Page 10 - MEDIA MONITORING JULY 16, 2018

Monday 16 July 2018
A16 LOCAL
Hotel Hustle
Column by: Shanella Pantophlet
Best Face Forward
The expression, “You only get one chance to make a rst impression.” is one that’s very signi cant in the hotel business and especially timeshare resorts. The rst impression the guest has could be the difference between a repeat guest who eventually becomes an owner and someone who never wants to come back. Obviously all staff is important in the overall guest experience, but while housekeeping is the backbone of the resort, the front desk staff are the face. It is their job to greet the guests when they rst arrive and provide them a warm welcome and any necessary information this rst time guest may need.
The job of front of ce agents is not an easy one, no matter what type of hotel you work in, while those of us in the back of ce can take off the mask of our hospitality face and spend the day glowering at our
computers, the same luxury is not afforded to the front desk agents. It isn’t a job for everyone as it requires a great deal of patience, creativity, problem solving, a sense of urgency and most importantly empathy.
Front desk agents are required to have a certain level of calm and grounding about them in order to reassure a guest that no matter what chaos is going on around them they are not to be shaken, it is just another day at the of ce. People working the front desk are often subject to a lot of client frustration when things aren’t going right and the way the agent responds to the guest can be the deciding factor for that guest on if they will return to the resort or take their business elsewhere.
Various examples of these types of employees can be drawn on here, from the most extreme cases such as those who remained at their post dur- ing natural disasters such as last year’s hurricane season which hit various tourism driven Islands or nuclear bomb threats such as what happened in Hawaii. But there are also less extreme examples where a front desk agent may just have followed up with a guest about a concern they had and that makes all the difference for the customer and their experience.
The need for a hotel to put their best face forward makes lling front desk vacancies so dif cult, as it requires nding people who exemplify the traits mentioned above. Dynamic people, who will love their job even at the end of a tough day and continue to strive for growth and improvement. Usually those who have worked in other customer service positions think they may be a good t as the goals of creating repeat customers is the same, but they often forget that the requirements of a guest you see every day for a week and the variables involved in their experience are vastly different than making them a cup of coffee just the way they like it. The job requires a realization that being a front desk agent means you are the face of a larger team both in front and behind the scenes all working cohesively to elevate the customer experience.q
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.