This week I have completed the closing checklist for the restaurant and have implimented it. I have worked mornings again this week so I have not been able to make sure that the pm staff is completing the checklist at the end of the night, but the bar does seem to be a lot cleaner in the mornings. My hope is that this will create a sense of pride in the restaurant for the pm staff. I am also hoping that the am staff (who has had to clean up the mess in the past) will be less resentful towards the pm guys and there will be a greater sense of comradery between the two crews.
I have also completed my first liquor order! While this may seem inconsequential to most, it is a step in the right direction for me. As I have said in a previous post, I will be taking over the entire beverage part of the restaurant and this is the first part. It is fairly simple because everything works on a par system. This means that we are to have X amount of each product and whatever we don't have, we order. I did hiccup and order more keg beer then we needed, but my manager told me that it's not the biggest deal in the world, it just means that we won't order it next week. This was good news to me because I was scared that I had done something very wrong!! I will know exactly how much to order in the future now though!
This week we also went over the forecast for the next three months with our hotel Controller. It was very interesting to see how things work from a financial point of view. Our numbers were looking way down for the restaurant and we found out that it was because of one small thing that the servers were doing. Before I was told about this I never would have guessed that something so small could be so important. This just goes to show that everything is done for a reason and it is imporant to pass that information down to everyone.
I also had the chance to experience how one small mistake can cost a business a lot of money. We have a guest who is a repeat customer (and is one of my favorite guests) who I noticed had stopped staying at my property for several weeks in a row. Well, he was back in this past week and I asked him where he had been. He told me that he has been staying at another property because of one staff member. ONE! That staff member made him feel like he was not welcome, and because of that we lost a very valuable guest. He returned because of the rest of the staff on property, but it really opened my eyes to see how one mistake can cost a lot. I know that it is impossible to please everyone, and that there are people that no matter what you do you can't make them happy, but it just goes to show that you always have to put your best foot forward and treat everyone like they are VIP.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
5am comes real early
We lost a pm server and a bartender in the last two weeks so we have been pretty short staffed this week, and becasuse of this I worked mornings all week. It is very difficult waking up at 5am to be at work by 6am when you aren't used to it. I typically work pm shifts, 2-11p, and I am still getting used to waking up so early. It didin't help very much that I was sick this week and was not operating at 100%. In the past I would have considered calling in so that I could get better quicker, but this week was so short staffed that it wasn't much of an option.
This was a great opportunity to connect with the am team because I haven't had much of a chance to do so thus far. It also allowed me the opportunity to learn breakfast and find areas where we can improve for our guests.
Working mornings this week also provided me the opportunity to see what the bar looks like every morning. Through this, I have found that when left alone, there is no sidework done in the restaurant at night and becuase of that the bar looks like a tornado hit it. My next step is to create a closing checklist for the night crew so they can see exactly what needs to be done each night.
This is my first six day week, and although I'm not looking forward to it, it doesn't seem to be so bad. I enjoy what I do, and I am really working on different ways to improve the restaurant and drive business. I have a lot of pride in what we have to offer and I want to be a part of that team that really makes our restaurant stand out from any other airport hotel restaurant in Phoenix.
One thing that was brought to my attention this week was the fact that I don't communicate with my management team as well as I should. That is one area that I have been struggling with for the past year since I joined the management team at my hotel. I just have to remember to include everyone on the emails that I send so that my assistant general manager and general manager know what is going on in the restaurant. I'm thinking of putting a big sticky note on the wall so that I will remember!
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
This was a great opportunity to connect with the am team because I haven't had much of a chance to do so thus far. It also allowed me the opportunity to learn breakfast and find areas where we can improve for our guests.
Working mornings this week also provided me the opportunity to see what the bar looks like every morning. Through this, I have found that when left alone, there is no sidework done in the restaurant at night and becuase of that the bar looks like a tornado hit it. My next step is to create a closing checklist for the night crew so they can see exactly what needs to be done each night.
This is my first six day week, and although I'm not looking forward to it, it doesn't seem to be so bad. I enjoy what I do, and I am really working on different ways to improve the restaurant and drive business. I have a lot of pride in what we have to offer and I want to be a part of that team that really makes our restaurant stand out from any other airport hotel restaurant in Phoenix.
One thing that was brought to my attention this week was the fact that I don't communicate with my management team as well as I should. That is one area that I have been struggling with for the past year since I joined the management team at my hotel. I just have to remember to include everyone on the emails that I send so that my assistant general manager and general manager know what is going on in the restaurant. I'm thinking of putting a big sticky note on the wall so that I will remember!
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Busy, busy, busy
My hotel has been sold out this whole last week and it has been good for business! I used to come in to work hoping that we would be at 60% or lower so I wouldn't have much work to do for the day, but now I come in hoping that we are sold out. It's funny how this little hotel is growing on me. I am starting to take more care and responsibility for not only my own department but for the hotel as a whole.
This week was a short week for me as I went home to Albuquerque for my father's birthday! It was a good week for catch up work for me and it also allowed me to dive further into the projects that I have begun. This was my first week to try my luck at the schedule for the next week. When I was at the front desk I was in charge of the schedule for about 9 months so I thought that this schedule would be a piece of cake. I was wrong though! There are different factors when scheduling for the restaurant then there are for the front desk. For example, even though the hotel might be sold out with 130 check-ins, there may be 3 or 4 different groups with catered dinners and therefore the restaurant can miss out on that business and be slow. It is also spring break this week and I had to juggle all of the time off requests but still ensure that there was adequate staffing. It took me a couple of tries, but I finally put together a good schedule and was pretty proud of the work I had completed.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
This week was a short week for me as I went home to Albuquerque for my father's birthday! It was a good week for catch up work for me and it also allowed me to dive further into the projects that I have begun. This was my first week to try my luck at the schedule for the next week. When I was at the front desk I was in charge of the schedule for about 9 months so I thought that this schedule would be a piece of cake. I was wrong though! There are different factors when scheduling for the restaurant then there are for the front desk. For example, even though the hotel might be sold out with 130 check-ins, there may be 3 or 4 different groups with catered dinners and therefore the restaurant can miss out on that business and be slow. It is also spring break this week and I had to juggle all of the time off requests but still ensure that there was adequate staffing. It took me a couple of tries, but I finally put together a good schedule and was pretty proud of the work I had completed.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Mistakes happen
This week was a very good week for me to learn from my own mistakes. As each day passes in my new position I learn how not to do things. I think that in most cases as long as you learn from your mistakes then it is a lesson well learned. Now I'm not saying that all I have done is make mistakes, but I feel that this week I was really able to see my mistakes for myself before someone pointed them out to me. Last night was a good example. This week was a long week for me, I put in two 13 hour days followed by two 12 hour days, so by the end of last night I was pretty exhausted. I decided to leave at 10pm last night (as scheduled) but I did not leave my staff prepared to do their job and because of this I had a mess to clean up this morning. I left my newer bartender alone to close up the bar without properly training him on closing the bar and so this morning I got a phone call from my day bartender that he could not find anything. It was a big hassle and my day bartender did not have the tools that he needed to get his job done. After the phone call I realized that I did not set my staff up for success, and that I should have stayed until llpm to make sure that everything was fine. This wasn't the biggest mistake in the world, but it really inconvienced everyone who was involved.
As I've noted before I am learning new things about myself and my management skills everyday, but this morning I realized that I have a long way to go. I want to be a good manager and I want to be able to do my job confidently, but I also realize now that you don't just wake up one morning and find that you are a great manager; it takes A LOT of work!! I believe that even though I feel like I am stumbling through the darkness somedays that I have many great managers at my property that I can look up to and learn from. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm hoping that it will get bigger as time progresses.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
As I've noted before I am learning new things about myself and my management skills everyday, but this morning I realized that I have a long way to go. I want to be a good manager and I want to be able to do my job confidently, but I also realize now that you don't just wake up one morning and find that you are a great manager; it takes A LOT of work!! I believe that even though I feel like I am stumbling through the darkness somedays that I have many great managers at my property that I can look up to and learn from. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm hoping that it will get bigger as time progresses.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to document a college internship experience. Content published on this blog represents the author’s ideas, opinions, and experience. This does not necessarily represent the views of the internship organization.
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