Now ye're talking - to a Hotelier

Loughc wrote: »

What was the strangest thing you found left in a hotel room after the guest checked out?

No contest here - a 5ft Iguana !!!

Deleted User wrote: »

What are your expectation for an Hotel to be a four star venue?

For instance, would it include a reception desk armed with the information about Bus Éireann, Irish Rail and other private operators?

How do you deal with tired customers, arriving emotional from a long journey?

In your own professional capacity, as Hotel staff how did you handle the Volcanic Ash event in 2011, which ground all flights in Europe.

I was stranded in Amsterdam. I got Hotel accomodation, but there was the very real risk that I would have to where to stay except the Airport. (went by ferry in the end from Almueden to Harwich)

Without going into a long winded answer about 4* criteria - answers as follows:

Reception Desk - I think any reception team, regardless of the star rating of the hotel, should be armed with a vast array of local knowledge. To supplement this, any decent hotel should have a large literature stand located next to reception to direct guests to

Tired customers - deal with them as you would any guest really. If you can see that they have had a particularly long day and arrive absolutely shattered - then you might like to do something nice for them such as giving them a free bedroom upgrade or complimentary drink in the bar or comp breakfast if they havent already booked it, etc .. Nice touches like that go a long way towards guest satisfaction and its things out of the ordinary that guests will remember and will tell their friends about and will maybe convince them to give you a 5* tripadvisor rating

Volcanic Ash - was one of the worst incidents hotels have had to deal with over the years. You need to take a pragmatic approach to things like this. Is it the guests fault that their flight was cancelled and that they couldnt get to you ? No it wasnt. However - was it the hotel's fault that your flight was cancelled ? no it wasnt. Also bear in mind that hotels could have sold your room 10 times over since you booked it, and have held the room for you in good faith and at the end of the day, hotels are a business and costs are incurred and staff need to be paid so its not simply a black and white issue. We dealt with it by being as sympathetic as possible to the guests while at the same time trying to minimise our losses. Hotels offered a combination of refunds and / or discounted stays if the guests re-booked the hotels for a later date. Its the fairest way possible. How you book a hotel is normally crucial - always book direct with the hotel as they will give you the maximum cancellation time possible, whereas if you book with certain OTA ( online travel agencies ) they may give you 24 / 48hrs beforehand to cancel which limits you

Rang the guest and politely asked them to come back to collect. They had somehow "forgotten to bring him" when they checked out ....... the mind boggles !!

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Are you based in a city or rural area.

Only asking as it makes a difference to the type of questions people would ask later on.

Both. We have numerous hotels both in large cities such as Dublin and also regional hotels as well as foreign properties too. I have floated around various properties over the years

mikemac2 wrote: »

Stephen McNally of the Irish Hotels Federation is often in the news complaining about staff turnover and inability to recruit and retain staff

He never mentions paying better money which may be minimum wage anyway or even skilled positions like chefs will not be highly paid either. In France a waiter is a job for life and attractive while here it’s low paid and casual

The industry has a negative image for low pay and terrible hours so have you any ideas how to attract staff? Are hoteliers playing the poor mouth they cannot pay staff more?

Stephen was IHF president for 2yrs between 2014 - 2016. He doesnt comment a lot publicly these days however to address the points you mentioned:

Hotels are a business at the end of the day. We cant pay large wages to staff or indeed managers. Thats just the way things are. We have huge cost bases that never get reported in the media so there is always a conception that hotels charge high prices but pay staff pittance and pocket the difference but thats not the case. We have had to deal with a few minimum wage increases in the last few years, as well as having to deal with the VAT rate being increased back up 4.5% which has a huge impact on hotels and i have no doubt you will see hotels closing this year as a result of this factor alone

Chefs are paid decent money, even in hotels. This is a skilled job as you say

Re the hours - years ago hotels used to offer split shifts to staff in restaurants for example: ie: come in for breakfast 7am - 11am and then back for dinner 6pm - 10pm but we dont do that anymore. No hotel worker can exceed the maximum working hours in a fortnight, the same as any other industry in Ireland. We are bound by the same labour laws so the working hours is a bit of a myth these days. I dont think its fair to compare France with Ireland as we have 2 completely different ways of life and its not a fair comparison

Attracting staff into the industry is a tough one and is a problem for us so i dont have any magic answer as to how to attract more people into the industry im afraid. A lot of staff are casual and they see it as a part time way of making money while in school or college until they move on. Being a hotelier is a way of life and its either in your blood or its not. If you have a flair for being a people person and dont mind hard work then hotels may suit.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

What's the most number of hours you've worked in a week?

Do you get any perks if you're hotel manager?

Do you eat alone or with the rest of the staff?

What was the worst day for you as a hotel manager?

What was your best?

Your fellow students at Cathal Brugha. Still keep in touch? Are many still in the business?

Probably different for me as im a General Manager so i would regularly work about 50hrs a week, depending on what i had on

Loads of perks - for example if you are part of a chain or hotel group you can get cheap / free accommodation when you travel

I dont have any airs or graces so i would have no problems eating with my staff ( having said that, i rarely even get to have lunch LOL )

Worst day was losing a guest after trying to resuscitate them in a bedroom

Best day - god thats a tough question. You get to meet a fair amount of famous people in hotels. Over the years i have looked after loads, Bill Clinton was probably one of the most famous as he was president at the time so that was pretty cool.

College - Yes i still keep in touch with about 10 or 12 of the guys. To be honest, i think only 3 of us are still in the industry so that says a lot i think

tayto lover wrote: »

Are the sheets on the beds really changed after guests leave? I was told they weren’t, just turned.

yes - all hotels will use linen hire companies such as Celtic Linen, national Linen or Kings Laundry for example and linen hire is a huge cost to hotels. Once a guest departs, this room is cleaned as a departure and all linen is changed with crisp clean linen. If a guest stays more than one night, say for example 2 nights - then we would not change the linen until they leave. If a guest checked in for 5 days, we would probably change the linen for them on day 3 just to freshen it up for them

Odelay wrote: »

Do you work above the maximum hours allowed per fortnight, especially say during Christmas or the wedding season?

Busy periods are exactly that - busy. While everyone else is in party mode, we are busy making these parties and weddings great for the guests. We try not to overdo it when it comes to the hours and head office are always very understanding when it comes to silly season and give us as much support as they possibly can. If you manage things correctly, you wont have to work excessive hours

barneygumble99 wrote: »

Are middle aged customers who look important, dress well, drive a nice car etc treated better than others. I’m mid 30’s, like going to nice hotels, 5 star, but because I look even younger, I feel the same effort at check in isn’t made, you’re given a table in the busiest spot in the restaurant, never been offered an upgrade etc etc

Officially - i would say no. All guests should be treated equally, unless they have caused some issue for the hotel. All depends on the hotel and the way it is run from the top level down. A general manager will set the tone for a property by their own demeanour and if they have airs and graces about themselves and their property and think that their hotel is " all that " then it could well be a case that the staff develop the same persona and can indirectly treat guests how you describe.

Also - dont underestimate the individual factor that can occur. Sometimes hotel may see a guests address ( it may not be a so called nice part of the country ) or sometimes they might see an email address from a guest ( johnthelad@gmail.com ) and form an opinion about the person before they even arrive. Its not right, but it can happen. The way a person presents themselves on arrival to check-in can also set the tone for how their stay goes. it really does depend on the hotel, and depend on what members of staff deal with you.

To be fair - i dont think Hotels would be the only industry that would " profile " people for lack of a better term. The old saying that if you look the part you play the part didnt come from nowhere. probably fair to say that someone will take a well dressed man in a suit more seriously than someone in jeans, jumper and runners. Again - its not right, but it can happen. But from a hotel perspective its not normally something that they do to guests, certainly not intentionally

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Say there are twin beds in a room and a single occupant stays there, do you only strip the bed that was obviously slept in or are you obliged to do both?

best practice would be to change all linen in a room as the guest will no doubt have sat on the other bed or placed their suitcase on it so there would be a need for it to be changed

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

My sister and her then boyfriend used to work in hotels around the country. I used to go and see them occasionally and I’d stay in the staff accommodation. Absolute sh1tholes that were falling down around them, but as a student and as it was free, what did I care!

Do hotels still offer staff accommodation? Has the standard improved?

No. Very few hotels offer staff accommodation anymore. We have enough problems to deal with these days without bringing that headache upon ourselves haha you might still get it in some seasonal towns such as Killarney maybe, where it can be hard to attract staff to hotels for only a certain few months of the year

Paully D wrote: »

Can you give us a rough example of what your property would be spending on a weekly, monthly or annual basis on the likes of staff costs, things such as linen, food and beverage supplies etc?

probably wouldnt be fair to give financial information on such a forum im afraid but i will go into a small bit of detail for you

Linen - would be considerable cost to hotels. Pillowcases cost an average of 25c per unit, with each bedroom having an average of 6 pillows in it. King size duvet covers cost an average of 95c per unit, Bath sheets cost an average of 36c each so the costs are huge

Staffing costs - all depends on the operation and how big it is, how many departments the hotel has, etc etc ... hard to average this out. Labour would be the biggest cost to hotels in Ireland. Generally the irish hotel average labour cost would be around 40 - 42% so for every euro we take in, 42c goes on wages

F&B - again it all depends on the size of the operation. Food and drink isnt cheap. An 8oz chicken supreme, skin on, wing on will cost a hotel around €1.60 - €2.00 average for example and the average hotel food operation would probably operate at around 40% margin for the year. draft beer usually runs at around 50% cost, wines around 30 - 35% cost margins so average drink costs for hotels is probably around the 35% margin. Very hard to put average figures on it as there are such a varied level of operations in ireland