Crowne Plaza (April 21st)

My impression of the Crowne Plaza was that it was very nice, and seemed like it was for upper class guests. When we first got there we went into a meeting room. During this time we got to meet Todd, the General Manager, Kristen from reservations, Paul Thomas, the Director of Guest Services, Trudy Hinkle, the Director of HR and Security and Garry from engineering. Before we sat down and got to talking about the hotel, they had provided cookies, brownies, and sodas for us, so we each got a little something to snack on. While in the conference room Todd started off with telling us about his job title and the hotel. He told us that he started off in the kitchen because he had never went to college. He became General Manager in 1968 because of his hard work and dedication to the hotel. He has traveled all around the world with many different hotel businesses and he loves the industry. Kristen then talked a little about her self and what she does at work. She takes reservations the way that they have always been taking "the old fashion way." Depending on the season is what depends on how many phone calls she gets per day. Seeing how they are in there peak season, just yesterday during the mid afternoon, Kristen had already had 21 phone calls. It can get pretty busy but she loves her job. During our tour, we got shown the security room, the boiler room, the pool and hot tub, the garbage room and the banquet rooms. I didn't really care to much about seeing all that, i would have preferred to see guest rooms, and the hotel in general. I did like that the staff was much nicer and excepting of us wanting to learn the business. The advice that Trudy gave our group was to always work your hardest and never give up. The Crowne Plaza is the only hotel she has ever worked at and she loves it. The Crowne Plaza has 390 rooms all together, six of them are suites. They also have five vans for travel access to the airport and train stations, and sometimes around town. I learned a lot from today, and would like to go back again to see many other departments of the hotel.

Albany Mansion Hill Inn & restaurant (March 17th)

March 17Th was St. Patricks days. Cohoes schools were closed but i looked up information about the Mansion Hill Inn on the website. I found a little bit out about it. The thing i already knew is that it is owned by my lmp teacher Mr. Stoffelano. I also know that it is a bed and breakfast and is privately owned. It is different from the Marriott because of that reason, because the Marriott is a chain hotel and is much larger. The Albany Marriott and the Mansion Hill Inn are similar in a way that they both serve food to guests and the both serve the guests. To have a successful business you want to keep your guests coming back. You want to do well with customers and always be friendly and respectful. The location can be important to because you want things to do. In downtown Albany where the Mansion Hill Inn & Restaurant is located there is many attractions. You can take tours and have picnics, you can work or take walks. Also, there is sports that go on, and museums to go to. Weddings are a big thing, and art is too. Shopping is every ones favorite and fire works go on during special occasions. You can take vacations here and have a lot of entertainment. To own a bed and breakfast you are responsible for a lot of things. You are responsible for owning a successful business, for cleaning, cooking, greeting, busing, checking in guests, and having all the amenities.

Homewood Suites (March 30th)

Being at Homewood Suites, i learned a lot about the different aspects of the hotel, and seen the differences from the other hotels that our class has been too. The first thing we did was go into one of there meeting rooms. Our class got to meet Erin Davenport, the sales coordinator and Chip, the guest service manager. The Homewood Suites is a chain hotel, there brand being the Hilton. Its a hotel that is "designed to make the guests feel home away from home." This is a hotel for people that usually stay a month or longer. It consists of 133 suites, three larger suites, and four two bedroom suites. For example, like families that lose their home to a fire, or peoples homes that were destroyed in the ice storm, or for any other reason. Its in the three diamond range and that's because they don't have all the amenities that a hotel would usually offer. They don't have room service or bell men. They don't really have housekeeping either, except for when the guest wants it. They get a breakfast and a dinner everyday, included in the stay price. The hotel is nice and the rooms are comfortable. Erin and Chip treated us with respect and were friendly, that's two things that I noticed were different between the Marriott staff and this Homewood suites staff. The main thing that our class learned was the the Homewood Suites uses OPOG which is outrageously pleasing our guests. That was important because that's home they keep there guests coming back. Mostly how they get there guests is word of mouth because the guests always enjoy there stay and tell people about it. Lewis The Duck is there symbol because he fly's away and always comes back. Lewis The Duck is books that are written about the Homewood Suites that is here in NY and how he goes to the Homewood Suites in Canada with his family.