Now ye're talking - to a Hotelier

Purple Mountain · 04-03-2019 7:58pm

I'm a hotelier, AMA wrote: »

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

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?

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 8:05pm

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Hello,

Is it a deliberate policy of hotels to minimize the amount of food served to guests for carvery dinners? I have been to hundreds of pubs and restaurants over the years in Ireland and the majority of them (bar some mean-spirited owners) have no problem when the guest asks for an extra roast potato or maybe an extra slice of bread with their soup without charging extra.

However, without exception, any hotel I have been in for sunday carvery, everything is very basic and minimal as if the staff have been told absolutely not to give anything extra and even to tell the customer that its an additional charge for that slice of bread etc. Is it a general hotel policy not to be in any way generous with food? I tried it a few times just to have an extra potato or a bit more vegetables and I always get looked at as if I had asked for a whole extra dinner free of charge! Can you share your experience on this thanks.

Its certainly not a secret policy we have i can assure you LOL all i will say is that carvery ( and food in general ) is something that makes a contribution to hotel revenues ( as opposed to profits ) and it would be fair to say that there can be generous head chefs out there as well as stingy ones. All depends on the property. But pubs that do carvery on a sunday - thats their "thing" - thats what they do and its what people expect. Hotels are primarily accommodation providers and food and beverage operations are only added services so its done as something to supplement the income, not necessarily always something that they want to excel at ( which is a shame i agree, but that seems to be the way things are sometimes )

horgan_p · 04-03-2019 8:05pm

How do you feel about NAMA coming in and trying to run hotels ?
Is it suddenly all about the margin and to hell with the customers ?

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 8:41pm

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

Have you ever had to deal with a guest dying in their sleep?

yes - i have dealt with 4 guests passing away while on the premises. Not a nice thing to have to deal with at all. The logistics of such an incident must be dealt with as well such as having to contact ambulance, guards, doctor must visit the hotel to pronounce the person dead, then the body will have to be removed from the hotel and done as discreetly as possible. Hotel managers / staff who find the deceased then have to attend the inquiry for this death approx a year after the event too. Staff / managers would always be offered counselling after such a traumatic event too

Gloomtastic! · 04-03-2019 8:45pm

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?

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 8:47pm

A2LUE42 wrote: »

What's your best and worse new year's eve experiences ?

ehhh ....

best: One year i ended up partying with a world famous guest and their entourage until all hours of the morning

Worst: 1998 NYE was horrendous. City Centre Dublin, city mental, drunk people everywhere you looked, fights galore, not a taxi to be seen, will never forget it as long as i live !!!

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 8:49pm

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

Loughc · 04-03-2019 8:52pm

I'm a hotelier, AMA wrote: »

No contest here - a 5ft Iguana !!!

Honestly that the best unexpected answer ever.

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 8:59pm

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

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:05pm

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Ever caught any night time enterprises operating out of one of your rooms and if so how was in handled?

yes this can happen on occasion. Enterprises ( i love that term - will defo use that myself next time ) are not normally very subtle about how they operate and its easy to spot them normally. ie: the type of person that checked in, people arriving at the hotel with phones in their hands being directed to hotel rooms, etc .. Hotels are also very familiar with the usual websites that these enterprises advertise on and if we suspect someone we can easily check it on those sites

Easiest way to deal with this is to cut off the reason for them staying in your hotel, ie: prevent the guys from being able to get to their room. Stopping the men going beyond reception is the easiest way, informing them that only residents are permitted up to bedrooms as non residents are not covered by insurance. If thats not possible, then the hotel would simply not extend the stay of the enterprise. If they enquired as to why, then i would have a discreet chat with them and advise them that i did not feel comfortable with them staying in the hotel as i had noticed a trend of visitors coming to the hotel and i would prefer if they vacated the hotel. I would then also warn all the other hotels in the town / city of this guest so that they didnt inherit the same problem

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:06pm

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

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:10pm

horgan_p wrote: »

How do you feel about NAMA coming in and trying to run hotels ?
Is it suddenly all about the margin and to hell with the customers ?

NAMA never really ran hotels. They usually outsourced that function to management companies. The aim is to make the hotel profitable and move it onto a new buyer. This doesnt necessarily mean that the hotel cuts costs to the bone and the guest suffers. Sometimes it can be a case of people trying to run hotels that were not hoteliers and hence didnt have a clue what they were doing. A management company engaged by NAMA would do their best to get that hotel back on its feet so it could be moved on. There are quite a few good examples of this in terms of Irish Hotels in recent years but i wont mention them here out of respect for the hotels themselves

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:12pm

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

looksee · 04-03-2019 9:15pm

How basic do you have to go when training in staff (or would they always be out of some sort of training course?). What really basic obvious things do you find they don't know (one actual example I can think of was someone setting tables who didn't know the difference between a soup spoon, dessert spoon and serving spoon).

Paully D · 04-03-2019 9:22pm

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?

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:28pm

looksee wrote: »

How basic do you have to go when training in staff (or would they always be out of some sort of training course?). What really basic obvious things do you find they don't know (one actual example I can think of was someone setting tables who didn't know the difference between a soup spoon, dessert spoon and serving spoon).

Fair question. Staff training in hotels is something that has been transformed in the last 10 years. Gone are the days of someone just being told to start on monday and being put into a dept with little or no training whatsoever. We would train staff online when they start in areas such as manual handling, general awareness training, responsible serving of alcohol, PCI compliance, GDPR, etc, progress that to practical fire safety training, first aid, and a multitude of other areas ( again as mentioned earlier, hidden costs that hotels have that people dont see )

In terms of the example you gave - all depends on the person and their abilities. Obviously some people will have better skills than others. Managers will know their team and the skill set that they have available and will get a new member of staff trained by someone competent. If they need to go to the basic level of explaining the different types of cutlery then yes we would go to that level of detail

I'm a hotelier, AMA · 04-03-2019 9:37pm

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

alexmalalex · 04-03-2019 9:55pm

Do you know, em, what movies people have watched?

Firblog · 04-03-2019 10:27pm

In an earlier answer you alluded to the fact that hotels vary the price of their rooms based on the demand.
Given that the irish times placed the avg price of a hotel room in Dublin @ €160 per night last year, what do you think the price of the average hotel room would have been if Airbnb was not in competition with 10,000+/- rooms?

enricoh · 04-03-2019 10:30pm

What percentage of personal injury claimants u've had do you reckon are bogus or over inflated?
What was the most rediculous one?

Rows Grower · 04-03-2019 10:38pm

What's the most commonly stolen item that has to be replaced?

What's the biggest food/drink tab that someone ran up and didn't pay?

Gloomtastic! · 04-03-2019 10:57pm

How long do you allow for a chambermaid to clean a room/bathroom?

stop animal cruelty · 04-03-2019 11:11pm

What would u say in order to sell/convince a hotel job, eg waiting tables, to an Irish person?

SirChenjin · 04-03-2019 11:19pm

Used to travel a fair bit for work, hence single rooms. 99.9% of the time no issues whatsoever.

Just wondering though, are the crappiest rooms sometimes allocated to the solo traveller?

One place sticks in my mind, the hotel was full according to the front desk. Didn't sleep a wink during my stay. I think the company stopped using the hotel after that.

Often read reviews of hotels saying 'we were upgraded to a suite etc'. Never in my experience. Who decides, and how?

Thanks for doing the AMA, btw.

endacl · 04-03-2019 11:20pm

The only thing that sprang to mind. A thought experiment...

Say you're running a hotel with a lovely view off to one side, and a bog-ordinary view off to the other. For any given time period, you have no idea how full the rooms will be. When a guest books, if they don't specifically ask for a room on the nice view side, do you give them one as a matter of policy, or do you hold off the 'nice view' rooms in case you get a load of people asking for them? Apart from the view, all rooms are identical in all regards. In this scenario you're not allowed to 'upgrade' guests after check-in, either as a goodwill gesture or at their request. In any given week you will have either one guest only, or full occupancy. You won't know in advance.

If this turns out to be a clever question, feel free to use it when recruiting staff. I suspect it won't...

Rows Grower · 04-03-2019 11:30pm

endacl wrote: »

The only thing that sprang to mind. A thought experiment...

Say you're running a hotel with a lovely view off to one side, and a bog-ordinary view off to the other. For any given time period, you have no idea how full the rooms will be. When a guest books, if they don't specifically ask for a room on the nice view side, do you give them one as a matter of policy, or do you hold off the 'nice view' rooms in case you get a load of people asking for them? Apart from the view, all rooms are identical in all regards. In this scenario you're not allowed to 'upgrade' guests after check-in, either as a goodwill gesture or at their request. In any given week you will have either one guest only, or full occupancy. You won't know in advance.

If this turns out to be a clever question, feel free to use it when recruiting staff. I suspect it won't...

What a lovely gesture enda.

Big Words · 04-03-2019 11:32pm

How do you deal with a screamer at four o clock in the morning on the saddle?

slavetothegrind · 04-03-2019 11:32pm

tough industry for sure.
As a regular customer, work has me staying over often, nothing is more annoying than staff who won't acknowledge you.
Sure they are busy, but a brief nod or hey i will be with you asap would go a long way.

I will say 80% of the hotels i stay in are grand. But i think for the others being cheap on customer facing staff is foolish and counterproductive.

Thanks for doing the AMA!

dartboardio · 04-03-2019 11:34pm

What are some instant no nos with new staff?

Or how can you tell straight away if someone is gonna be suited or is a good worker?

Are most people friendly?

Darthvadar · 05-03-2019 12:12am

I'm really enjoying this thread, and thank you so much for taking the time to engage with it....

I'm probably a hotel's worst nightmare (not on purpose!) in that I'm a wheelchair user with severe food allergy, but I have to say most times I stay at hotels, I've been taken care of very well...

Some places are a disaster, though.... Just no thought... Shower over bath for example in a so called wheelchair accessible room in a brand new hotel in South Dublin!... No major issue if only staying a couple of nights, and it's amazing what you can do with a packet of baby wipes!!!...

Another hotel in the South of the country that have hung the bathroom door in such a way that in order to access the bathroom from the bedroom, I have to go out through the bedroom door, turn my chair in the corridor, come back through the bedroom door, and enter the bathroom... Then do it in reverse on the way back!!!... I just laugh... Just have to make sure I'm decent at all times, or I could traumatise some poor soul wandering the corridors!...

My favourite story though was a hotel in Roscommon... Said to be accessible... Yeah, right!... Had to stay for five days for work a few years ago... Bedroom, and bathroom great size, grab rails, etc... Lovely except that the shower was over bath!!!... No different in other bedrooms... Okay... No amount of baby wipe's going to sort out five days of not showering!!!... Asked at reception what I'm meant to do, and they told me that there's an accessible shower in the leisure centre... Leaving my room to shower, not ideal, but hey-ho... Managable, or so I thought... Gathered the required items from my room, and asked at Reception the way to the leisure centre... Got the reply, "Well if you go through the double doors, turn left, and go down the flight of stair.... Oooooh.... Erm.... Yes.... Okay... There is another way.... Go out through the main door, turn right, down to the end of the driveway, and turn right into the leisure center"... Yes, I kid you not... Not only had to leave my room to have a shower, I had to leave the building!!!!... In November, gale force winds and driving rain!... I should have just went outside the front door, waited in the rain for a bit, lathered up, and rinsed off!!... What really made me laugh though was the manager's reaction when I said "But when the booking was being made, you said that the hotel was wheelchair accessible"... He replied "It is accessible... You're in the building, aren't you???"... I kid you not...I have to say, I gave up... He hadn't a clue!....

The reason I tell that story is because of the comment you made about dealing with unhappy customers... This hotel offered nothing... Not a discount, meal, even a cup of coffee... It was just a case of 'That's how it is... Take it or leave it'...

So I have NEVER gone back there!... Told friends... They avoid it too... It's a pity... It would have taken very little to please me... An "I'm sorry, we were wrong to describe ourselves as accessible... When you come back from the leisure centre in the freezing cold and rain after showering, have a hot drink on us" would have made me happy... They just didn't care...

On the other hand, I've had amazing experiences when things have gone wrong... The hotel with the 'interesting' bathroom doors are just fantastic about food allergy... That's why I keep going back... They buy in all of their desserts, so couldn't be certain of any of them being nut free... Fruit Salad for dessert???... No thanks!... Bored to death with that... The chef in this hotel understands that... When I'm booking, as per his instructions, I just ask them to tell the Head Chef that I'll be visiting, and he'll bake a chocolate cake for me!... Very thoughtful, and 'going that extra mile' is so much appreciated!...

Another hotel who had a great wheelchair accessible bedroom and bathroom, complete with huge roll-in shower, complete with seat... Wonderful except that the controls are placed behind the seat, so unless you have long arms and three elbows, it's not really practical... When that was brought to their attention, an informed them that my backround is in Equality and Disability Awareness training, not only did they change it straight after I left, they invited me back to deliver some training for staff, and gave me complimentary stay!... That's another hotel I visit often...

So I suppose I'm saying that a great hotel is not just about the building... A little bit of thought and effort makes all the difference!...

Oh, and Food Allergy wise, do hotels consider the possible language barrier when training staff???... My experience is that a staff member who's first language is not English can be very dangerous to deal with in relation to allergy... They can regard an allergy in the same way as an intolerance... Totally different!... I know that most hotels have signage in the kitchen relating to allergy... Is that in several languages???...

So to my question (Finally, I hear you say!)... Are guests like me as welcome as a summons???...

Thanks for everything you do... It's a tough job, with ever greater demands, and when I'm well looked after, I really appreciate it....

Darth....

P.S.... The Iguana... BRILLIANT!!!... LOL!!!!!....

Now ye're talking - to a Hotelier

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