It's over!

Well my time at ASU is coming to a close. I have been here nearly 5 years now and I must say it was a great time all around. This also means that I now have the opportunity to move around in the field of Tourism. I am excited, this internship gave me lots of chances to explore the field and now I can act on them. I had some rough times during this internship but in the end it was all worth it. I learned a lot and found out somethings about the industry that I really really like. I hope everyone had as good of an experience as I did. Congrats grads!

Perks

So now that I have been with the Sheraton for so long, they now offer perks like cheap rooms, discount food and beverage, and other corporate discounts. I am excited to take advantage of all these offers, it was something I kind of forgot about but I think it is time I reward myself back. I don't know how much this counts as something to blog about but I am excited non the less.

Time Management

Time has become very precious at my property, as I have said before, but now it is of more value. I am down to a team of five guys, sometimes this is too many, sometimes this is not enough, more often than not it is not enough. We have found that the best thing we can possibly do is to plan out how our shift is going to work very first thing when we get there. Even with all this time planning there is always the fact that we choose to ignore, which is the random phone calls from needy groups and guests. Although this happens frequently it has still been excellent to have our time planned as much as possible. If you get behind on one thing you start to eat away at your day, and personally I am one of those people that starts to get a little stressed our as soon as I know that something has gone off schedule so this is very important for me. Especially in this industry and in a hotel my size things are always going on and they are always happening at different times so it has been very clutch to plan as much as we do.

Multitasking

So far at this hotel I have work three different positions. This I feel is something that you may not get the opportunity to do in other fields and I feel lucky for that. It has given me views of both back of the house and front of the house, and I must say there is appeal in both places. I rather have enjoyed the chances that I have gotten to interact with the guests in the front of the house the most though. I guess I am just a people person, which is also why I think I will be good in sales. But really how many industries can you have multiple positions inside the same building over the course of a day! I am really starting to love the concept of multiple jobs for one company. It has really given me a chance to explore and I think if you haven't done something like this yet you should really give it a try, changes your views on the people you work with everyday once you are in their shoes.

Management through Supervisors

My next step in this hotel is going to be becoming a supervisor. Currently we have one supervisor for each shift and I have been told by my manager that he would like to make me one soon in the future. I have found that the supervisor is a good means to manage ones employees because they are more like a coworker and less like "the boss." I am excited to take this step because I have found most people in this industry got to where they are by taking it one step at a time, even our general manager washed dishes at a Starwood Property to start. I also feel that it could be a step back for me to take such a low ended promotion being as I went to school for a career in the tourism field. I wouldn't like to insult anyone by declining it but I feel if I do it puts me on the path to being stuck in the roll of working my way to the top. I am waiting for a position to open up in our sales department at the moment and am pretty excited about that but I can't decide if it is a bad idea to take the small step to supervisor while waiting because they may get the wrong impression.

Staffing Shortages

As I understand we are the only hotel in the Starwood company in Arizona that is still hiring anyone. As the economy dictates it is really hard for companies to justify hiring new people right now. This has become an interesting issue at our hotel because we have recently lost a few people in our department and not been able to replace them because of this. Although we are still hiring they have decided that because the season is ending that we can not justify hiring any new people that will be stealing hours from the full time people that have been with the company for awhile now. It is kind of a catch twenty two right because we are all a little over worked but we will be wanting hours in the summer. When I spoke to our general manager about it he kind of told me the same thing, just that hard work now means regular work in the summer. Although that may be the case it seems silly not to have a full staff at all times. It is a weird subject to tackle.

Hour Budgeting

Recently it has become an issue in our department with budgeting of hours. This is something that I haven't has to deal with in the past but I hear that it can be a problem when hotels are headed into the off season. The way that they are accounting for our hours is strange as well, they are using the food and beverage department to figure out how many hours to give to set up. This hurts us because if a group does not order any in house food we technically do not get allotted the hours that we need to set up for that group. It has not become a huge issue but it seems that it may be in the future. Being as I work upwards of fifty hours a week I wouldn't mind getting a few less hours but as the summer comes it seems like it could be a pinch. I understand the concept of budgeting our hours but the company needs to be looking at what really goes into to making this hotel run. I just thought I would get that out there if anyone had an suggestions about it.

Unions

The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown has recently been over run by Unions! I don't know much about unions being as I have lived in Arizona all my life and it is a right to work state, but these people sure our trying really hard to get us to go union. There are two competing for us right now and it is becoming a little annoying honestly. The hotel has signed a neutrality contract with both unions offering them access to certain parts of the hotel at all times of the day or night, specifically they have offered them our cafeteria. This has become a problem, there is no longer eating in peace that goes on in the "hub", as they call it. Not only that but the unions have some how found out where we live and have been coming to our homes on our days off. This has been quite annoying, I know that they have seemingly good intentions so I am not that bothered but it seems as though they want this a little to bad. I have been visited at home on five separate occasions and am growing sick of it. If anyone has an suggestions about unions or has worked with them in the past please let me know!

Putting Cars in Buildings

A weeks ago we had a convenience store convention come through and they wanted to put a car in our ballroom. We were all very excited because we knew we could do it, we just had not had the chance to do it yet. They had the M&M's race car they wanted to bring up to the third floor, apparently the car was ridiculously expensive so we needed to be super careful with it. They brought a driver obviously so he was the one with the most responsibility I suppose, but we had to clear him for everything too. The first obstacle was getting the car into the freight elevator, the problem here is that the race car sits very low to the ground and could get up the curb in front of the elevator. The driver had to actually drive on the sidewalk in front of the hotel then back in just to avoid the curb. Now something I did not think about right away was the fumes, so once the car was in the elevator we did not turn it on again or we would hurt ourselves. We get it to the third floor and then everyone had to push this thing across the ball room while laying down plastic in front of it so the wheels would not damage the carpet. It may sound silly but it was a big deal for all of us just to see if we can do it. By the way those race cars are not light.

The Fall Of Busy

As we all know the tourism industry really takes a hit here in Arizona in the summer, our hotel is no exception. When I started at the Sheraton we were actually booked solid for the whole year, all the way through the summer too, but with the downfall of the economy we have had many many groups have to drop out of their plans to be with us. We have actually taken the largest hit in July losing nearly 100% of our groups. This is something that I did not expect, but probably should have. Our sales team is doing their best to refill those spots so I think we may be back in business but as of now it looks a little grim. I think that what we should be doing is targeting more international groups that may find the heat to be kind of a curiosity and may not mind coming in at those times, especially if it is cold for them at home.

Prom Season

As some of you may know it is now prom season in the fine state of Arizona. This means that convention hotels are now playgrounds for the young and the restless. Over the past few weeks we have hosted three proms for local high schools. This has been an interesting concept for me, thinking back on my high school prom experiences, thinking about what is expected of a venue to host such a thing. The stress has been the biggest aspect of these proms, because the school obviously has been working toward paying for this all year and their expectations are high. I think we have done a pretty good job so far and I know we have a few more to come but I think that overall people have been happy. But for anyone who is going to be in this situation soon I would offer this suggestion, treat every teacher that is there to help set up and organize like it is their wedding day, because most of them are just as stressed out as one would be on ones wedding day.

Promotions

So I found this to be a very interesting thing about our hotel, everyone that is in a management position there was promoted to get to be where they are. Now this sounds like it would be perfectly natural, but when you get a lot of people into a new hotel and they are just starting to learn to do this new job for the first time, there can be a trial and error period. This has not been a huge problem but talking to the managers now is pretty funny. They were looking back on what we were doing at the beginning of the hotel and what they are doing now and couldn't help but laugh about it. All has pretty much worked itself out over time but that is something I think Starwood did not anticipate when opening this hotel. Although they did provide us with opening assistants at the beginning that were there with experience to open the hotel, but as soon as they left things changed....

Meeting Planners are SCARY!

So over the last six months I have had to deal with a lot of meeting planners, let me tell you they come in all different styles! In the beginning of my time at the Sheraton we had a group of inspirational groups come in, I won't name names but you would know it if you heard it. They had hired a woman meeting planner to conduct their banquet for them. This was my first encounter with someone that had control of my job from the outside world. Now although they signed a legal binding contract with the Sheraton, the BEO, she felt that she could change anything and everything about what she had originally desired. There was one night where I spent nearly 11 hours in a room that I had already set the day before "fixing it" to her specifications. It was quite maddening but now when I look back on it I guess that she was doing just what most meeting planners do, changes, only on a scale much larger. Her group consisted of 3500 people! Long night.

Communication In Large Companies

Communication, I have found, is difficult for new businesses to figure out in their first few months, especially one of our size. From the meeting managers to the F&B directors to the House crew it becomes very difficult. This has been a major issue so far at our site. I have found that it takes a lot of steps to get from one person to another in the hotel and that it is easier to take the time and go speak with someone in person, if at all possible. I have been doing this as much as I can and it has been helping. I do believe that we will get better with this over time so I am not too concerned but I have made my voice heard about this issue and I hope people will take to it.

Waste in the Hotel Industry

So I have been working at the Sheraton Downtown since it has opened, which was at October 1st. I have noticed that there is an incredible amount of waste that goes on behind the scenes. Specifically I am talking about the kitchens. For banquets there is always extra food made just in case needed which makes sense. But the food that does not get eaten at the event is then thrown away by the barrel full. I once watched them throw out hundreds of untouched plated dinners, this has upset me. Not only is the company wasting money but they are throwing us a large resource that could have been donated, if the right company was found. I understand that there are liabilities at hand but should that really matter when there are people not getting food?