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.