Mystery Shopper Mr. Maged Ghareb

Mystery Shopper Mr. Maged Ghareb

EMPLOYEE INTERVIEWS

Mystery Shopper – Mr. Maged Ghareb:

1- Spoke with Mohamed Nasr, Health Club Attendant, said “we have

a lot of turn over (People leaving the hotel), because of the management problems. Money (wages) are low, no bonuses and service charge is not good except for July 2000. Too many employees had problems and left they complained to H.R. Manager, but he does not stand next to employees, he always stands with management.

Here the management is in one side and the employees are the other side”.

He also said “We have never met with the G.M. (no general meeting/briefing) for at least the year I have been here in Holiday Inn.

The management move people from one area to another without reason. Take me for example I was doing a good job at the beach, my supervisor came one day and moved me to the Health Club without a reason, when I asked why he didn’t give me a good reason.

The bad thing here is that the management doesn’t honor vacation, I have been working for 50 consecutive days without a day off”.

2- Spoke with Mohamed Sobhi, Waiter at the Tiran beach bar, he was

friendly. When I asked him if he is happy, he said “ok, but I am here

for a short period to get a certificate and then leave to another large

hotel”. So I said that means you are not happy here? He said “The management here are not organized. They are all Egyptian, and if they were foreigners, the management would be much better. They would take care of us better than Egyptian Managers. He also mentioned that the turnover was high because of the mistreatment. Anyone, who does the same work for few months, gets a certificate and then leaves.

2- Spoke with Mohamed Sanad, Restaurant Manager, he showed me the

banquet rooms. I said “I feel that the employees are not happy here? “ He answered “because we have lots of turn over, that leaves us with a shortage of staff at all times and of course that will impact the friendliness of the staff”. He said “take for example the G.M. here, he is very good, I worked with him for the past 7 years in several hotels, he is professional and very good”, I wonder why he said such a statement.

EMPLOYEE INTERVIEWS

Mystery Shopper – Mr. Sam Saker

1- Wissam (Housekeeping staff member), indicated the following:

  1. We have very little communication here, no department meetings, no general meetings.
  2. We lack the team environment.
  3. We receive no training.
  4. The General Manager never met with the staff except once, when we wanted to celebrate the low breakage at the hotel.
  5. The staff food is mediocre compared to other places I have worked at.
  6. We clean 20 rooms daily in this hotel, while everybody in this city cleans max. 16-17 rooms.
  7. We feel that dictatorial ship over the dept. heads is obvious.
  8. We are on short on towels.
  9. The laundry dept. has a lot of problems with the equipment and the chemicals, we always complain that the sheets and pillow cases come out of the laundry with yellow stains.
  10. No motivation, no employee of the month program, the only thing we do here we sometimes celebrate the birthdays. No incentives what so ever. The salaries are the lowest in the city, the management claim its because of the high service charge / 12%.
  11. The F&B dept. has the highest turnover in the hotel
  12. The only training I received here since I started a year ago was the orientation. For sometime they started an Italian Language classroom but they stopped it, it was only for one month.
  13. The TV in the staff cafeteria room, has been out of order for a long time.
  14. We are forced to take days off when we don’t need them. On top of that we are ordered to stay and work extra days when we do need vacations.
  15. We feel that the General Manager has no interest in the guest satisfaction. The only place that has been promoted here is the Sultana outlet.
  16. It is well known that the General Manager here hire rank file from his own town (Monofiya).

2- Ahmed (Front Desk Shift Leader):

  1. Food quality is poor compared to our competition for both guests/associates.
  2. Turnover is too high especially in the Food & Beverage and all other department except housekeeping.
  3. The executive secretary behavior is very unsatisfactory, in addition to her borrowing money from almost all of us. She is also a heavy drinker, so is the General Manager.

Money that she has never yet paid back.

  1. The Front Office Manager has no trust in any of us, except for those he favours, such as Sherif (Asst. Front Office Manager / Reservation), whom we consider does nothing.
  2. The engineering dept. has a lot of problems, we get a lot of guest complains about the engineering lack of follow up on work orders.
  3. We are all overworked here, especially the waiters.
  4. The staff housing is over crowded, not sufficient for the size of staff / manning guide.
  5. We don’t have public phone cabins for the guest, when the guest an overseas board from the telephone board, he has to stand in the hallway.
  6. No in house marketing what so ever.
  7. No communication meetings.
  8. Poor follow up in all guests’ services (engineering & housekeeping).
  9. The General Manager, does not react to our problems, we can never sit and talk to him in private about anything, because he leaves the door open while meeting with one of us and the executive secretary transfers everything that was said in the room.
  10. The guest can not make international calls from the room lately, because the call accounting system is insufficient. We literary have to estimate the charges ?
  11. We receive no training in this hotel. One time the corporate sent a training manager whom we had not seen except for once or twice during his two weeks visit.

3- Sayed Abdallah (Chief Engineer):-

  1. Managers have no freedom in decision making in this hotel, the General Manager’s dictatorial ship, gives us no room to make decisions, he doesn’t listen to us. On top of that when one of us gives an idea, he will totally refuse it, and later he applies it claiming it was his idea.
  2. The salary scales are very low, compared to similar hotels in Sharm.
  3. The staff housing is insufficient for the number of employees needed in this hotel.
  4. We are forced not to take our vacations during rush time, yet we are forced to take additional vacations during the slow time.
  5. The General Manager, is running this hotel as if he was running it in the Gulf area, he doesn’t know how to run a resort in Egypt.
  6. The number of employees in this hotel is 40% under what it should have been. Therefore, the guest suffer the consequences of the poor service and the employees are overworked.
  7. He hires many of the rank file staff members from his own town (Monofiya).
  8. The sales & marketing dept. is very weak, they are not making the effort that is due for a resort in Sharm El Sheikh.

4- Bahaa El Bagoury (Exec. Asst. Manager):

  1. General Manager does not listen, I gave up on giving my opinion to him. It is his way or the highway (his way is the only way of doing things).
  2. The manpower is very weak in number and skills.
  3. We have a major problem with the maintenance and repair department, down to the detail of the lobby marble, which is one of the areas I have been fighting for to sign a maintenance contract, if we can’t handle the job in house. I have written several letters and memos, brought in several quotations but he insists not to do it.
  4. I was promised a promotion to a Resident Manager, 6 months ago but it never happened.
  5. The paper work is over whelming due to the fact that the GM is overloading me with his own paper work. I don’t have time to walk around the property.
  6. I have been frustrated among all the other managers of how things are done.

5- Saadeya (Exec. Housekeeper):

  1. The General Manager wants to make “MIN EL FESSIKH SHARBAT”, Arabic quote used when ( ).
  2. All managers are frustrated, they feel handicapped, short on staff, short on equipment / material. The GM Dictatorial ship doesn’t give us any room to be innovative or creative.
  3. We get no vacations when needed, everyone is overworked.
  4. A constant feeling of instability.
  5. I received several false promises from the GM, such as being the area housekeeping manager. This was also promised to the Chief Engineer.
  6. I can’t stand it any more (2 weeks later she resigned).

6- Adel Ramzy (Asst. Financial Controller):

  1. The hotel is run like a one man show, we don’t feel like team, the GM makes all decisions and gives no one room for enhancement. The accounting dept. is short of staff, consequently, we are all overworked.
  2. The GM thinks that he is the best doing what he is doing, while in fact he is hurting the operation.
  3. He doesn’t listen to our ideas.
  4. Most of the staff “are from his own town – Monofiya”. They have no experience what so ever, consequently, we suffer and the guests suffer.
  5. He even has to approve the sub-dept. vacations, which handicaps us at times.
  6. He is milking the property and the people.

7- Mr. Ahmed Maher (General Manager):

  1. I have the lowest manpower in the whole city 0.6% labour.
  2. I have the highest GOP in the whole city if not in the country, a 57%.
  3. I consider my only competition is Pyramisa Hotel.
  4. The owner obtained a very high loan to be paid in a very short time at a very high interest rate and expects us to meet his financial requirement.
  5. I have to fight for the average rate versus occupancy, for example, I have just taken a large share of the Jordanian Market, who had been offered a $ 15 per person by the Pyramisa Hotel. I was able to beat that rate and got the business.
  6. I made deals with my hotel staff, not to take vacations during high seasons and take days off during low season. That’s how I manage with very low staff members. I save money this way.
  7. When it comes to cost control, I lead by example.
  8. Management companies always tend to satisfy the owners, even if they request to fire the GM, they may end up transferring the GM. Of course because he means millions for them. At the end all what they care about is satisfying the owner.
  9. At my end as a GM, I have to juggle between satisfying my management company and the owner, at the same time. I have to play it right.
  10. I have a good sales team. Sharm El Sheikh market is all about connection with the international operators. The way I rate the priority of the tour operators in this city is as follows:

One) Neema Bay

Two) Shark Bay

Three) El Hadaba

Four) Nabq

  1. When it comes of prioritization of spending, I can’t implement many good ideas because of the owner’s involvement and interruptions.
  2. Incentives ? NO - it’s a cost that we can save for the GOP
  3. I lead by example ! That is how I convince my managers especially in cutting expenses.
  4. The owner doesn’t understand why we give complimentary rooms to certain people. We have to maintain our public relations with the Government Agencies and famous figures intact.
  5. The Sheraton average rate is L.E. 120.00 and ours is the same although they have much better facility. Not to mention that we have more rooms.
  6. We do not have a good kids recreation area “Kids Club” because the owner doesn’t see it as a priority.