Day out

This is sooo annoying, I've actually lost what I've typed when I was trying to publish my blog and I cannot recover it. Therefore, I have to type it again. I just hate it when this happens. It was a long post as well, oh well.... just have to try and retype, it is just annoying, it would make this post felt different, I always believe and think whatever I typed first will be better then retype, as I have no patient retyping a blog after it disappeared.

It was quite a nice to spend my day (or morning) with my sales manager, going out to visit company and visit our competitor hotel. The reason that I wanted to spend a day with her is
just trying to get some understand what her job is like and see if I like to work this kind of job for my future career. And guess what, I do like it, I find it is quite interesting, however, this actually shows me one thing about hospitality. We have to "be fake" at work, especially working in the hospitality industry. I still remember when I was young one of my friend mention to me, you have to be fake in order to survive in a working environment, I disagree with this idea, I just can't understand why do I have to be fake when I was at work, why can't I be myself and not to be fake. But now it is a different story, I do understand why now, you just have to be fake so then you won't upset your guest. Being fake is actually against my personality, I always wanted to be myself, but I guess in order to survive at work, that is probably the only way. Anyways, hopefully my next job I will be able to work as sales coordinator for start, then at least I hope this will help me to achieve my long term "kinda dream", working in the marketing department in the hotel. Although this isn't my ultimate career, but at least it is something that I want.

During the day, we went to visit 2 companies, one of the is just an introductory meeting, where the booker actually is new to her position. We are just trying to build a good relationship with her. It is important that to have good relationship with the book of the company, since they are the one who book the accommodation for the people in the company, if you have a bad relationship with them, they might just turn around and book in another hotel. It is just simple as that. Then we went to another company to present them with bottles of champagnes and certificate for company of the month. Basically what company of the month means is that they either give us a lot of room nights per month or frequent guest for our conference facilities. It doesn't just look at the monthly sales but as well as their previous too. Anyways, we've present our gratitudes to them, however their attitude was just horrible. Basically one of the contact was just like pick up the bottle of champagne and go. The other was still willing to sit and have a small chat. We had some reservation problems with them recently and we know that they are not happy about it. This girl was just explaining to my sales manager about the problem, however I don't find that 100% true of what she said, since I was working on that night when this happened. Anyways, this is where I was mentioning being fake and just still have to pretend that yes you are right on what you are saying. Well whatever, she is just annoying. I just don't like the staff of that company.

Anyways, we head back to pick up my reservation supervisor just to make a little trip to our competitor hotel - Lancaster House Hotel. It is a four star property and manage by Best Western. This hotel was my second choice if the hotel that I'm working actually rejected me, but thank god that they didn't. It was a very nice hotel with nice decoration and lovely fireplace. They built a new extension quite recently where it includes the mini suites and a new conference room. I like their mini suites very much, since it is only £30 extra to upgrade from a standard room to those suites. I think at least there are some selling points when they are trying to sell these suites, unlike ours £25 upgrade and it doesn't get you a lot. Basically those mini suites have a little lounge area, the bathroom have two doors, one is the normal door and the other one is actually a sliding doors where you can watch telly while you bath, all the controls are nearby the bath, so at least you can change channel and volume. On the bed there is this very nice personal touches, where this soft toy (a very cute dog) is actually a "do not distrub" sign, so just leave the dog outside the door then their staffs will know that you don't want to be disturbed. I just think this is kindda unusual compare to those paper sign. I think I really like the bathroom, especially where there is the LCD television nearby and you can watch telly while you bath, I might not willing to get out and just stuck in the bathroom. Apart from that, the room isn't big, it is nothing like ours and Old Bank Hotel (the one that I used to work in). I think the bedrooms are better in Old Bank Hotel but I like the bathroom in Lancaster House Hotel. I hope I can get to stay in Lancaster House Hotel one day, and definitely want to stay in Old Bank Hotel (but it is just too expensive when I don't have the staff rate anymore).

Although Old Bank Hotel and Lancaster House Hotel are both four star property, but I can see there is a very different feel to it, I guess Lancaster House Hotel can give you a country club feel as there are quite a lot of garden space and even a outdoor hot tub ( I find that amazing, especially when the hotel is just very near to the university). They do have a lot of conference facilities and one of the conference center is actually shared with Lancaster University (as Lancaster House Hotel actually invested in it as well, while Lancaster University allows them to use the land). This is actually quite smart and can benefit both end, how it works is that if there are any day delegates, the room hire goes to Lancaster University, the F&B and the accommodation goes to Lancaster House Hotel. However Lancaster University has the priority to book and use those conference rooms, when they are unable to sell them, Lancaster House Hotel can start selling them.

Anyways, it was an enjoyable day and I did learn quite a lot from my sales manager, I used to think she isn't a nice person, but after talking to her properly, I find she isn't that bad afterall.

Technorati Tags: sales, career, Lancaster House Hotel, Old Bank Hotel, Lancaster University