Becoming a guest at your workplace

How often have you been thanked or rewarded for overtime, having gone the extra mile, holding a presentation, or anything else you did for the company that you are working for?
Think a minute about that! If you have the feeling that it was not often enough, then lucky me! I do not want to brag, but seriously, my guests give me so much.

Do you know the tasks of a guest relations agent? I do not want to tell you everything I do, because I do not want to spoil everything. On jobhero.com, you can read the following definition:

A Guest Relation Officer, also known as a Guest Relation Coordinator or Guest Relation Specialist, is a customer service-oriented employee who essentially greets hotel guests. From escorting guests to rooms to assisting in arranging reservations, Guest Relation Officers ensure a pleasant and satisfying stay at a hotel. They also handle guest complaints, assist with the check-in process and explain all facility amenities, such as pool areas and restaurants.

I would like to focus on the following part in this article: ensure a pleasant and satisfying stay at the hotel.

Well, in order to find out if guests are satisfied or they have complaints, you must talk to the guests, right? There are different types of persons. Some of them, only tell you when you ask them or when they feel comfortable (the shy ones).

At the place I am working at, we also pass by the guests eating at the outlets (a word for the restaurants in a hotel). The idea is to be present in the public areas and to meet the guests. This week, I was invited to a table and it was not the first time. There was an elderly man sitting with his nephew who was joining him for dinner. When I passed by and talked to the man for the second time that day, he invited me to join them. They were having desert and he ordered one for me as well. I also had half a glass of wine with them. The man (I will not call him by his name of course) was very kind. He told me the same things several times, but I was patient enough and I really enjoyed this time with them. I learned about his nephew who was sitting with us. He works at a vinery and his grandfather owns a vineyard. Then, he told me about their wine tasting at the beginning of December. In school, I learned a lot about wine, and I had the best grade possible when the class ended. When he was telling me about it, I got excited and I could see myself there in the wine cellar between all the Christmas trees he was telling me about. If I get a day off and I can go, I will. At some point, my friend from the service team switched my desert and I still do not know why, but this is another story.

Today, I could join two other guests for lunch; a young man and his mother who is in therapy at the medical center in our hotel. I have been talking to him some for the past weeks and it was always good to see him and his mother.  At lunch today, he spontaneously invited me to join them in their main course, but I denied, because I had just eaten. However, we continued talking and at the end, I took a seat. He offered me a desert and I accepted. It came after they had finished, though. So, I hurried a little bit, because I thought it unfair to make them wait. I learned that in Abu Dhabi, even though there are living Muslims, they love to decorate the houses and trees with Christmas light because for them, the sight is beautiful. Of course, we talked more apart from that. After we were done, we left the restaurant quite quickly.

These were not the only lovely encounters I had this week, but I would say for now, it is enough to tell you about.

It is ironic, because I was a guest at the hotel I work for. However, I really enjoyed it!

Short Description

Hello everybody,

I just would like to explain to you what the articles in ‘Hotel Life’ are about.

Some of you may and others probably do not know a lot about my life. If you have followed me on one of the social media platforms, you probably do know that I have been working in the hospitality sector for more than a couple of years now.

When I was young, my parents took me on vacation at least once a year. Mostly, we went to Italy in summer and went to Austria for the skiing holidays.
In fact, we saw several places in Italy, went to two different places in Egypt, to the South of Spain, Paris, Greece and many places more.

After I had finished college (“Kantonsschule” oder “Gymnasium” in Switzerland), I did not know what I wanted to do – work wise. I just know what I did NOT want to do. This is always easier to find out, right?
Well, my whole family had studied economics (I majored in Spanish) and my father had been working for an insurance company for many years. Back to what I did NOT want to do: Go to university (lol, as the youngest, I was joking around that I would go to university directly after the 12^th grade without having gone to college). Then I thought I could do something like a shortened apprenticeship in a bank; only to notice that I was too late applying for. A similar thing existed in the insurance companies. Thanks to my father, I could start that even though it was too late already theoretically. It was probably not my best choice, but I finished the required 18 months. It was a good start after college, even though it was not my passion and it did not match my skills very well (I guess).

Then we discussed plans in my family. My parents never made me do anything (of course they made sure I did not take the wrong path – drugs, alcohol and the like), but I wanted to have some advice and the knew me well.

We knew that I loved going on vacation with my family, that I was interested in different cultures (I spent ten months in the U.S. after two years of college), that I could not imagine sitting in a office shut away from people all day (except for co-workers of course), that I was not good with economics and numbers and that I enjoyed studying languages (even though I do not speak so many considering I am Swiss…).

My mum suggested flight attendant, but I did not like the thinking of being in a narrow place all the time haha.
Then we thought I could just try out the hospitality sector (hotel business). With that, I would be able to work anywhere and at that time, it was possible to get a job in that field easily. I did not care that I would be earning little money; unless I would be willing to give up on my whole free time and become a hotel directress (for me, this sacrifice was too big). If I cared about money, I would not have chosen the hospitality sector. The good thing is that I do not regret it.

So far, I have worked as a reception intern at the Kulm Hotel in St. Moritz, a service intern at the Bad Griessbach in Bern, an intern at Steigenberger Hotel in Mallorca (reception, service and at the end reservations/marketing), sales coordinator intern in Glattbrugg at Abercrombie & Kent (no, not the clothes store), receptionist at the Greulich in Zürich and now as a Guest Relations Agent.

At my current job, I experience a lot of great things and that is why I have decided to create the theme ‘hotel life’. I hope you will enjoy my stories here.