Bi-Weekly Reflective Journal Entry

Student Name: Kaylee Fernandes Date: 9/18/2015

Site Supervisor: Bradley Cannon

Agency: The Grand America Hotel

Reflective Journal #2: Reflect on your attitude toward work and learning. What are you willing to commit to your internship agency? What specific things do you intend to do during your internship that will demonstrate your commitment to the agency, your interest in learning, and your dedication to the quality of your work? Include the actions and behaviors that will demonstrate your positive attitude toward work and learning.

  • Brief description of the past two week’s duties:
  • How are you experiencing a relevant and challenging use of your skills?
  • What did you learn from the experience?
  • What worked well? What would you change next time?
  • Please describe the supervision you are receiving.

Bi-Weekly Reflection Week 3 & 4

Working in the hospitality industry for over 3 years now has definitely showed me a lot about hotels but I still am learning new things every day. Just like with any occupation or job, I’ve noticed that some days I love my job and other days it’s the last place I would like to be. Overall, I keep a very positive attitude at work because it makes my coworkers’ day go better and it makes my day better as well. I feel like positive attitudes are contagious so why should I choose to be negative.

During my internship, I want to keep improving and show my agency, The Grand America Hotel that I’m dedicated and always willing to learn something new. I also want to show them that I’m a dedicated hard worker so I can continue moving up through this company. One way I can make sure to show that I’m a hard worker is by paying attention to detail and executing my daily tasks correctly and in a timely manner. An example of this will be taking my time during phone calls so I can make sure I’m giving guests the correct information. Also, if I have questions I will make sure that I ask so I can learn properly and continue to improve at guest relations.

These past two weeks, I worked my first morning guest relations shift which is slightly harder than the evening shift. You do a lot more work dispatching calls to housekeeping and updating the status of individual rooms. I also have continued to improve and get more comfortable working the evening shifts. Yesterday during my shifts I had to make work orders for several rooms that needed engineering service but couldn’t be fixed immediately. I am learning the specific tasks that each department does. For example, something I found interesting was that if lights are out in the chandeliers in public spaces, they will only be fixed during the night when there are less people around.

The guest relations department makes slightly more than the front desk which I thought was crazy considering they don’t have face to face contact with the guests. I quickly learned that guest relations takes a lot more thought and knowledge than just working the front desk. I love multi-tasking and this job definitely puts my skills to the test. During busy times, there will be several phone calls on hold, emails coming in, your radio going off and more phone calls going off in the background. I’ve learned to stay calm in order to make sure that all tasks get completed. This has been my biggest challenge while training in guest relations thus far.

Being challenged by having so many responsibilities makes me happy because I know that I’m learning and improving each day. I like to stay busy because it makes the day go by faster. I hate being bored while at work so this has definitely been a new challenge that keeps me busy! Staying calm helps me daily so that I don’t get worked up over having so many tasks at one time. Next time, I’m going to see if there is someone around to maybe answer a few phone calls when the phone is ringing nonstop. I can always dispatch a request for help if the Manager on Duty is not right nearby when needed.

The supervision that we get while working guest relations is slightly more than at the front desk. The manager on duty’s desk is right next to mine which allows me to reach out for help when needed. Also, if I forget something they are there to correct me. For example, the Grand America Hotel is very strict about using proper verbiage when speaking with guests. For example, while talking on the phone we cannot say “let me transfer you.” Instead, we must say “it would be my pleasure to connect you.” The manager on duty is always quick to correct you if you forget when using the phones. These corrections may seem tedious but I know that it is helping me now and in my future job endeavors in the hospitality industry.