Reflection

An interpersonal communication issue that I had experienced was during my internship at Hotel Jen as a front office trainee. As a front office trainee, my role was to complete the registration formalities for the guests upon check-in, and to assign a designated room for their stay.

This incident happened when I was performing the check-out process for a guest from a particular room. Upon clicking in to the billing screen, there was an alert notification, stating “Room blocked for VIP early arrival. Kindly contact housekeeping to clean room ASAP when guest checks out.” Hence, after completing the check-out formalities for the guest, I immediately dialed for the housekeeping coordinator. I informed her that the room is to be made up as soon as possible so that amenities could be sent in before arrival of the next guest. She acknowledged verbally over the phone and hung up. Unfortunately, when the guest arrives at the hotel at 4 pm, the room that was blocked for the guest was still not cleaned yet. The status of the room on the reservations screen appeared to be “dirty”. To add on to that, the hotel was running at a very high occupancy for that day.

I felt very upset because I have contacted the housekeeping coordinator personally to ensure that the room was to be made up the soonest. This clearly shows miscommunication between the two departments, front office and housekeeping. Looking back, the possible root cause of this miscommunication could be because I did not place enough emphasis on the fact that the room is going to be occupied by a VIP, hence, cleaning of that room was not placed as their priority. Another possible root cause was because I did not send a request through the electronic system, hence, the housekeeping department did not have any records on file. On the other hand, the housekeeping coordinator could be too busy to handle the multiple calls on hand since it was a busy day, and forgotten about my call.

Reflecting on this incident, I truly understand how crucial communication is, especially in the context of hotel, where every department have to cooperate and work together, to get the tasks done. It was definitely a lesson learnt, by heart.

I felt apologetic towards the guest, what kind of service recovery can be done? What should I have done differently to ensure that the message is passed across clearly?

Looking back at this unfortunate incident, it dawned on me that this communication gap could have been avoided should I have handled the situation better. Reflecting back on this incident, coupled with the advice that Eline and Eon has provided me, I believe the situation would have been under control should the following steps be taken.

Like what Eline and Eon has suggested, this issue could have been avoided if I have told the housekeeping coordinator that the room was meant for a VIP. By reminding the housekeeping team that the room is reserved for VIP, this will push them to prioritize the room for cleaning.

Based on Eon’s recommendation, leveraging on the system to make an electronic request is also what could have been done differently. By sending request through the electronic system, it serves as a good way to ensure ease of tracing responsibility should there be any occurrence of unpleasant consequences.

Some possible forms of service recovery that I could have provided to guests include room upgrade to higher category with complimentary amenities such as daily fruits bowl, free dining vouchers or even extended late check-out.

Last but not least, applying what we have learnt in the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, the compromising mode should be adopted. The compromising mode falls intermediate between competing and accommodating. In this case, I am required to “compete” because I need to emphasise to the housekeeping coordinator the importance of having the room cleaned up ASAP so as to prepare for the VIP’s arrival. On the other hand, I could have been more accommodating by understanding the rooms situation (high occupancy) and to send a few more gentle reminders to the housekeeping coordinator to clean the room. I could even take the initiative to set-up some amenities in the VIP room first, to ease the load of the housekeeping team. Hence, this results in a quick middle-ground solution.

In essence, communication is extremely crucial, especially in the context of hotel, where every department have to cooperate and work together, to get the tasks done. Thus, with these solutions in place, it will help to maintain a good working relationship between colleagues and to make the hotel a better working environment.

 Read: Darren, Eline, Eon, Russell

Commented: Eon, Eline