How to clean properly

Welcoming guests

Silver service

What happens with events

Deal with bookings

https://crownspahotel.com

https://www.householdstaff.agency/role/head-housekeeper/

https://tourism.excelia-group.com/sectors-careers/sectors-are-recruiting-your-talent-thousands-opportunities/head-receptionist

https://www.xenia.team/learning-center/hotel-food-and-beverage-director

This is achieved through being Scarborough's preferred:

• Hotel, Conference and Leisure Venue, by striving to go beyond the accepted expected quality, service and standards of the industry and the 4 star AA standards and the FIA. Their target is being in the high quality section of the AA standards score (presently quality standard scores of 70% or more.

• Hotel & Leisure Employer, by being an exemplary business, creating a organisational culture that enables people to exceed their own expectations and our company's through relevant training, development and empowerment.

• Hotel & Leisure Customer, by treating our suppliers as valued stakeholders in the business, discharging liabilities and resolving disputes as a professional caring forthright organisation; there by treating them as we ourselves as an organisation would wish to be treated; in a fair and equitable manner.

• Hotel & Leisure Business Best Practice Example, by setting goals based around customer focus, efficiently planning and controlling the operations, partnering and networking, having clear internal and external communication, setting and achieving consistent standards, managing the workforce effectively and performance and management benchmarking and with a culture that embraces the challenge and change, and adapts to new policies and procedures and technology in a constructive and professional manner.

• The hotel offers a variety of rooms that suit the different needs and budgets of guests, such as solo travelers with single standard rooms, or couples with double beds and families that can be accommodated up to four people in a room. Some of the rooms may have the beautiful view of the South Bay, and others with beautiful historical architecture that features the original details from when the hotel was first built. Rooms o matter the standard will consist of including a tv, seating area, bathroom with bath and shower, and amenities tray, and obviously additional things may be added to the more expensive larger rooms such as different lighting and bathrobes. Here is the description on the official website of a larger more expensive “Deluxe Twin/King Sea View”:Our Deluxe Twin/King Sea view are all located on the 1st floor looking out to sea. Indulge in the grand Victorian styled rooms, with a spacious feel. Bathrooms have double ended bathtub and rain fall showers, toiletries, free Wi-Fi, freeview TV, media connections, tea and coffee making facilities, and digital safe. All rooms benefit from large windows and sea views. (https://crownspahotel.com/rooms/)

Events:

• Weddings are a common event that take place at the Crown Spa, and there website accommodates to enquiries and shows and overall of what you may expect. They offer all inclusive wedding packages that can be catered based on budget, with planners having over 30 years of experience handling all of the details and catering to our design to make the perfect day. The hotel has a range of function rooms with bars, and The Grand Ballroom, and Spa suite and beuitiful views as the wedding backdrop, also being a hotel, they have their restaurant and culinary team that can offer a relaxed formal sit-down dinner or cocktail reception, buffet etc with a team that make you not have any extra worries throughout your special day. An additional positive to having your wedding here is that guests can stay on-site in the rooms useful for those that may have traveled far, and also giving them an accessible place to get ready before the event. (https://crownspahotel.com/weddings/)

Restaurant/Cafe:

• Taste is the name of the restaurant/cafe bar area which can be used by guests and the public. They have set times for breakfast which is continental &full English breakfast being 7-10am Monday-Friday and 8-10:30 weekends. Dinner is 6-9, cafe bar 10am-11pm for non-residents, however for guests beverages are 24 hour as-well as cold sandwiches and hot food 12-9pm. Alongside their range of European items on the menus they offer a booking afternoon tea with selection of sandwiches and homemade treats which is £18.95 per person or £23.90pp for one that includes prosecco, these are very popular at the hotel and they ca cater to any size of groups wether it is just for the 2 people or a large group. (https://crownspahotel.com/hotel-facilities/restaurant-and-bar/)

Leisure:

• Downstairs of the hotel they offer a Health club & Spa which is a tranquil space for guests and members of the public. Here they have a gym, saunas, pool, hot tub, spa treatment areas and classes ran by members of the team. Guests have access to everything and can pay an extra fee for treatments if they book in advance, however members of the public can pay for monthly memberships starting at £50, 3 months for £140 or an annual membership from £480 which all include full access to the gym, access to fitness classes, a gym induction, full access to the leisure facilities including a pool, jacuzzi, 2 saunas, steam room and ice room, a complimentary towel and personal trainers. (https://crownspahotel.com/hotel-facilities/health-club-and-spa/)

Key cards are something used by everyone in the hotel, guests and staff but for different things. Staff members carry key cards on them to enter locked doors, such as private rooms and offices, which helps keep important files in a safe environment and not accessible by guests or anyone else that may try to enter. On the other hand, upon arrival guests are given a key card when they check in for their stay, which allows them to enter their room only. This is a good safety feature that all hotels have as it means only the specific guests can enter their room and not anyone else that shouldn’t be.

For the money security, tills are connected to computers in each of the departments and have codes to access them which only staff members are given, therefore no guests or anyone else is able to take money. At the end of the days all money is also then stored in safes with locks that again only specific members of staff will have the code to.

In both the reception room, and staffroom there are also lockers for personal use, giving all staff members a safe place to store all of their personal belongings where they know they can’t be touched as they come with keys that they can carry with them until they need to access it again.

The General Data protection Regulation’s came into force on May 25th 2018. As a result of significant advances in IT and the changing ways in which we all communicate and share information, EU member states have introduced the GDPR in order to harmonise data protection laws and strengthen the level of protection afforded to individuals.

Confidentiality within the workplace is referring to the ethical and legal obligation the business takes to ensure the protection of any sensitive information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. If employees know that their information they are giving is handled securely it will gain trust towards the employers which can help creating a safe, productive work environment. Some examples of what confidential information would be for the employee is things such as, any of their personal information, salary, medical records etc. For the business this would be things like financial reports, and trade secrets, marketing strategies etc.

• This stands for the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations, which is a required Uk legislation for employers where they have to control the exposure of the hazardous chemicals that may be used in the workplace. In specific relation to the hotel itself every single department at the crown spa will use it but will be different for each and they know which chemicals should be used in the different areas, and some may need stronger cleaning chemicals such as the spa. The spa is downstairs and they have a pool, therefore this department has their own COSHH book in comparison to what may be used to clean rooms, for example the pool and spa will use acid. In case of accidents COSHH forms are to be filled out, as they are a risk assessment document that that evaluate the risks, and outline control measures to protect people in the workplace place from any harm e.g fumes, chemicals etc. These are important as you would give the specific form to emergency services when they arrive so they know exactly what chemicals have caused harm, making it easier and safer to treat.

RIDDOR

• This stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, which is a law in the Uk that requires anyone in a workplace to report any of their work related incidents like diseases, dangerous occurrences, fatalities etc and is very important that this is done to help understand where and how risks arise in the workplace allowing those in authority to take action and prevent similar things from happening again or elsewhere. At the hotel the head of department are in charge of reporting accidents to RIDDOR, as it is them who are responsible of their employees in the specific departments they run. Alongside this they will organise regular health and safety meetings that will take place every couple of months as to make sure everyone is on top of the expectations.

Alert 65

• The Crown Spa Hotel have a specific app called alert 65, which is for all staff members to have, which connects them to different elements for different areas of the hotel such as checklists, weekly tasks, monthly tasks, audited for food twice a year, health and safety and fire once a year, ensuring everything is complete on time. Any injuries that happen in the hotel, will be uploaded to this app to ensure they are recorded.

Staff Training

• With the specific example of a fire drill, the GM will gather each department for what there procedures will include. Reception, will have to print off a list of all disabled members that are staying in the hotel to ensure they are out safely, and will cash out the tills. Housekeeping staff will have to move trolleys, anything else in the way to make a safe exit with no hazards, kitchen will need to turn off all the gas, and when each department gains new staff, the HOD’s should train them on what their specific roles will include in case of this emergency.

Links:

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/

• 9 protected characteristics under the act

• Disability

• Age

• Sexual orientation

• Race

• Religion/belief

• Pregnancy and maternity

• Marriage and civil partnership

• Gender reassignment

• Sex equality (male,female)

Equality: This refers to treating people fairly in a way that reflects their needs and ensure there is equal opportunity given out to everyone, no matter the differences, discrimination is not okay. It means giving every group the same resources, freedom of expression, equal access, liberties and status for them to achieve all goals they want in life.

Diversity: This is about valuing all individuals and recognising the differences we have among us in society, from all different groups that come from all walks of life. This includes appreciating peoples backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and characteristics. It involves ensuring everyone feels included and respected so they are able to contribute all of their own unique talents to a workplace, maximising potential for all.

Inclusion: This is an important element within a workplace that all employers and managers should be embracing to make every member of staff feel valued and important. It is the process of providing all members of an organisation with equal access to the professional resources and opportunities. this can be done by creating a sense of belonging by forming bonds within the team so everyone has a feeling they are useful and needed, as well as making them feel valued for what they are contributing, and offering a range of development opportunities.

Examples of Discrimination:

• if a workplace has no disabled facilities that make it impossible for someone with a disability to work there.

• if someone is treated unfairly due to their race, such as lack opportunities, biased hiring practices or receiving racial harassment comments which can leave them uncomfortable.

• women being given a lower pay than men for doing the same job.

• https://www.hrdept.co.uk/services/diversity-inclusion-equality-workplace

Dress Code: Black trousers/skirt with a white blouse

Sickness Procedure: If you are to be absent from work you must:

• Telephone the Hotel (01723357400) at the earliest possible opportunity ( at-least 1 hour before the scheduled shift)

• make the call yourself

• Speak to the manager on duty or the HOD

• Do not communicate the absence by leaving a message

• give the following details to the manger on duty:

  1. Your name

  2. Department and Position

  3. What time your shift is due to start

Thursday afternoon was just spent in the reception doing extra jobs and continuing to find out information about the hotel that would help me with this assignment, i also did this on Friday and was pretty much the same.

- The positive things i have taken away from my placement is the experience of working around a hotel, although it is not specifically what i want to do i got to see what it is like to have so many different departments in one establishment and how they are managed overall and individually.

- Another overall positive is just getting some form of experience where i worked for a week without getting payed, as i have never done something like this and although it dragged on and doesn’t seem worth it without the money it has helped me learn more values.

- Negative aspects of this experience was potentially the lack of it, where i was not given a lot of tasks throughout the week that could have broadened out my range of skills, and i just followed around others or was left with things I didn’t really understand with no help which made me feel uncomfortable and out of place.

• Best Moment:

- My best moment was probably being behind the bar and contributing to making coffees and cold drinks and also waitressing around the restaurant area as i already have previous experience so it made me feel confident in doing something.

• Worst Moment:

- My worst moments were probably when i was in reception which seemed to be everyday as this was just very boring and i don't think i learnt a lot or nearly anything as i just scanned old sheets and receipts, this just made the week drag longer. Also although i liked being in the housekeeping it was very very warm which I didn’t like as it felt more tiring to clean all the rooms as there is no air-conditioning in such an old hotel.

• What Tasks I Enjoyed:

- As i have previously said i enjoyed the tasks behind the bar, and housekeeping, pretty cut anything that made me feel like I was actually contributing and physically doing something to help. As well as this i enjoyed being allowed to roam around the hotel freely when collecting information about it as i learnt and as a lot more things than i had done previously in the week in the specific departments.

• Adaptability - I gained a new experience of working in different departments and adapting to the specific tasks they do each day.

• Professionalism - I developed a new understanding of the standards within hospitality especially a hotel, such a punctuality, presentation, politeness and patience.

• Time management - I improved on what i need to prioritise and completing things within a short timeframe like preparing rooms for guests quickly, and setting up areas for dining such as the afternoon tea.

• There are a lot of transferable skills that can be taken away from this specific job to any other, such as teamwork. In a hotel teamwork is a valuable skill needed as if all members of staff collaborate well it allows the products and service given to us timers to be satisfactory as everyone is on the same page, creating a friendly environment in the workplace. Communication is another important skill, good for jobs that involve speaking with the customer, as it allows you to talk confidently with them, ad provide a top service to the customer giving them what they want, and upselling them further products. Finally problem solving is a very important skill within any workplace, because if an issue arises you are then the one able to figure out the solution quickly before it escalates rather than waiting for someone else to, which becomes valuable for you and your team.

• completing this week of work experience has made me realise that at the moment this career path is not for me, however this may just be because i felt my week was wasted and i didn't learn the skills of being in a hotel that i expected to be doing. In general i have thought about a career that involves customer service, such as cabin crew which would be similar in some ways, however to get a better impression on hotel work, I would need to go to a different establishment with a set focus on which department i want to be in, as this way i will receive a different experience and one that actually relates to a potential career i would like.

Monday - Friday

9am-12pm, 1 hour lunch break, 1pm-4pm finish