Page 16 - ARUBA TODAY

A16 LOCAL
Monday 13 august 2018

Hotel Hustle

Column by: Shanella Pantophlet

The bearer of bad news

Have you ever noticed that whenever you’re in a hotel, most of the time
whenever you ask staff a question, even if the answer is in the negative they
do their utmost to avoid saying the word “no”. It’s actually one of the cardi-
nal rules of hospitality; there are certain words that are not in the hospitality
dictionary and the word “no” is second only to the words “I don’t know”.
I’ve gotten so used to not saying those words that whenever we have a
trainee or someone new and their first instinct is to answer with “no” or “I
don’t know”, I get an almost full body cringe.

Eliminating such easily used words from ones vocabulary is a great way to
challenge their creative thinking skills. You’re essentially forcing the person
to stop, think about what action is required from them or another depart-
ment and then providing an answer to the question or request at hand. It’s
not an easy thing to learn either, I’ve caught myself various times with the
first words out my own mouth being “no” before hastily backtracking once
my brain catches up to my mouth.

One of the facets of my job or anyone in a position of authority within the company is; to at times be the bearer of bad news, because honestly
whenever someone gets a no from a line employee they typically seek out the supervisor or manager to try and get a different answer. I believe
that the guests don’t always realize that if a line employee has said no, it’s usually based on consultation with their supervisor or department
head or based on specific knowledge of the hotels capacity at the time.

In my specific position in reservations, my assistant and I receive a lot of requests from guests about their assignments and from the time we get
the request up until usually the very last minute, until we absolutely have to send in the finalized reservation lists we’re working to see how we
can accommodate them. I had to specifically request a whiteboard so I could draw out various scenarios in my head and keep things straight.
My poor team have to sit and listen to me ramble on at times about room numbers and names and what ifs and to their credit they are great
sounding boards and advice givers if I find myself stuck.

We love when we get to provide a guest with good news or if we found a way to accommodate their request even if it isn’t exactly what they
asked for, but close enough. On those days we usually get a hug or a compliment from someone who is overjoyed at the assistance and it
makes us happy to be able to have helped someone. Other times though despite all the puzzles, the ramblings and the advice, we have to call
someone up and let them know, sorry but we couldn’t find a way to keep them in the same room or there are no ground floor rooms available
or there are no upgrades available. The reactions to that news is a mixed mystery bag, ranging from understanding and a thanks for our efforts
to at very rare times outrage and eventual acceptance.

We try our best on a daily basis to never have to be the bearers of bad news, but on the days where it can’t be avoided, we know that we’ve
done everything we could before having to say no.

Aruban born and bred Shanella Pantophlet is passionate about tour-
ism. That is the world she studied and works in, so we might as well call
her a specialist. Luckily for Aruba Today Shanella also loves to write.
And together with the fact that the majority of our readers are tourists,
we found ourselves a perfect combination for a column: Hotel Hustle.