Service Entrance

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I work in a hotel in New York City.  I love working in hospitality.  Love love love.  It's where I was meant to be and it ONLY took 4 years of college and 3 years working in unrelated fields to figure it out!  I consider myself lucky.

Now though the field is mostly fresh roses for me, sometimes the building I am in is not.  This is something I've noticed several times and I want to take the time to note it here for anyone interested in designing hotels or venues of any kind that offer good customer service.  GOOD mind you.  If you're looking to provide terrible or mediocre service at best, then feel free to ignore this note.  This is also a note to myself as I continue along my career in hospitality.

Anyway, back to what I was saying...  Ehem.  One thing our building lacks is a service elevator to ALL floors.

One of the things that make civilization amazing

I'm here to say this is a HUGE oversight on the part of the planners.  I understand that sometimes there just isn't the space for these things.  But darn it!  I studied architecture and you can MAKE space.  This perhaps small matter originally makes it really hard to do our jobs.

The staff interferes with the flow of traffic of the guests and there can be several awkward encounters A DAY where your hands are full of laundry or garbage or something and the doors open to a high level guest who is in a hurry.  You're both embarrassed as they edge into a corner in a nice outfit under your load of stuff and reach to press their floor.  No this hasn’t happened to me.  Yet.

Uhm... could you just move to the... never mind

What I'm saying here is that back-routes to places are a MUST to provide OPTIMAL service for guests and staff alike.  There are service entrances, back stage, back doors, alleys, and if we reach a little back in history, servant quarters and servant stairs.  All for the purpose of providing an efficient way for staff to get around and do their jobs better.

I’m not arguing about classist issues.  I work at the Front Desk of a hotel and I don’t believe I’m any less than the people I service on a daily basis and I’m sure most of them don’t have that attitude toward me.  BUT as a guest, people don’t really want see that it takes to make your stay/event/whatever run.

Perhaps that’s a human psychological thing.  We as guests want to see things that we want appear before us like magic.  And truly amazing people in hospitality and event planning want to provide just that for you.

So please.  Keep staff areas in mind when planning buildings and events.  Have them readily available and easily accessible for your colleges and the staff that are the life blood of any production.  Thank you.

Conferences Lesson 2: Onsite Phone

Originally this blog was called "What I Learned from Conferences".  I have done many other kinds of events (and hope to continue to do so) since, but I found an old Word doc with notes I wrote to myself to remember things I've learned from each.  Here I attempt to outline the lesson I learned about phones when you are out of the office at an event.

Rent a cell phone.  Period.

If you can find a way for the office number to be routed to that cell phone.  So much the better.  OR just some device which you and the other staff members can be reached through.  People tend to freak out if they cannot reach you... or when they are traveling... or when they can't find you.  Anytime really.

It's actually a good idea to have a mobile number where staff can be reached at any time by the participants. And DO NOT give out a staff member's personal number. NO. DON'T DO IT.  That's just asking for pestering later.  Maybe if it's a company phone that might work.  But keep pros and cons in mind.

I've been in situations where there was no way for the staff to be reached except through the venue's phone lines.  It was a huge disaster and personal numbers were given out to cover the gaps.  You can imagine how that snowballed after.

Online solutions are also available.  Being present and accessible by instant message would be a huge help.  It is the age of technology and most people have smart phones that can gain them access to anyone anywhere anytime.  Use it.

"Out of the Office" is not a valid excuse anymore.  ... hmm... though the repercussions of that may not be so great...

Life Re-Cap

Good afternoon to you all. ^_^  It's been - wait let me check - nearly 2.5 YEARS since I last posted!  Oh dear.  Well I'm hoping to remedy that now.  Quick!  Life catch up!

Yep.  That's New York City.  Where I've moved to in July 2010.  I was starting out a career in the for-profit world in hospitality.  I want to be an event planner and I figured this would be a good place to start.

It took a little bit of doing and using my connections but I was finally able to get a job at a hotel near Times Square.  This is a party of the city that NEVER sleeps.  But that works for me. ^_^

I live in the northern part of the Manhattan Island with 2 roommates whom I love.  We're all about the same level of cleanliness which is something you don't realize is incredibly valuable until you live without it.

My sister recently got engaged and now I'm helping her plan her wedding.  Or more accurately I'm collecting and throwing a TON of ideas in her direction.  She's wanting something crafty, rustic, and personal for her and her rugged Alaskan fiance.  And low budget, of course. ^_^  So I've been focusing a lot of my time on DIY (Do It Yourself) ideas.  Which are cute and I love anyway.

Source: ohhappyday.com via Nari on Pinterest

I promise you will see a lot more of these as I continue on with this blog.  I had a friend recently ask if I blogged and when I said "no, I havn't in a while" he was really surprised.  Turns out he was right.  I should be blogging.  And so now I return to offer my thoughts to you.

May you let your own light shine and inspire others to do the same. ~ Nari