National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism

International Bachelor Program in Tourism Management

Internship Report II

From 21/12/2015

To 31/05/2016

Name: Shang-Jung, Yang (Sean)

Class: International Tourism Management 3A

Student Number: 4021D015

Internship Company: Okinawa Zanpamisaki Royal Hotel

Report Date: 31/05/2016

Introduction to Internship Company and Internship

(1)Internship Company

Okinawa Zanpamisaki Royal Hotel ( as known as Zanpa) is a chain hotel of Daiwa Resorts (大和リゾート) in Japan. At the same time, Daiwa Resorts is under the banner of Daiwa House Group, which is a famous housebuilder and was one of Top 100 companies in Japan. Thus, Zanpa is a well-known hotel and quite popular with Japanese and overseas tourists in Okinawa, Japan.

There are two banquet hall in Zanpa; one is Precious Hall, which is the largest banquet hall in Okinawa, and the other one is Royal Hall. Most of the banquets are all held in Precious Hall. There are five restaurants, a Karaoke named Triangle, and a lounge bar named Emerald in the hotel, and all of them (includes banquet) all subordinate to Department of F&B. The five restaurants are French cuisine restaurant named “La Phare”, buffet restaurant named “Colonne”, Japanese cuisine restaurant named “Hanaui” (花織), Chinese cuisine restaurant named “Ryūsui” (柳翠) and barbeque restaurant named “Royal Palm.”

(2)Internship

For interns like us, we have to work as either a bellboy or a server in Department of F&B. A bellboy has to work in lobby to take customers’ suitcases and lead them to front desk to check in. After checking in, the bellboy also has to take the suitcases to the customers’ room. In addition, a bellboy sometimes has to be a doorman if there are tourist cars waiting;on the other hand, the interns of Department of F&B will work in Colonne or Hanaui or Ryūsui or Royal Palm, and there will be job rotation 6 to 8 months later after the internship starts. That is to say, one intern must work in two restaurants of the four mentioned.

Besides, the interns of Department of F&B worksin not only restaurant but also banquet if there’s lack of human resource. The F&B interns also have to work in breakfast and lunch sometimes as well. Therefore, F&B interns learns much more than bellboys but they are more tired as well.

Market Strategies

(1)4Ps

Product

In Zanpa, the main product certainly is room; on the other hand, the food and beverage are the products as well. For F&B, the main income comes from banquets. For example, a banquet costs more than ¥3,000,000 on average (approximately $27,000).

Price

The net price of the room is about ¥6,000 to more than 12,000 (price includes breakfast, which is about ¥1,800). The price of each restaurant is different, but customers can buy meal ticket (¥3,600 each) at the front desk. The content of the meal ticket is better than that of paying cash because there will be something special if customers use the ticket.

Promotion

If there are still empty room or suits, the staffs will ask customers whether they would like to pay a little more so that they can be upgraded. There will also be some special events to sell more beverages to guests in the restaurants. For example, there is a Highball event in Royal Palm, where I am working. When I introduce the menu to guest, I also have to try to sell Highball or Whiskey in order to make profits; of course, the price is cheaper than usual.

Place

The main guests come from Japan and oversea. Most of the overseas customers come from Taiwan, then Hong-Kong, and then Korea. For some Japanese or overseas guests, most of them book the rooms on the Internet inclusive of websiteof Zanpa or such booking websites as Rakuten or Agoda etc., and for the rest of them are all via travel agency.

(2)Target Customer Segmentation

The main guests of Zanpa are Japanese and foreigners from Taiwan, Hong-Kong, and Korea. The customers who book the rooms on their own on the website can choose whether they want to have dinner in Zanpa. If they choose the plan concluding dinner, they will get a meal ticket when they check in. On the other hand, the foreign tourists who come here with tour group must get a meal ticket as well.

There are mainly four kinds of tickets in Zanpa; ticket A, B, C, Op.C (Option C). Ticket A is the commonest one because the price of is the cheapest, and most of the guests who take ticket A are Japanese in tour group.For ticket A, the guests can only have dinner in Colonne, Ryūsui, and Royal Palm. Ticket B is not common so there is not any ticket B most of the day. Ticket C is also common because most of the foreign customers get it. The guests with ticket C can go to all of the restaurant and don’t need to pay extra charge.

Therefore, the main method Zanpa uses to separate customer segmentation is by meal ticket.

(3)Market Segmentation

It’s said that Okinawa is an island which is appropriate for people to go on vacation. Thus, there are a lot of well-known hotels in Okinawa; for instance, there are Marriot, Hilton and so on. Zanpa is also famous but it might be less famous than Marriot or Hilton because it’s a Japanese chain. However, Zanpa is an older hotel; it was built in 1988, which is quite historical. Therefore, Zanpa is a trustable brand to Japanese.

Due to this reason, the main guests are Japanese. When it’s such holiday in Japanese as Spring vacation, Golden week or Summer vacation etc., most of the Japanese guests from main land Japan come to visit Okinawa. One of the famous hotels they choose is Zanpa.

Hence, we can know that the market segmentation aims to Japanese customers.

Product or Service Characteristics

(1)Product Characteristics

During July 2015 to March 2016, I worked in the buffet restaurant Colonne, the main product is food and beverage. We don’t have to provide too much service to the guests because it’s a buffet restaurant. The service we provide is taking guests to their seat, introducing the beverage menu, taking orders of drinks, serving the drinks and clearing the tables.

Fromthis March, I was transferred to the barbecue restaurant Royal Palm. In Royal Palm, there are three kinds of meal provided; a la carte, buffet style and set menu. There is more service we servers provide but still almost the same as what I did in Colonne. Only when the guests order meal by a la carte or set menu do we offer our service.

(2)Service Characteristics

Working in the buffet restaurant Colonne, the servers don’t have to provide too much service to the guests because it’s a buffet restaurant. The service we provide is taking guests to their seat, introducing the beverage menu, taking orders of drinks, serving the drinks and clearing the tables. That is to say, it’s quite simple to work in Colonne because the only skill I have to learn is to keep the beverage on the tray stable and remember the guest’s orders.

When working in the barbecue restaurant Royal Palm,the difference between Colonne is set menu. When the guests order set menu, we take the dishes to their seat and prepare dessert after their meal. Thus, it’s not that different from working in Colonne except for clearing the table after guest leave. In Royal Palm, we must reset the table setting and the iron plate which is used to cook meat.

Business Analysis

In Japan, the beginning of a new year is April. Therefore, the business analysis is separated into two parts; first half of the fiscal year (from April to September) and second half of the fiscal year (from October to March).

The first half of the fiscal year is the busier of the two because there are Golden week (the first week of May) and summer vacation (from July to August) in it. On the other hand, the second half of the fiscal year is less busy because there’s only Lunar Year and spring vacation in it, which are short.

In Zanpa, there are five chief revenue: room, food, beverage,souvenir shop, and others (including events and so on). The cost price rate of each is 10%, 25~30%, 20%, 63% and 50% (the statistics will be shown as a chart below). In the first half of the fiscal year, the main revenue comes from room because there are many guests staying in Zanpa during their vacation. Although there are a lot of guests having their meal and holding banquets during this period, the cost of human resource is also high so the revenue is not the source of revenue. On the other hand, the main revenue comes from food & beverage because there are less customers coming to Zanpa in the second half of the fiscal year.Hence, it can be known that different strategies are used in the first half of the fiscal year and the second half of the fiscal year.

Chart 1. The chief revenue of Zanpamisaki Royal Hotel

Item / Cost Price Rate
Room / 10%
Food / 25~30%
Beverage / 20%
Souvenir Shop / 63%
Others / 50%

On-job Training

When we came at first, the staffs of Zanpa only taught us some Hospitality Japanese and some manners. After that, we started to work at night. Thus, we almost learned and are trained through job.

There are also lectures that we must take. We take it once two weeks, and it lasts for one hour. The lectures are all about the concept of Daiwa Resorts, and there are a variety of real examples which happened in other Royal Hotels so that we can know how to improve our service and avoid customers’ complaint after learning them.

Feedback and Suggestions

(1)Internship Feedback

From March 21st, I got job rotation so I was transferred to the barbecue restaurant “Royal Palm.” Although I worked in Royal Palm sometime before, it was just a short time during my work time. For instance, originally I worked in Colonne, but Royal Palm got busy so I was called to help them serve customers. After that, I returned to Colonne until everything was finished. Thus, I was nervous at first because I didn’t know most of the things in Royal Palm. All I know was providing service and changing the iron plate. I didn’t even know the number of the seats or the recipe of cocktails.

However, one of my colleagues who also graduated from NKUHT taught me what to do and how to do the things at first. The owner of Royal Palm also taught me how to greet the guest and introduce the menu to them on the first day, which helped me a lot. Therefore, I got used to it quickly. On the other hand, Royal Palm also provides buffet which is quite similar to Colonne, so it wasn’t that difficult than I have imagined.

From the beginning of April, there was a rotation of other colleagues who are not interns. Thus, some new members came to Royal Palm and I felt not stressful than before because the former coworkers made me nervous when I worked. However, the person who is responsible for Royal Palm quit at the end of April because of some severe reasons, so there are only three people working in Royal Palm now, which makes the situation tough. Sometimes there will be someone coming to help us but we are still busy when many guests have meal here.Luckily, I am familiar with Royal Palm now, so I can do more things and know what to do than the time when I was transferred to Royal Palm. I often feel happy and satisfied when I can help my colleagues instead of being a burden who encumber them.

Recently, I also got tips from a Japanese guest, which is not easy because they don’t give tips to servers in their culture. The reason why the guest gave me tips because I sent them beverages correctly to each one of them in their group. Actually, I didn’t take the order of theirs, but my colleague asked me to send the drinks after she made them and she also told me whose drinks were them. After sending drinks to the customers, they were surprised why I could remember whose order was that, and then they talked to me and realized that I am an intern who comes from Taiwan in Zanpa. Before leaving, they called me to not only give me tips but also encourage me a lot. I was so glad that I could provide good service to them and also I seized the opportunity that my coworker gave me.

On May 17th, there were a couple of foreign guests coming to Royal Palm to have dinner, and because most of my colleagues don’t speak English, I was responsible for greeting them and serving them. At first, I introduced the menu to them and took the order. After that, they asked my name and also introduced themselves (they are Kevin and Sue). We had some short talk and they told me they became grandparents on that day, which was really a good news. When finishing their meal, Kevin pointed me and told the cashier “Sean is the best waiter in the world.” I was so thrilled because Kevin really felt satisfied with my service. What’s more, the next day they came to Royal Palm to have meal as well. I was also happy to serve them because they came again. I really got a huge sense of achievement from this unforgettable experience.

In fact, before I knew the result of rotation, the restaurant I didn’t want to work in the most was Royal Palm because it’s similar to Colonne and the smell of barbecue is bad. However, after working in Royal Palm, I don’t think like before because I know that the most important thing to do is to offer my service as good as possible like in Colonne. I think I have really grown up mentally.

When I just came to Okinawa and started my internship, I was always nervous and anxious because I didn’t know what to do and anyone here. Nevertheless, now I am able to get used to a new environment less strenuous and more concentrate on my job instead of worrying a lot of things. Hence, I am really glad to be here to have my internship done and have gained numerous precious experiences during the year in Okinawa. In addition, I learned how to save money and make good use of my salary, which made me be able to travel to other countries and expand my horizon.

Although I don’t think I will come back to Zanpa to work in the future, I will certainly come back to visit my colleagues here because they all treat me well and take good care of me during this year. What’s more, I like this relaxing and attractive country and the atmosphere here. I can definitely say that this is one of the most unforgettable experiences of my lives which made me experience a lot of things that I didn’t have to chance to do before as well.

Now, there are only about forty more days to stay in Okinawa. In the beginning, I wanted to go back Taiwan as soon as possible every day, but now all I want to do is to obtain more memories during the last month and cherish every moment here with everyone who work with me.

Eventually, I really appreciate everybody who has helped me before I took the interview, before I came to Okinawa, and also my coworkers in Zanpa. Without those who have helped, I might not be able to get the chance smoothly and become mature so much. On the other hand, through this internship, I realize that being a student is the happiest thing in the world. To be a student is not that pressured and a student doesn’t have to worry so much things. Accordingly, I will pay more attention to the courses when I go back to school and treasure the time of being a student.

(2)Suggestions

For the interns last year, they got job rotation in January, which is two months earlierthan ours.That is to say, we only work in the new restaurant for approximately three months. Although I prefer to stay at the former restaurant longer, it would be better to transfer after six months so that interns can have more time to learn more in the new restaurant.

On the other hand, for myself, I felt a little bit dull to work in Colonne because I almost did the same thing every day at the last one or two months before rotation. Hence, I think that working at the same restaurant for six months may be appropriate.

In my opinion, interns don’t have to work only in F&B or in front office because it’s almost the same in the whole year. Interns in F&B will be transferred to different restaurant so we won’t feel bored but interns work as bellboys must do the same thing and stay at the same position the whole year. Therefore, if we can exchange to different department instead of different restaurant, I am sure that we interns will be able to lean more things.

Last but not least, I think the salary should be made some changes as well. Now the wage we get per hour is even 100 Japanese yen fewer than the part-timers here. If the wage can be raised the same as part-times, I think we can save more money and get more benefits. Although it might not be changed in a short period because of the contract matter, I really hope that the interns in the future can have better treatment.

Photos

Picture 1. Royal Palm / Picture 2. Colleagues in Zanpa
Picture 3. Farewell Party for Manager / Picture 4. Teachers’ Visiting
Picture 5. Travelling in Fukuoka / Picture 6. Celebrating the 300th Day