People who I've given this website to laugh at me; "Miss Agent," They'd say, "Don't you have any good stories?" Well, I do have good stories and I realized I should probably start sharing a few of those.
When it comes to the people I truly enjoy, it's the people I work with. I have worked a bad job at a different hotel but I was also employed with a wonderful coworker who helped me make it through working at that hotel. This hotel was 42 rooms and there would be days where I'd have 38 check ins (yes, you read that correctly) and I would be required to do 6 loads of laundry and not leave any for the graveyard shift. I became so overwhelmed, I called my coworker and asked her if she would be willing to come in and do a load of laundry to help me get started. She showed up ten minutes after I called her and did all six loads of laundry while I answered phones and checked people in. Within about three hours she had all the laundry done and didn't expect anything back from me. To say the least, we became fast friends.
To say the least I'm no longer working at that hotel. The one I'm currently employed at (and if they find this site, I hope I'm continued to be employed at for a while) treats me very well. They speak highly about teamwork and dedication to the job. To say the least, our turn over rate for employees is rather low. The management staff here knows how to treat their employees which makes it a lot easier to work in a Customer Service Job. You know you have a pretty amazing job when you can call up one of your coworkers and meet up for lunch to talk about things other than work. When your boss hands you birthday presents and gives you some flowers to brighten a dark time in your life (this happened recently and I nearly cried when she gave me the flowers). When an ex-amazing-coworker gets hired on the staff with you, (yes the woman that came in and helped me with the laundry got hired onto the current hotel I'm working for) and your boss, a coworker and yourself go to a play together because it happens to be a 'girl's night out'.
Now my boss, she is one of the neatest people I've ever got to work under. She has the same degree I'm going to college for and helps me when I have any questions about the job or the classes I'm taking. But that's not what makes her wonderful; OK, there's a lot of things that make her cool and that's one of them but not all of it. She's always on her employee's side. Because normally when we get yelled at for something we did, it's an honest mistake that a guest blows out of the water. Getting charged 10 dollars too much, claiming not to be informed of the pet policy (when they didn't inform the front desk that they had a pet and obviously didn't read the sign [see the sign story for information on that]), and many other little things that shouldn't be exploded upon but are. A great example of her being on her employee's side is this.
It never fails, someone doesn't bother to tell the desk that they are bringing a pet and guess what? They get caught. I don't know what people think when they don't tell the desk about bringing a pet. We can smell them in the room after they check out; we can walk by the room and hear them barking and housekeeping might even open the room to find something biting at their ankles. People, you can't get away with it; don't even try. Guess why I'm starting the story like this? Yep, someone didn't tell me they had a dog with them. So after the gentleman checked in, the wife came down with the dog in her arms and asked me to remake her key because she couldn't seem to get it to work (operator error, go figure). Upon her leaving, I stepped into my boss's office and asked her what would be the best way to word that they will be charged for having a pet in the room. She told me how she would word it and I called them leaving a polite voice mail saying that I needed them to come down and fill out the Pet form since they had one in the room and that their room would be charged for the standard cleaning fee. Thirty minutes later the guest calls back ranting that he shouldn't have to pay the fee because he's a consistent visitor. I put him in hold because it was the only way I could get him to stop talking and I went to my boss. During the time I was talking to her he came to the desk still fuming with rage. As I attempted to deal with the guest and explain to him that he needed to inform me that he had a pet and pointed out the sign; he explained that he had been staying here for quite a few years and no one has ever told me that he had to pay a pet fee. My boss than came out and talked to him. Not only was I amazing at how she handled it but I was also amazed that she was able to tell him off in a nice way along with pointing out that I was just doing my job and what I was trained to do. Once he walked away informing us that he would pay the pet fee but never return, we stood in a silence until he was fully out of earshot and my boss muttered under her breath "Jerk." Which caused me to explode with laughter. Than she walked me through why he thought he could get it for free; normally he'd show up after 11pm and leave the next morning before housekeeping actually started their rounds for cleaning. It's been well over a year and a half and I have not seen him since.
She and I have shared a lot of jokes at the expense of customers who seem to think that being a jerk is the best way to get what they want. She's always been supportive in my decisions of what to do with a guest and whether or not something shouldn't have been done. An example of that is there has been a few times that the Pet Fee has come up and she supported me on my choice to charge the guest. She has also been kind enough to listen to my rants when a guest bothers me (much like you readers and the person who posts these) than we laugh together about it. And she encourages me to take charge when I don't feel something is right; such as someone requesting a rate and they don't actually qualify for it. She's a good boss and a great teacher; I'm learning a lot about the field I want to go into thanks to working here.
Sales is actually what I want to go into and the Sales Manager here at the hotel has been very informative when I ask him questions about sales. Why he sales the way he sales, what makes him come to the decision of who he gives a rate to and why, what's the best way to word things when it comes to talking about a rate, what's too low, what's too high? I've gone out on a Sales Call with him which was fun and he's even let me have a lot of freedom with rates and trying to sell the hotel without actually going through him. It's exciting to see how much goes on in the field. Sales is actually something I want to do for the hotel so I try to get groups to book with me or talk about prices for the meeting room. The more I bug my Sales Manager the more I learn and the more he's been allowing me to make choices on what actually happens with the hotel; and he, like my other bosses, has been 100% supportive on all my decisions thus far.
I've gotten to be good friends with another coworker who had been working at the hotel about three months before I arrived. She's a complete sweetheart and I love hearing all the positive things guest say about her. They speak highly of her and I know everything they say is true because I know her on a personal level. We text, talk, joke around and even go out for lunch together to assure that we catch up with one another on a semi-regular basis. Since we don't work at the same times it's hard to run into each other so we make time.
My head boss, the 'boss man', the General Manager, is one of the most collected guys I've ever met. It takes a lot to get on his nerves and it takes a lot to actually bother him. I've watched guest attempt to lecture him on the rules of the hotel industry and he just stands there listening and listening and waiting to talk. And upon his turn the guest tend to leave feeling rather foolish. I don't know how he walks away from some of the situations I've watched him deal with with such a positive attitude; it's really an inspiration. Though I was rather convinced for the longest time that nothing could ever push him over the edge until one day he ended up staying later on a Friday when I was working. I had a guy come down 6 times because he couldn't get his key to work. By the fifth time I had gone up and opened his door twice already so on the sixth time I made him two keys and sent him on his way reminding him that if he attempts to use the key fast than he won't be able to get into the room. I stepped back into my boss's office to finish up the conversation we had been trying to have when the man interrupted us; my GM looked up at me and said "Was that the same guy as before?" When I answered yes he responded with, "Wow, that guy is an idiot." It took almost two years to hear my boss talk about a guest like that but it made me feel even better about my job. Knowing that even my level-headed boss had a line makes me feel better about getting bothered by some guests.
As we work hard for our hotel we get to play hard as well. I've worked here for 2+ years and the Employee Appreciation week just seems to get bigger and bigger. Full of food, fun and lots and lots of laughter. As the holiday's passed we had a Christmas get together for everyone. People brought food and we all sat around and enjoyed a meal; all the staff except for about three people. The hotel spent some of its saved money and bought enough gifts for everyone to enjoy and we did "Bad Santa" which is easily explained by saying "If someone has something that you want and it's your turn, you can take it." The disappointed looks from people when their gift was taken and their excitement to get it back upon the next round was something that caused us all to laugh. Nothing makes a job more fun than finding a group of people that can get along. And we all get along very well.
To say the least, I might complain about some, OK a lot, of the guests I deal with but I truly love my job.
- Miss Agent
