Guest relation desk (morning shift at 0600)

I now realise what guest relation desk do. The first time I saw was the internship offers from sis, I wondered how great and interesting would that be. But once I started, I am lucky I am not working in this Department for 6 months. If so, I m gonna die. Guest relations desk actually is a close branch of the reception, when the guests check in; the guest relations people will escort the guests to their room. During which, the staff have to start the conversation with the guests. The most simple way is ask them where are they from, how long are they staying in here and recommend them to some others places and as well descript a bit of hotels facilities to them on the way to their room. That is what I did for last week. But from now on, I have to change slightly to make the conversation more lively and unforgettable to the customers and yet contribute to the consumer loyalty from a hotel’s operators’ view. Bull shit huh????

The first two days started at 0600 in the new wing. In this case, I can sit all the time. The new wing was built in 1996 and all the rooms had only been renovated for 2 years. Usually this wing is catered for leisure individual and group guests. Though the hotel regards the old wing as adding extra value to the guests, I personally prefer the new wing. So here we have the task list:

GENERAL:
1. Check everything at the lobby, ashtrays, flowers and lightings
2. Take care of outside guests, especially if they want to go to guest rooms
3. Take care of fax, package for guests
4. C/I and c/o for group (before c/I, check room status, ensure that the keys, cover, group list, meals are ready. If 2nd call, make sure luggage are ready in rooms
5. Then have to confirm with the tour leader with everything on the special request. If there are any changes, inform the reception and bellboys.
6. Collect all passport, check the quantity and fill in all the information in the group c/I list

SPECIFIC:
1. Start computer and get back the phone to the guest relation desk (it s hard to start the computer as there are so many procedures to follow)
2. Read the logbook
3. Check if any group c/o and the time
4. Print out all the reports:
A. Departure report, including group, in room sequence for c/o letter make by the business centre. From the report, first cross out the one night stay as we do not offer c/o letter for them. Then highlight the Japanese guests with their name and room number and cross out their names only. Afterwards, check each guests if they are from any French speaking country, if so, mark down F next to the guest list, which means French c/o letter is required. Finally, find the joiner of the room and cross out the joiner from the list
B. Arrival report, for next day arrival, include group, print VIP only, include special, in report format. The use of this is for making the welcome letter. This again is done by the business centre. Check each guests name in the computer. First check their names from reservation and chose change reservation and then check if they have been staying in our hotel before or not. If within a week, mark 2nd stay, if they are from French speaking countries, write F 2nd. Then check with the guest history and observe if the profile of the guests is linked to the guests’ history.
C. Arrival report of each group arriving of the next day. Click inquires and then group profile and then type in the date of the next day. Then the list of group with the reference will shown. Mark down the reference number so as to print out this report. When each group report is print, prepare the cover for them, including the cover, the normal welcome letter and the name card. Check if breakfast is included or not.
D. Arrival report: Individual VIP for preparing the covers with registration card, welcome drink, key card and cover.
E. Individual report: cross out all the VIP guests, prepare their covers. Normal guest cover with welcome letter, name card, registration letter.
F. Prepare the Japanese special cover: map, Japanese welcome letter, welcome drink card, Japanese fan, name card, registration card, promotion cards…
5. Print out the food and beverage activities of the week and the special promotions list of all the outlets. Ask the concierge to prepare the sideboard of function names, meeting time and place next to the meeting rooms.
6. If all these reports are done, just wait for the group to c/I and c/o and answer all the incoming calls and guests requests.
7. Actually there is only one person working for the guest relation desk in the new wing and thus if there is nothing much to do, it is quite boring and so normally people will bring with them some books and newspapers to read discreetly as nobody will supervise them.

That’s all for the morning shift in the morning. Sometimes the tour leaders are really difficult to handle with. They would request you to keep all the group passports from the customers instead of themselves. People coming from the new wing will treat you as the concierge and you have to always be prepared for lots of Hanoi map. Some people might be in the group and consume something during meal time and they are reluctantly to pay in the cahier far away from the new wing, so in this case, you have to call the cahier and bring the invoice to here and ask the guests to pay. Some guests ask you to post envelops with them w/o the stamp. So you have to estimate the price and give them an option of paying in USDS or DONG or EURO. Of course we should charge them a little bit higher just in case the cost is not enough to pay for those envelops.

If it is rainy days, some guests might ask for the weather outside and want to borrow the umbrellas. So be prepared for some umbrellas.