I make a few mental notes for the cleaner as I walk through the lobby at 7.30am. I adjust the palm vase as I pass it. By the time I meet the receptionist’s eyes, I have already scanned the entire reception area and, overall, I am rather satisfied. Running this hotel is so much more than a job to me. It is my challenge and my dream.
Just four weeks after I took up my post in this new family venture about nine years ago, I decided to move into the hotel. I took over the room that I was least likely to sell then during the high season I would often have to move around from one room to another! I would work from 7am to 11pm until I learned the ropes, but was always on call. It is only since I married and moved to another part of town that constant calls from staff have cut down.
Initially my role in the hotel was focused on sales. I had plenty of sales experience but none in tourism, although I had some exposure to it through my sales job and it had always fascinated me. I jumped at the opportunity to take up the challenge when it came. Yet it was understood that, although it was a family affair, my post was secured only as long as my performance was acceptable.
Eventually, I ended up managing the whole operation. The hotel was almost running itself since the existing staff carried on their duties as usual. At first, I simply cooperated but eventually I began to think about what works and what does not, learning from mistakes. I sought help from evening courses in hotel management and supervision, and took refresher courses in sales.
“Good morning boss!” the receptionist smiles. “Hey, girl,” I reply, as she nips over to the bar. I know she will return with a black coffee for me. In a small hotel, staff numbers are few and formalities drop. The staff work as a family, which is simultaneously a good and bad thing: sometimes this makes it hard for me to be business-minded, forget about their personal lives and tell them to get on with it!
In the early year,s my brother and my cousin were also very involved in the hotel, but it was very difficult to treat one’s own family members as regular staff. When they entrusted the operation completely in my hands, I employed new staff and trained them in new methods at my terms. I placed emphasis on personal relationship with guests and higher service standards. Oddly enough, there is nobody of the family about any more; I run the entire show with the other staff while the family assist from afar, mainly with accounting matters.
I begin to examine the key rack to identify the rooms’ status at a glance. After that it takes about two hours to check the computer and files for the situation with in-house guests, arrivals and departures. We have 25 apartments and three hotel rooms and all our guests receive individual attention, which is why it takes up so much time.
Before my father and my uncle acquired the aparthotel, the previous owner had already cut out tour-operators although occupancy through direct walk-ins was very low. I worked hard to build a database of contacts and build the trust of existing guests so that they would return. Many repeat guests, most of whom are British, keep returning since those early days, and they will go nowhere else. We have a great relationship as they remember me as a young lad in my early 20’s.
I see that Mr Schmidt is arriving today. This German guest visited twice a year for three weeks at a time in the last 15 years, since before my family took over. I make the necessary arrangements for Mr Schmidt to find everything as he likes it, and ask the maintenance man to bring out his bag from storage and place it in his allocated apartment.
Satisfied that all departments are organised for the day, I sit at my computer to focus on replying to emails: reservations, queries and correspondence. Previously, guests would advertise our particular service by word of mouth and we had an edge on direct bookings but trends have changed. Show-arounds have diminished due to timeshare touts in the area while the internet opened the direct booking business for most hotels. Therefore we too had to resort to the web, although return guests still constitute the bulk of our business.
Many emails are requests to confirm bookings based on quotes given during earlier visits to Malta. For the winter months and shoulder period, I sell my units a year in advance to repeat business. Yet due to the personal service we offer, in which we allow guests to choose the type of apartment they stay in, it is harder to maximise occupancy leaving no empty room-nights in between. Furthermore, while most hotels work on a two-week occupancy, we may have long stays in winter of up to four months and I have even helped guests find a place to live in Malta.
On the other hand, the high-season is always a gamble. The reservations chart may remain empty until days ahead and I am stressed with the idea that the hotel will not fill up, then I end up having to reject requests from other hotels to help them with over-bookings!
I find it very hard to infiltrate new markets though, and although I have worked very hard to get an occupancy and profitability ratio that I find satisfactory, it is my constant challenge to improve it. Although I do receive some pressure from the family, I impose most of the pressure on myself since the salesman part of me always strives to increase sales revenue and occupancy.
Eric comes to the office for a cup of tea and a chat. He visits Malta four times a year since the first year my family took over the hotel. The hotel is small but what we lack in facilities we make up for in personal attention. We have had a couple of guests who had gold cards for the larger five-star chains but who preferred to stay with us because they could feel at home, walk into my office and sit for a coffee with the manager. Because of the numbers, guests cannot be so friendly with the staff in a large hotel.
There is a fine line between the business aspect and the friendship aspect. The interaction with guests is very important – keeping good customer relationships also with a view that they may book for the following year – but with many the relationship becomes really intimate.
Many of our guests write us thank you cards and even send correspondence to let us know of births and sickness in the family, or if they choose to stay in another hotel in a different part of Malta they pop in to say hello and I feel very pleased about that. Many look for me as an individual, even if there are other receptionists, and some regular guests even came to my wedding... like Eric, or Philip and Elaine who have just emerged from the taxi that has pulled up outside.
Not hassling with their bags, they dash into the lobby, past the receptionist and into my office with big broad smiles. Elaine gives me a motherly hug and a big kiss. She jokes about how I am losing my hair; lucky I nabbed my wife before I lost it all. “You must both join us for dinner tomorrow night, is that good for you? We are a little weary now...” I nod, happily.
I even met my wife at the hotel. While on a long vacation in Malta, she came for a quote for her sister. I liked her immediately and took the opportunity to get to know her. After a year of long-distance relationship, moving back and forth from Ireland, she moved here and we eventually married last year. I call her about the dinner invitation and she is pleased. Philip and Elaine are a great pair.
James shows up in the late morning. He had a late night “working” at the bar yesterday; a farewell booze-party with some regulars who departed early this morning. He recounts the events of the evening, we crack a few laughs, and then turn to more serious matters regarding the ups and downs of bar and restaurant management. I have seen the small honesty-bar, where people served themselves, turn into a popular club-house coffee shop, only to transform once again into the present, larger food and beverage establishment. The problems of managing it have also grown larger.
Even as I take my lunch in the restaurant, I observe the quality of the food, service and the behaviour of staff with customers. Although I receive help from department supervisors, I must ultimately overlook the entire operation.
Most of the afternoon is taken up by a meeting with the housekeeping supervisor, over several cups of coffee at one of the restaurant tables. We discuss staffing necessities for the forthcoming summer, analyse the pros and cons of a prospective change of the laundry service provider and prepare a spring-cleaning plan.
Meanwhile the lift inspectors show up. The receptionist is dealing with all the new health and safety inspections to ensure we conform to the multitude of extra regulations since joining the EU. The small size of the hotel means that all staff perform a combination of roles which are flexible according to necessity. While she is occupied with them, I take a call from a room regarding a problem with the flushing. I call for the maintenance man on the radio but her voice answers instead, informing me that he is out on an errand. I must deal with it myself.
Ever since the early days I could be all dressed up in shirt and tie in the morning and eventually end up doing some maintenance work. Because of the nature of the hotel, I am still Jack of all trades, but some things in time appear trivial after you have had to deal with flooding rooms and even a big fire! I have also done some heavy jobs on this hotel, such as assisting construction work in a bid to keep costs down, although experience has taught me that my time is better invested in my actual job: keeping money coming in!
However, it is only those things beyond our control, such as power cuts, timeshare touts, noise from delivery persons and garbage collection services at early hours or anything that may disturb the guests, that annoy me.
I actually enjoy my work, despite the endless hours and energy I put into it. The worst aspect of it is definitely the long hours and no overtime salary, but I like seeing the hotel transforming – improving the products and services.
Improvement is a slow process because of financial constraints. I am discussing such matters with my cousin and brother during a meeting in my office, when I catch a glimpse of Eric lingering in the reception. He is waiting for me! I remember that I am due for my Futsal training, as Eric wishes to accompany me and watch me play, but I have not even gone home to change yet! I am running late again....
This is the 20th in Melanie Drury’s, “A Day in the Life of...” series. The next one is due on 2 February.
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