Oups!!!

My new job is o.k. I was supposed to work from 15:00 untill 23:00 but the head of reception is gone for a few days due to trouble in the family (and a little bit of rest because she was feeling burned out) and I was left on my own doing the hard staff like expecting 60 guests at a time (damn Viaggi and Kompas! Couldn't they pick different days for their flights!)

Naturally chaos follows soon after. I misplaced a couple of guests They should go to room 322 and instead got 332 (oups). Also I "received" a document about goods that were supposed to be delivered in the kitchen but never showed up there. The thing is when you sign that you actually received goods you can't blame the supplier for not getting them. And they were actually delivered but not to the usual place, so after a fewtelephone calls and little bit of searching the goods were retrieved. Naturally afterwards I got reprimanded and was told never to do that again.

Anyway the manager said that the problem lies in me not asking for help when things go weird,because I'm not expected to do everything but ask for assistance whenever I can't handle something.

Well after 14 hours (oh yes, I've been on my post from 7:00 untill 21:00) I went home. That was yesterday.

Today bump was even bigger. A guy (who has caused problems before by telling us that we threw away his newspapers when in fact his wife had misplaced them), came and asked for his and his wife's passports because he was checking out today. My colleague searched for them in his pigeon hole wherewe keep the keys but they weren't there so hetold him that we didn't have and he should search his room again. The guy insisted the receptionist looked for them again but to no avail so the guy left and said he would look for them again in his room. That was quite early and he didn't come back. The receptionist told me this quite casually. I asked him whether I should search myself but he said that he looked everywhere all night and the guy didn't come back any way so he probably got them. 45 minutes before his departures he shows up again telling me that he still hasn't got his passport and he needs them to check out. I immediately tell the manager and he comes and start looking for the damn documents himself. Here is the crusial point: I don't exactly recall if I told him that I looked for them myself or whether I just told him about the other receptionist's search. I wanted to be quick, the other time I was told that I shouldn't try to deal with things like that myself but should contact him immediately.

Anyway the passports weren't where they where supposed to be and fortunately the guy was from Europe so he could leave the country without his passports using his ID card or his driver's licence. And about six hours later I FOUND THEM!

They were placed on a different pigeon hole and we simply didn't notice. Every passport we get, we label it with a little sticker saying the room number so that we can always put it in the right pigeon hole. Aparently other hotels use that system and the passport had another sticker with a different number on. When we looked for it we checked the stickers not the pictures/names of the people inside the passports hence the mistake.

I told the boss of my findings, I got yelled at, and then contacted the travel agency whotold me to just mail it to them (he had left his address) which we will do.

I haven't seen the boss yet (I will see him tommorow morning) to hear his verdict on the matter. I don't think that I am responsible for this mix - up except that I should have saerched for the passports the moment the night receptionist told me what happened. I should have gone through each and every single one. But he made the whole thing sound so casual that I simply didn't pay attention.

Afroditi - Venus Hotel

So I am still in Santorini. This is my seventh day in my new job as a receptionist in the hotel Afroditi - Venus. It's not nearly as luxurious as Mystique but it's more of my kind of hotel.

I work from 15:00 to 23:00 (without any exceptions) and so far things are ok. The difference (apart from the paycheck) is that things are more relaxed. Nobody expects me to know everything and the customers are more understanding.

There are the usual problems that occur in every hotel (mainly power shortages) but the way people responds to them is very different. For example:

Reception:
I'm sorry for the inconvenience but the power shortage is general in Santorini.
Guest of Afroditi:
It's because of the oveload of the system right? Oh well it will pass ...
Guest of Mystique:
What do you mean that the island has no powe? What are you doing about it? Where is your generator? I'm paying a lot of money to have a stress free vacation and this is not stress free. I want to speak with the manager, I want free nights, I'm sending a complain to Starwoods, Your service sucks.

Reception:
What can I do for you?
Guest of Afroditi:
I would like a taxi please.
Receptionist:
I'm afraid nothing is available at the moment. Would you like me to try again later?
Guest of Afroditi:
Yes please.

Reception:
What can I do for you?
Guest of Mystique:
I would like a taxi.
Receptionist:
I'm afraid nothing is available at the moment. Would you like me to try again later?
Guest of Mystique:
What do you mean that nothing is available? There arte dozens of taxis on the island, Surely you can get me one. This has never happened to me before. Your attitude is not up to Starwood standarts. Where is the manager? I wish to file a complain. I am not satisfied at all.

Of course they are right. Mystique is charging outrageous amounts of money. The salary is better and there are tips and commisions that might double your paycheck but I can't do what's required of me. At least not yet. Things are simplier in Afrodity - Venus. It's just a typical reception (exactly what I was looking for).

The most major screw up (that the reception is responsible) was the loss or more likely the missplacement of a guest's passport. It was a joint mistake and not something I did all by myself and the guest's reaction was the following:

At first when he realised that the passport was missing he was upset. He wanted to talk to the manager who told us to "Look for the damned thing. It's there somewhere" and then when we did discover where it went (some other guest had taken it by accident) and took it to his room he was relieved and said that things like that happen (!?!?). We also called his rep who said "Don't panic, if the passport is actually lost, we'll just inform the authorities and he will get a new one" (?!?!?)

If something like that had happened to Mystique, the manager would have cut me to pieces and threw me at the volcano. I don't know if the guest will let things pass (he probably doen't think of the world for Afroditi's service right now) but nothing very dramatic happened. So everything is ok for now.

I will post more news soon.

Good news + Bad news

I got laid of work in Mystique at 18/6/2007 and haven't been near an internet connection ever since then. I was completely stressed and unhappy at my previous job because it required experience that I didn't have. Let me explain. Mystique is a high profile resort. You can tell by the prices of the rooms (500, 700, 1500 per night!). When people pay that kind of money they expect service the likes of which you can only imagine. They expect to cought and everything will magically happen like plane tickets 3 hours before take off and dinner reservations at the coolest hippest place in Santorini on a Saturday night with only 30 minutes prior notice!

Other people (more experienced who have done this job for years) have managed to do that or if they fail they manage to cover things up in such a way as not to make the guests mad. These people don't accept "No" as an answer. I am not good at this. I can't cover things up and I have the tendency of being too honest and not able to deal with pissed off people. As a result I made mistakes. Small mistakes to be sure but in such a hight profile hotel they are unacceptable.

For example I forgot to notify the porter and the guest waited for his luggage 30 minutes, or I failed to book a certain cruise for another guest (because the cruise ship was overbooked) and then didn't notify him the same day so he assumed that it was my fault that he didn't go.

The thing is once a make a mistake I can't put it behind me. I think about it all the times and I worry so much on not repeating it that I don't concetrate on the job at hand and as a result I do something else wrong. I noticed that on my "good days" everything goes on fine and on my "bad days" I don't just do one thing wrong but many.

The manager (a very nice woman whom I would like to have as a friend by the way) got yelled at by the guests and then I got yelled at by her. I don't blame her at all. Like I said I didn't go anywhere (thinking that maybe if I got rested I would do better next day) and I didn't have any friends here to talk to and I was feeling really lousy.

I tried to keep it from my parents (my dad can't handle anxiety either. He had rocks in his kidneys because of it and had to be operated) but they figured it out. I was always the serious and composed child in my family and my parents (and myself) had expectations from me that I felt I couldn't meet. You are right that there is a time that you don't know what you wanna do with your life and you look for what is appropriate for you but that time is usually 18 not 28 like me. I feel that I am slow and left behind. My parents support me all the way and I mean both financially (I don't have the means to live by myself) and emotionally. Once my dad was feeling better he came to Santorini to cheer me up and take me home.

The thing is I really like Santorini. And I reaaly like working in the reception and if that particular position wasn't so demanding (it wasn't a simple receptionist they were looking for. They wanted someone who could be conciers, front office manager and guest relation personell and to be really really good at it) I would have been just fine. At least that's what I like to believe.

This new job I got is a hotel receptionist but it's just that. My duties will be to check the guests (register their passports in the system), check them out and give them their keys. Occasionally I will have to deliver messages from their travel agencies or call them or call them a cab or giver them a wake up call but basically that is that. No more running around. Today is my third day at this job. So far I haven't done a whole shift by myself because I am still a trainee but I will be on my own soon. My shift will be from 15:00 to 23:00 every day (no more working late because the day is too busy). I thought about this hard. On one hand I might not be cut out for this job but on the other I really like it here and I don't feel comfortable going home. I don't want this experience to be "one more thing that I tried and wasn't good at" so I quit. I have a clear mind thought. If I really suck at this as well then it's not the end of the world. I will simply come home. So in the spirit of "getting back on the horse once you fall" I decided to give it another try. It helped that the other woman who works there used to have my old job at Mystique's sister hotel "Vedema" and knew what I was going through and why I left (she did the same thing about a year ago).

To all the people I should have phoned: I'm sorry. I promise I will make it up to you. Lately I have been feeling really depressed and wouldn't know what to say if I picked up the phone.

Things are looking up ...

The weather in Santorini hasn’t been very good lately, so the guests, who were lured here by the promises of wonderful sunshines and amazing sunsets, found themselves confined to their suites and were very edgy. They started noticing all sorts of unimportant details that normally, if the weather was fine and were enjoying their cruises or walks, they wouldn’t notice at all.

Thankfully the weather has improved and many of the amenities that the hotel should have but didn’t because they haven’t been shipped/ordered/bought yet are now available. So the complaining customers are now less. We no longer offer them free nights as compensations. I also feel that I am getting the hang of it. Things are quiet now and everybody is less tired and calmer as well.

I did a major flomp on Wednesday the 23rd. I was supposed to arrange for transfer for a certain couple and I didn’t. The circumstances made this particular mistake inexcusable. These people had been in and out of the reception office all morning and yet I forgot to call the driver when it was time for them to be picked up. Everybody went ballistic. On a scale of dissastroufulness from 1 to 10 this felt like a 15.

The hotel manager, Antonia was not only furious but close to tears and the owner/boss had to drive them herself. Needless to say I have lost her favor there and then (not that I had it in the first place). Ever since every word she ever utters to me is to correct me and at the same time makes me feel like I’m four. I suppose it serves me right up to a point. I really wished she got over it thought. Other than that I haven’t made any other huge mistakes and that’s a relief.

The hotel was inspected by Starwood and we passed the test (yupee!!!), so that’s one less thing to worry about.

I run out of money and need to go to the bank to make a withdraw. Unfortunately the bank is closed on Monday, it’s a holiday so I guess that leaves Tuesday. I lost my ATM card a few days before moving to Santorini. That’s a mixed blessing. On one hand my life is somewhat more difficult without it. I need to take a whole trip to a different village in order to find a bank. On the other hand it’s a good thing too because I would probably had spent a lot more otherwise.

I can’t believe how expensive things are here. I spend 200 euros on food and necessities in less than 15 days. I really wanted to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean III” and I guess I still have the chance, I just need to arrange the schedule with my colleague.

So far so good …

Santorini: Good news & Bad news

Well this is my second post about my job in Santorini and I have to declare these:

Being a receptionist is much more difficult than what it seems. I have a small expoerience in that section but nothing like that. The hotel I'm working for is a high profile establishment (Starwoods Hotels) with dozens of rules and standarts about how the hotel should operate and what we can and can't do. I'm always worried I'm going to brake one or two and get in trouble.

This job turns out to be harder and more challenging but at the same time I really like it there. The manager is a very nice and friendly girl with tons of understanding. The thing is we (me and the other receptionist) are totally inexperienced and quite frankly I don't get how we got the job in the first place. My quess is they waited untill the very last minute to find personel and so they had to make do with whoever was available. That is very good for me, because I'm learning a lot of new things and my time in this hotel is something that will look good on my resume, but I' m afraid it's not so good for them.

We received some training in a program called FIDELIO, (very famous in the hotel industry). Sixteen hours to be precise that was hardly enought but time was of the essence. We've been given a few simple instructions and that was it. Naturally when the time came I wasn't ready and neither was the other girl. That was on the 15th of this month. Things weren't looking up and the manager and her supervisor decided that we needed some more training. That's both good and bad. It's good because I feel confident that with a little bit more guidence and supervision we will both improve. I most definitely will. I need someone to show me the ropes and I've been told I'm a slow learner.

But at the same time it's bad, because it means that our performance so far is seriously lacking. F we could do what we were hired to do we wouldn't be needing any more training, would we? I really wish I was a star emploee but it's painfully obvious that I'm not. Anyway, I really like this job, I want to be good and not suck at it. And I will. On the bright side I received my first tip for this season: 10 euros. It's not much but at least it's an indication that I'm not totaly hopeless.

Another thing that is trobling is that the hotel was not really ready to accept guest yet. The facility is simply not ready. There are dozens of small technical problems that crop up every day. So far every guest has some sort of complain and the complimentary dinners and cuts in the prices of the rooms in order to apease the unsatissfied guest are a daily phenomenon. Today is the first day that we haven't heard any complains, but of course I left at four in the afternoon. The hotel has only 18 suites and it will be full tommorow. Hopefully things will improve and whatever needs fixing will be fixed and whatever needs doing will be done soon and we won't have any more unsatisfied guests.

Here is the website of the hotel: http://www.mystique.gr/