Line Cook Experience (December 2nd)

This was the first day i got to work in the kitchen. I worked with Brian as a mentor and Megan from class. We worked with Tom a little bit too, he helped us out when Brian had to check on food. We got to help Brian bake pastries and make muffins. I liked today because it was kind of easy and there wasn't any gross food. I had fun making the muffins. The first thing i had to do was open more packages of different kinds of muffin mix and poor it into different containers. After that i labeled each container with today's date and the kind of brand the muffin mix was, that way they knew when to use it by. After that i got to scoop the muffin mix into the muffin trays. It was one tray for each different kind of muffin mix. After i was done with that, i got to glaze the pastries. I didn't care to much for this because the glaze had a weird smell to it. When i was done with all that me and Megan picked up our area because that is important to do that way your not leaving your station a mess for anyone else to have to pick up, and then it was time to leave. Brian has a lot of responsibilities. He has to make sure that food is made on time and is done right. He has to know how much to cook. I learned that this job can be stressful, because if something goes wrong he gets in trouble for it. He seemed like he enjoyed what he does seeing how he has worked in the kitchen since he has been 16. Today's spirit to serve was, "Respect." Brian and Tom both showed that towards Megan and I, as well as us giving them respect back.

Concierge Experience (November 25th)

Today, i was in the concierge's department at the Marriott, with Joan for a mentor. The hotel was dead, and there wasn't many guest staying at the hotel. Joan had a meeting that she had to be at by 12:30 in the afternoon so me and classmate Zylia only got to be with Joan for about 20minutes so she got to fill us in on what she does. Joan works on the 7Th floor of the hotel. I found her job fun and interesting because she is able to interact with the guests and form a relationship with the ones that come back all the time. Although her job is fun, she also has a lot of responsibilities to handle. She helps with the travel agent department, shes a consultant, she makes reservations for dinners, hair appointments, and outings, and also works with activities. She also greets the guests and spends most of her time getting to know each one individually. Her most difficult challenge is getting all the sheets correct for the in-house guests and knowing who's at the Marriott and who is departing. The spirit to serve on this day, was "I stay flexible." I realized that Joan does this, because she has her own schedule and is able to work by herself at her own passe. What i found out today, that i liked and thought was a good idea and something nice to appreciate the guests was the Marriott Rewards Program. The Marriott Rewards Program is a program that allows guests to have special privileges. For example, if you have a gold platinum reward you get 75points toward a free night because of the points adding up. With the gold reward you get 50points. With every one dollar that the guests spend they get 3points towards the Marriott Rewards Program, which also goes towards other small prizes. You get served a small buffet breakfast with this rewards program and the guest really appreciate that. You also get free Internet. The guest enjoy there stay at the Marriott because you can tell that the staff cares, because they make sure your stay is comfortable and enjoyable.
When Joan left to go to her meeting, i ended up going downstairs with Stephanie in the AYS(at your service) department. I learned that she answers phones and takes room service orders. While I was there it wasn't to busy because not to many people were calling. I did get to help out a little bit by calling all the hotels in that area and asking them what their R&A was, which is room and availability rate they have left. I found out that the R&A is for them to be able to help guests out if they want another hotel in that area or if they have to refer them to another hotel. It lets them know how many rooms they have left and what the price is going to be. They usually call and find this out 3times a day.

Guest Speaker (November 12th)

On Tuesday November 12Th, 2008 we had a class speaker named Garry Miltner come in. He was there to tell us all about the workforce and what he does for a living. He works at the R & S Companies Textile Services. He is the Sales Manager for the Johns town Plantation. There modo is "We deliver cleanliness." Before he got to where he is now, Garry wanted to be a phys-ed teacher. He was good at sports and loved to play them. He went to college and got his two year degree. After that he was forced to go into the workforce a a young age. From there on he knew that he wanted to deal with the public and that he wanted to change people's lives in a positive way. His first job was at the Italian Community Center located on Washington Ave. He started there as a dishwasher and made it up to bar tending. That he is when he decided that he wanted to start looking into the restaurant position. That didn't look to good for him, so he didn't end up doing that. When he decided that he had no future in that he traveled across country doing construction. He also decided that there was no future there for him either because he knew that he needed a full time job, and doing construction there really isn't no jobs in the winter time. He then went onto the National Linen Company where he operated the forklift. His boss asked him he wanted more hours and from then on he just helped out everyone with every different thing. He worked his way up to the Sales Department and he did that for 9years. He got to travel all around the world and said that he enjoyed doing that. But after a while things began to get messed up for him, so he went out and found a new job. That is when he started working at the Robinson and Smith Companies Textile Services. To get to where he is now he had to go through 4 different interviews and show that he was very interested. The R & S Company is a family owned and operated company. Dick Smith is the proud owner of this company, and his son Matt is now going to Sienna College to someday take over.
What i learned through this lecture and presentation, is that you have to be ethical and work for what you want. You have to start at the bottom and work your way to the top. You have to be willing to put in long hours and work holidays. You want to be faithful to your work and show that you are willing to put in the extra work. You want to make sure that it is something you love to do and enjoy doing to make your job easier and fun. Also, you have to have good communication skills and you defiantly don't want to be rude.
I thought that Garry was very interested. I did learn a lot and i like the fact that he still helps out on the loading docks and unloads the trucks even though he is a service manager. Garry doesn't always have the easy job. He has to deal with complaining customers and he has to satisfy them by giving them what they ask for or fixing what is wrong. Garry goes around and visits with all the companies and talks to the managers of different hotels and companies. An interested thing about Garry is that he puts out a lot of fires in one day. The only holidays that him and his co-workers get off are Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years. If you are Jewish you don't get any of your holidays off.

Feild Trip (October 27th)

Today we took a class field trip to two different hotels. The hotels were The Century house, which is family owned and The Holiday Inn Express & Suites. Our mentor for the day was Samuel Perkins who is a General Manager. In other words he runs a couple hotels. We first went to the Century House and found out a little about the place and him. An interesting fact about him that i found out is that he is only 30years old and has worked in 28 different hotels in 48 different states. He makes $100,000 a year and seems quite happy with his life. The Century House was built in 1946 as a small restaurant that only the family worked in. They then expanded the restaurant and made it into a family owned hotel. They now have 68rooms and do about 115 weddings in a year. They have a nice restaurant in the banquet house. The largest banquet room can hold up to 400 guests. The family has made the hotel stay feel like you are at home, and the customers are really enjoying that. They had their beds made by Sealy for higher quality and a goods night sleep. That did so good that they sold a lot of those beds to their customers. Another thing that the guests like is the 1/2 mile nature trail they have. While being there we learned that the hotel is planning on expanding the rooms by making the executive suites have Jacuzzis and putting flat screen TVs in all the rooms. While we were there we got introduced to Laura who works the front desk, Jenn who is the executive house keeper, and en who is another house keeper that came from Jamaica for more experience. I liked this privately owned hotel because they show their guests that they care by going all out and satisfying them. Also, they give there guests a complimentary breakfast. The staff throughout the hotel has a lot of responsibilities. Some manage which at all times isn't the greatest, some staff has to work nights, weekends and holidays, which is never fun for anyone but you have to love and enjoy what you do and have the whole hotel set up neatly and clean, and also making sure that there is enough staff for different events. I think that the hardest challenges for this hotel is satisfying the guests, always having a positive attitude, and having a marvelous day because you are going to have people around you all day and you don't want to set their moods off. At the Holiday Inn Express we didn't get to see much. We just walked around and got shown the pool and spa and a couple of rooms. Also, the gym and a church room. In the small meeting rooms, for example the church room, they have different pictures set up by different artists to personalize the room. To where in the Century House, they just have all different pictures. This hotel is not a family owned hotel, so the way things are run is a bit different. This hotel has 127 rooms and is expanding so that all together they will have 161 rooms. This hotel does have a huge room for weddings and banquets just like The Century House, but this hotel is not technically set up for them, so they call it the lobby room. In the lobby room they have gorgeous chandeliers. We found out that Jimmy Morrel owns The Holiday Inn Express, The Ramada, and radio stations 92.3 and 96.3, so you know that there is a lot of money into this hotel. Through out observing both hotels i learned that experience as a team helps you grow, and you have to love people. You also need to have patience and always put the customers first.

Market Server (October 28th)

Back at the Marriott again, i got to work in the market area of the hotel. I was with a classmate Anthony and we had fun. When we first got there the hostess, Melissa brought us to the back where the servers prepare for meals and customers. When we first went back we kind of felt like we were in the way and be pushed to the side, because there wasn't anything for us to do because the servers were busy. They were preparing for a group of 30 and on top of that had the other customers/guests to serve also. I observed a lot today and my opinion is i don't think i would have the patience for that part of the hotel. All the staff seemed like they were rushing and not taking there time because they were trying to get things done, to me that just makes things get more messed up. Servers were doing sections of the restaurant that wasn't theres and other servers were getting frustrated. The staff were swearing and you could tell that they were getting aggravated with the way things were going. The one thing that i did observer though that is important, is that when the staff was serving the food to their guests they managed to have a smile on there face and be polite. Before the group of people came in, i got to help put ice in the cups that were already set up on the tables with Maryanne. After the whole meal was done, me and Anothey went around with Ayoub Saliman who is a DRA in that part of the restaurant and helped him pick and clean the tables up. We learned that Ayoub is from Egypt and he came to America to better his children's education and life. Then we got to set up the glasses for the next time. i did enjoy being apart of the market server for the day, because it showed me what the staff and business is like on a busy day for the hotel. At the end everything was successful. A couple means got messed up, but you can tell that the staff cares because they were trying to hurry and make things go quicker so that the guests food would be hot.

Banquet Department (October 21st)

We entered our 3rd week at the Albany Marriott. Again, we were in the banquet department. This week we learned a little more. We walked into a meeting of 140 people that the staff was setting up for. The class split up with different mentors and got to help out. I was with Mark (the server,) Jenn and Sam. We watched how they set up the buffet and learned how they keep the guests happy while they get there food. There is a lot of communication between the banquet department and the kitchen. Throughout observing what Mark and the rest of the staff do, i learned that there is a lot of running back and forth from the banquet room to the kitchen to keep enough food on the buffet. After about 20minutes into the guests eating, we got to go around and help out the staff with cleaning up the plates. We learned that you serve the food from your left hand and clear the food from the tables with your right hand. Today their GSS (guest satisfaction score) was 98% in the banquet department and for the whole hotel it was 96%. We found out that this was a good score for them because over the past couple months the GSS was in the 40s which isn't that high. The reason for this was because of the economy and guests weren't traveling for one day to come to a meeting. But they did get great surveys back and now they are right on track. Today's spirit to serve was I use Telephone Etiquette. The problem for today was that they only had chicken cooking but there was also suppose to be steak. Even though that happened, the staff didn't let that stop them for doing there work and getting everything else situated. I feel that they don't really need any improving. This staff has everything pretty much figured out. They all work together and help each other out, which is a big deal. They communicate and have teamwork which makes there job and day go by so much easier. I learned today that the staff has a lot of responsibilities. For example, they have to set up the banquet rooms depending on the number of people attending. They have to keep the rooms spotless and refresh the rooms in a timed manner after the guests eat. It takes a lot more work then i thought. The staff always has a smile on there face and they put their guests first, which makes a difference throughout the whole hotel.

Banquet Department (October 14th)

My second week at the Albany Marriott, the whole class was in the banquet department. Our mentor for the day was Debby. She filled us in on a lot of good information about that department. Everyone works together and its not always easy. It includes late hours sometimes. The have a lot of responsibilities. For example, cleaning, greeting the guests, and going over the BEO (banquet event order) with the customers. They have their mind set on a goal of always satisfying the guest to get them to come back. They show the guests that they care through always smiling and having good eye contact when talking with them. They might have problems from time to time and that's usually either with the Internet or the kitchen not having enough food. What we did this Tuesday was walk around and look at all the different banquet rooms. We also talked about each individual set up they have for different parties or meetings. I realized by being in this department that they have a lot of work to get done because of the amount of people they have to satisfy. The main thing that we learned was the GSS. It means guest satisfaction score. That day it was a score of 82. There plans of action to improve them is by having the guests interact with the employees. It was all a remodel for them, which brought them more satisfaction. It was a fun day. The whole class got to learn how to fold napkins and clean the silverware. We also learned unique facts, like that the hotel had to take the water fountains out because of the spreading of germs and that they eliminated public phones because of security. Overall, their main idea and challenges are making sure the guests are satisfied. By Debby sharing all this information with us, i feel that we learned a lot.

Orientation

The first day that the class started the Albany Marriott Internship i was absent. What i learned through the notes that the class left me was interesting, i was excited to go myself. Their instructor for the day was Jennifer who showed the class a video on what "Enjoy Your Stay" is. Everyone got handed a time card, and a name tag. They introduced themselves to the speaker so she could get to know each of them a little bit. The class got introduced to many different employees which were all apart of different departments. That was a good idea because you get to meet new people and you can gain communication with them when you see them at the Marriott again. I learned that it was founded by the same people who founded A&W Root beer Company. The names of those people were Alice and Willard Marriott. I found a lot interesting even though i missed it all in person. I heard that it was nice, and the people are friendly. Everyone was excited and seemed like they had a great time. One thing i learned is that you have to work together as a team. You may have late nights but everyone works together and pitches in. There is ups and down to this job just like any other. I'm excited to go myself.

Intro

My name is Sandy Bastian. I go to Cohoes High School. This year i am attending the Lodging Management Program at Capital Region Career and Technical School at the Albany Campus. Throughout this experience i hope to gain knowledge and good work ethics in the lodging program. The purpose of this blog is to keep track of the hours i put in at the Albany Marriott and keep my important information remembered.