Feeling like a million.

Kaikki päättyy aikanaan ja tällä viikolla oli minun ja Sokos hotellin vuoro..haikein mielin kohti uusia, onnellisia tarinoita! Nämä ei ollut kuitenkaan jäähyväiset, koska palaan Pietariin marraskuussa ja Sokos Hotels saattaa olla tulevaisuudessa työnantajani, aika näyttää, mihinpäin tarinani kehittyy.

F&B / FO

My job at the Food&Beverage department included breakfast shifts, a la carte Fransmanni, individuals and groups, also helped out at the bar. I participated monthly staff meetings, different trainings, helped to prepare and manage banquets, corporate dinners, special occasions and conferences. Delivered room service, prepared bills, took payments and offered customer service to ensure guests' satisfaction.

What did I do at the Front Office?

I followed standard procedures during check-in and check-out, the operating system used was mainly Opera. I answered customers' questions, dealt with complaints and requests, helped our customers to navigate on the map, also answered questions about the hotel, our offers and the city overall. Checking customers in and out on some days was quite small part of my day. I also worked at the back office and made some registrations and familiarized myself with the operating systems.

So, how do I feel now?

I think I got to know a lot during my time. One of main reasons was that I don’t study hotel or tourism, but I study business, so basically I felt that everything I was introduced was new for me. I know a lot about customer service and I can figure out, when a business isn’t worth the effort, but the real job at the restaurant or behind the front office was an entire new world for me. My motivation to work at this Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden was to gain insight about the business, how does it work, how does the communications between different departments function. I also wanted to have a better knowledge of Russian language and I think that towards the end I was able to communicate a lot better with our staff and with our customers in Russian.

I think that now I have a managed to absorb as many information of different departments and the daily tasks of them, that I can draw a draft for myself, how is the hotel business like in this Sokos Hotel and probably also the same framework can be applied to many other hotels. I learned to multitask a lot better, but I also noticed that when you make a mistake, then make it your first priority, because if you forget about, it will be unfortunate for the people, who are trying to solve something you have caused, but failed to inform anyone about it.

During this summer I learned to operate micros (in the restaurant) and at the front office my understanding of Opera did improve a lot. Many times I didn’t know how to do something or didn’t understand people, but I think my positive attitude helped me a lot, even with the trickiest of customers in the restaurant or at the reception, because not a single customer gave me direct negative feedback.

I saw people from many cultures and it was very interesting to see them operate, because sometimes it was very different than one is used to, but after a while, you become accustomed to it.

I would consider that I have gained an overall image of hotel’s operations and that it is a lot to do with teamwork. At our workplace I met Russians and Uzbeks, who could either communicate in English or then not and I had to try and speak in Russian, with many customers I got to speak Estonian, Finnish and English – so all the three languages I understand quite well.

Moments worth remembering

There were a lot of moments, which I’ll remember for a long time – very many positive experiences and also some less amazing moments, but thankfully good experiences weight out the bad. During my internship a lot of things happened, I could almost write a thick book about it (not Under the Dome-like, but at least 500 pages I could fill).

I got to make some new friends, I had an awesome birthday set up by our restaurant manager, I had many good laughs with our customers, I could pitch into very interesting conversations and got to give a speech, participate in a farewell party, got to go to these trainings and meetings, also people seemed to care, how I am doing, so I truly felt like part of a family.

Спасибо!

Удивительный лето, новые воспоминания.

What an incredible journey: had some unique and unforgettable moments with some remarkable people, who I can now call friends. Bought a trainticket, packed my bags and also having a great work certificate in my back pocket..Quite ready to leave this city for now!