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Internship Essay

Part I. Background of the Organization


This past summer I decided to do my internship at the Holiday Inn Select in
downtown afayette. The facility was !uilt " years ago and was !uilt right in the center
of downtown. In the past year a hospitality group named Hostmark !ought out the hotel.
Howe#er$ Hostmark decided not to change the Holiday Inn Select name. Therefore$ e#en
though it is under the !rand name of the Holiday Inn it is ran according to all of the
Hostmark policies. The Holiday Inn Select is a full ser#ice hotel which includes many
structures. %mong these structures are a fine dining restaurant$ a martini lounge$ a pool$
gift shop$ !an&uet facilities$ meeting spaces$ physical fitness facility$ and of a course a
laundry room. Hostmark as a company highly #alues employees and their commitment
to the company. The mission statement of the hotel is as follows'(Hostmark
hospitality group is a management and de#elopment company committed to e)cellence of
ser#ice in the hospitality industry$ while ma)imizing profita!ility through concern for its
associates$ customers$ and in#estors.( % few of Hostmark*s core #alues include
commitment$ open and interacti#e atmosphere$ sense of family+!elonging to a team$
concern for indi#idual growth and de#elopment$ and integrity. Therefore$ Hostmark
highly #alues their employees well !eing and they want them to succeed as well as ha#e
an all around open am!iance for the employees to !e around. %nother key character of
the management philosophy that Hostmark carries out is that they want all employees to
!e a!le to make their own decisions. Since it is a full ser#ice hotel the general manager
cannot !e e#erywhere at once to make decisions for e#ery department. Therefore$ the
employees should !e trained to handle ,ust a!out any situation that may arise including
pro!lems with guests or other personnel. -e)t I want to talk a!out what sort of !usiness
clientele the hotel usually markets toward. Since the hotel was !uilt downtown near
Purdue .ni#ersity the hotel tries to !ring in a lot of !usiness from the .ni#ersity. /hen
school is in session during the fall and winter months parents of students and fans of the
uni#ersity sports are mainly targeted. Since the hotel was !uilt they ha#e !een !ooked at
0112 occupancy for e#ery home Purdue foot!all game. %lso$ the hotel markets towards
families and Purdue .ni#ersity parents toward mo#e in times for Purdue students. 3or
e)ample the hotel is informed a!out the acti#ity that the uni#ersity runs for !oiler gold
rush week. They realize that the parents will need a place to stay while they are mo#ing
their children in so they ad#ertise the hotel hea#ily at that time of year to !ring in that
clientele. 4o#ing on to the summer months$ during the hotels off peak season$ they !ring
in !usiness clients as well as !an&uet e#ent guest much more. 5uring the summer
months most of the students at the uni#ersity lea#e and go home lea#ing the hotel for less
!usiness. Howe#er$ in the summertime many people find it a great time to get married
and since the Holiday Inn Select downtown has one of the !est !an&uet facilities around
this is good news for them. E#ery Saturday starting in the month of 4ay the hotel is
!ooked up for weddings which in turn gets the guests to stay in the hotel and generate
room re#enue. 4o#ing on to the competition in the area$ the Holiday Inn*s largest two
competitors are the Hilton 6arden Inn and The .nion hotel. The .ni#ersity Inn in /est
afayette is not considered competition !ecause Hostmark owns them as well so the two
hotels try to work together as often as possi!le. The Hilton 6arden in is located right on
campus at the !ottom of 7hauncey hill and it also has a prestigious name !acking it. The
!est thing a!out that hotel is the fact that it is located right on campus and anyone would
!e a!le to find it. %lso$ it is great location for people to stay during foot!all or !asket!all
games !ecause it is such a close walk and there are also many different restaurant choices
right around it. The .nion hotel is also a huge competition to the Holiday Inn Select.
Since it is located right in the middle of campus it draws many guests in !ut it also has a
wonderful !an&uet facility which pro#ides the Holiday Inn with a lot of competition. The
.nion !allrooms can hold up to 811 guests where as the ma)imum at the Holiday in is
only a!out 911 people. Therefore$ people who want to ha#e larger weddings end up
ha#ing to go to the .nion. -ationally$ the highest competitors with the Holiday Inn are
Hilton$ 4arriot$ and Hyatt. These hotels all ha#e prestigious names and guests like to
stay in hotels that they know will !e comforta!le. 4any guests ha#e a good or !ad
e)perience in a !rand hotel which can make or !reak their trust for that certain chain.
Therefore$ if a guest has always stayed in a 4arriot and they lo#e it then they may ne#er
get the Holiday Inn facilities a chance.
Part II. 4anagement$ Training$ and Employee Information
The #ery first day that I started at the Holiday Inn Select there was a small
employee orientation. The Human :esources manager at the hotel went o#er the
employee hand!ook with all of the interns and we had to sign a lot of papers saying that
we consented and would follow the different policies. /e also had to go o#er all of our
ta) information and sign a !unch of paper work and fill out things a!out our pay rate and
our address so if they needed to mail our checks they could do so. %fter we filled out all
of the paper work and went o#er the hand!ook another woman then ga#e us a tour of the
entire hotel and then we got a chance to eat lunch with all of the super#isors. 3rom the
time I was hired until the time I started things seemed #ery unorganized. I did not recei#e
#ery much information from anyone when I called a!out when we were supposed to meet
for the first time$ how I was supposed to dress$ ect' I was hired !y a man named 7ory
so when I would call to ask a!out information I would always ask for him and he didn*t
tell me until a!out two weeks !efore I started that I was supposed to !e asking all of the
hiring information to Shannin$ the Human :esources manager. There was a lot of
miscommunication !etween 7ory and Shannin I could tell !ecause sometimes they would
call me twice in the same day to tell me the same !it of information and e#erything
seemed #ery disorganized. %nother thing that I didn*t find out until the day that I showed
up for orientation was what departments I would !e in throughout my internship. I was
hired at the !eginning of the summer and they had time to plan out the internship !ut they
couldn*t e#en tell me what I was going to !e doing the week !efore my internship had
started. Throughout my internship I did many different departments all which re&uired
different training. The first department I was in was !an&uets. Brian Snyder$ the catering
manager had all of the interns follow him for a couple of days !efore we started ser#ing
in the actual !an&uets. He wanted us to get a feel for what it was all a!out and what he
e)pected out of us. He also wanted us to !e a!le to see his ,o! and let us consider if it
was something that we may e#entually want to do. Once we got to work in the actual
!an&uet !y ser#ing in a wedding we were trained !y actually doing it. In our first ser#e$
we were told throughout the ser#e what to do and we did not ha#e trainers it was ,ust
whate#er the !an&uet captain told us to do we would do and e#entually we !egan to pick
up on it. %t the time that I did my rotation through the !an&uet facilities at Holiday Inn
they were e)tremely short staffed and needed people. Therefore$ the training was lacking
and I did not get trained as properly as I would ha#e liked too. The ne)t department that I
was mo#ed to was housekeeping. /hile I was in the housekeeping session I came in the
first morning and Tiffany Palacio$ the head of housekeeping showed me around all of the
housekeeping facilities including the laundry room. %fter gi#ing me a tour she then left
me with a woman named 4argarita who spoke little to no English at all to gi#e me
instructions on the proper way to fold sheets and towels. Since I could not understand
4argarita I &uickly learned !y watching how to fold these items properly. %nother
department that I #isited was the front desk. In order to learn the front desk you must
learn a!out the computer system and how to run it. The first day that I was in the front
desk rotation I had to watch many different #ideos showing me step !y step how to use
the computer system. The ne)t day I went up to the front desk and was trained !y a
super#isor named Emma. She showed me more on how to use the computer and let me
try to check in guests and check them out as well as do other things that they must do on
a regular !asis at the front desk. By the end of the week I had learned enough to !e a!le
to na#igate through a lot of the minor things you must !e a!le to do to work at the front
desk. %ll in all$ I thought that the training during my internship lacked a lot of su!stance.
%t some points in the internship I felt that my trainers e)pected me to already know what
I was doing coming into the ,o! !ut that was not the case.
Part III. Specific ;o! Information
Throughout my internship I did three different departments. These departments
included< Ban&uets$ housekeeping$ and front desk. The first department I would like to
discuss is !an&uets. The !an&uet facilities at the Holiday Inn Select include a personal
catering ser#ice to e#ents such as weddings and anni#ersaries to meeting spaces for
people needed to discuss !usiness e#ents. Since I was interning I always had a!out "1
hours a week in the !an&uets department$ howe#er$ most of the regular !an&uet
employees only recei#ed a!out 08=>1 hours depending on the e#ents that were going on
that week. /hile I was in !an&uets there were only a!out 8 employees that were not
interning. Of those 8 employees two of them were what are called !an&uet captains.
Ban&uet captains are !asically people that run+manage the e#ent and are in charge of
making sure e#erything goes as it should. The head super#isor or the catering manager
was named Brian Snyder. Brian has only !een running the !an&uet facilities at Holiday
Inn for less than a year so he was relati#ely new at his ,o!. Brian has a #ery up!eat
personality and for the most part always remained #ery positi#e. Howe#er$ Brian ne#er
attended any of the e#ents to make sure that e#erything was !eing done at nights or on
weekends. He left the !usiest e#ents up to his !an&uet captains and ne#er checked to
assure e#erything was going as planned and all of the guests were satisfied. The two
!an&uet captains were the people that I worked with the most !ecause they were there
during e#ery single e#ent. These captains would make sure that e#erything during the
e#ent ran smoothly and they would !e the ones to prepare the !ill and make sure
e#erything was paid for at the end of the night. I would say that their managing tactics
were to ,ust get their ,o! done. -either one of the captains were #ery concerned with
training new employees !ecause they were constantly !usy making sure that e#erything
was in place and running correctly the night of the e#ent which was always a huge ,o!.
The description of the position that I had during my time in !an&uets started out as a
ser#er and ended as a captain. %t first I was trained along with the other interns to ser#e
the guests at the e#ents including !ringing their food out as well as clearing all of their
plates. %fter a couple of weeks of ser#ing I got the chance to captain an e#ent and
actually !e in charge of one of the weddings. Instead of ser#ing I had to make sure the
!uffet was set up properly$ cut the cake$ talk to the contact at the wedding as well as the
5.;. and make sure that e#eryone was ha#ing a good time and e#erything was in place.
4o#ing on to the staffing part of !an&uets? it was not staffed ade&uately !y any means.
5uring the e#ents ser#ers were constantly running around !ecause there ,ust weren*t
enough of them to make the e#ent run as smoothly as it should ha#e. The department
would hire most of it*s employees !y doing one &uick short inter#iew. They didn*t look
much into a lot of their employees. The turno#er was e)tremely high in !an&uets I
!elie#e part due to the fact that the new people ne#er recei#ed proper training and they
were always understaffed so they recei#ed a !ad impression right away and were
o#erwhelmed. I also think that the high turno#er had to do with the fluctuating hours that
you must put in to work at !an&uets. There is no such thing as a set schedule with
!an&uets !ecause it all depends on when the e#ents are and some people couldn*t handle
that. The only re&uirement for the employees hired was that they must !e a!le to work
weekends. 4ost of the employees were trained !y ,ust simply doing. @ou don*t get to
follow around or shadow someone they ,ust put you out on the floor and tell you what to
do. The scheduling was done in this department !y the two !an&uet captains and all of
the purchasing was done !y the general manager of the hotel.
4o#ing on to the ne)t department that I was in which was housekeeping. In the
housekeeping department at the hotel there were appro)imately >8 employees as well as
two e)ecuti#e housekeepers and the department head. /hile I was in this department I
had a set schedule of working A a.m. to 9 p.m. getting /ednesdays and Thursdays off
each week. The only area that I worked in while I was in this department was in the
laundry facility. The department head was named Tiffany Palacio. Tiffany has !een
working in the hotel since it opened four years ago and at one time was the director of
sales !efore she mo#ed to housekeeping. I would say that her management philosophy
was to !ecome friends with all of her employees and gain respect that way. Tiffany is
!ilingual and can speak fluent Spanish which allowed her to communicate with most of
the housekeeping staff. The !asic ,o! description of the position I had was working in
the laundry room. I was an actual person on staff in the laundry room and I would do
laundry as well as fold it and put it on carts for the housekeepers to use. I think that for
the most part that the housekeeping portion of the hotel was staffed ade&uately howe#er I
!elie#e they needed to hire at least two more people to work in the laundry room. There
were times when I had to work in the laundry !y myself and it was e)tremely hard to get
caught up on laundry !eing the only one that day. The housekeeping hires most of its
employees through recommendations and people knowing people. % lot of the people
who worked in housekeeping were either related in some way or were friends e#en !efore
they got their ,o!. The turno#er in housekeeping was actually relati#ely low. I !elie#e
this was due to the fact that most of the people who worked there en,oyed their ,o! and
they were doing what they wanted to do. There were no specific re&uirements for
employees that were hired in housekeeping. Tiffany Palacio did all of the purchasing for
housekeeping as well as the schedule. %ll in all I didn*t feel #ery challenged during this
portion of my internship !ecause I had to !asically fold laundry for eight hours of the day
and once I learned how to do that I felt that there wasn*t much else to learned. I wish
they would ha#e let me e)plore more areas of housekeeping than laundry !ecause I felt
that would ha#e !een much more !eneficial.
The final department that I went through was the front desk. /hile I worked at
front desk I also worked A a.m. to 9 p.m. There were a!out se#en front desk employees
and two front desk super#isors. The department head was 7ory ane and his
management philosophy was mainly to sit !ack and let the employees handle pro!lems
!y themsel#es. He trained his front desk super#isors well so that if there was a pro!lem
that arose when he could not !e there they always knew how to work it out. The ,o!
description of the position that I had was !asically the front desk attendant. I would take
reser#ations as well as check people in and out of the hotel$ and answer all incoming
phone calls. I !elie#e that the front desk department was staffed ade&uately !ecause
there was ne#er a pro!lem with there !eing too little people to get the ,o! done. The
front desk hires most of its employees !y going through applications and inter#iewing
different people. The turno#er at the front desk was relati#ely low I !elie#e !ecause the
training at the front desk was pretty efficient and once you get the computer down it is a
relati#ely easy ,o! to do. %gain$ most employees were trained !y watching #ideos and
learning how to use the computer !y the super#isor. %ll of the purchasing and scheduling
was done !y 7ory ane$ the front desk department head. %ll in all this department was
!y far the most strict department that I worked in at the hotel. I say this !ecause the front
desk is the first impression that the guest has of the hotel and 7ory took that #ery
seriously so he did not like it when people in training made mistakes while dealing with
guests.
Part IB. E#aluation and 7riti&ue
The ma,or strengths of the organization was the fact that it was such a !eautiful
facility. The Holiday Inn Select downtown has so much potential to !e an e)tremely
profita!le facility !ecause of the different amenities that it offers. The ma,or weaknesses
of the organization is that it has had to reco#er from switching to new owners$ and two
new general managers in the past four year period which calls for a ma,or shift in
management and sta!ility in the hotel. This challenge can either !e o#ercome !y the new
managers or they can allow it to !ring them and the entire hotel down. The o#erall #alue
of this internship I would say was good. I had ne#er worked in a hotel !efore doing this
internship and I got to see the main picture of how a full ser#ice hotel runs and what to
e)pect while working in one. Howe#er$ I !elie#e that there could ha#e !een more
!eneficial things done to prepare the interns for working in hotels in the future that I did
not learn. 3or e)ample$ in most of the departments I learned how to do the tasks of the
employees not the managers. I think that it is e)tremely important to learn how to do the
things that the main employees do !ut I also think it is essential that we get to take a
leadership role and should also !e challenged and faced with the same challenges that
managers in the hotel are !ecause those are the positions that we someday would like to
hold. If I could change something a!out this internship it would !e ,ust what I was
referring too$ we would get more management training rather than employee training. I
would also like to !e much more challenged than I felt that I was. 3or e)ample$ while in
the housekeeping portion of the internship I had to fold laundry for three weeks$ eight
hours a day. /hile folding in the laundry room I was forced to think a!out how that
e)perience would !enefit me later in life. I understand that it is important that I learn
what my employees ha#e to deal with so that I will !e a!le to relate to them !ut I don*t
understand how making me fold laundry for three weeks teaches me anything a!out what
I will ha#e to do when I !ecome a manager. Therefore$ for my ne)t internship I would
like to seek out a place that will challenge their interns not only to gi#e them hotel
e)perience !ut to gi#e them management e)perience.

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