Weekly Summary:
Monday:Started the day with the breakfast service and was introduced to a new colleague. We entered a few new bookings in the rooms list folder and checked credit card validity for them,showed guests to their room, stored some luggage for customers checking out and manually calculated the parking facility occupancy levels for December and January. We were shown how the checked-in customers were (first time in the booking process) entered in their computer system by creating a billing account. Ended the day with sorting the cancellations box by removing all cancelled reservations for the dates that had already passed and organising the rest of the papers by month and putting them back in the box.
Tuesday:a quiet day at work today. Helped with the breakfast service first and then checked credit cards, entered a few new bookings in the rooms list and completed the paperwork for cancelled bookings. We had some spare time so we went around to see all the different types of rooms the hotel has to offers. Ann got to practise entering the laundry service data on the computer.
Wednesday: due to staff member being sick we were left to do the breakfast service alone.After doing the final clean up we moved to the reception desk, did the paperwork for today’s check-ins, took down ID information and brought some clean sheets to the sister hotel Hotel Molinos.
Thursday: the day started with helping out with the breakfast service after which we got to do the whole array of reception work:storing luggage, noting guest ID information at check-in,showed guests to their rooms, entered new bookings in the rooms list sheets, checked the details of all today’s check-ins and noted rooms with breakfast included, entered guest details into the computer for billing accounts and as a new skill entered the guest ID information in the police system.
Friday: we had the most fun-filled day. The girls on duty have a great sense of humour and we laughed through the whole day. It was also great that we were shown on our last day how a room key was activated thus completing our knowledge on all aspects of the reception work. A great way to end our two-week work placement at Hotel Carlos V.
Learning & Positive Aspects Week 2:
This week was a hundred times easier than last week.We knew what needed to be done and we were familiar with all the staff at this stage. We still learnt a few new things which was great and the warmth with which the staff treated us was incredible.
Challenges:
Home sickness was at its strongest at the start of the second week but once the week got going,it went really fast.
Cultural:
This week we did many walking tours in Granada covering the old Arab neighbourhood Albaicín (the miserables) that has steep, narrow streets with gobblestone and the most gorgeous views of the Alhambra and the city;
Sacromonte, also know as the Gypsy caves,an area where people are still living in very primitive cave houses and lastly
Realejo,the old Jewish quarters of the town and where we have been living the last two weeks. Here we actually had a very interesting tour on Graffiti and particularly on the works by a famous local graffiti artist called El niño de las pinturas.
