                        • #13
                          The hotel I work for now is 77 rooms. I moved away from Houston (207 rooms), remember?

                          And I'm being considered for the postion because I told the GM I was interested in being a manager one day.
                          Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

                          Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

                          Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

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