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.