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I’ve been using Evernote for a while now to help me organize posts and articles for this and a couple of other blogs, and actually pretty much everything I do, lol. At any rate, it’s still in beta testing, so it’s currently invite-only, but I’ve got a handful of invites left! If you’d like one, just leave me a comment on one of my posts (other than this one, that’s too easy) and send me an email (frontdesk.blog@gmail.com) to let me know that you’d like one, and I’ll send you an invite as long as I have a few left. (I’ll update this post when they’re all gone).

In case you haven’t heard of Evernote yet , you can check out the site here and the description here. I won’t try and explain it, but instead give you their own description:

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.

(Yea, I know - it’s totally not ‘front desk’ related, and I don’t endorse many things, but this one really rocks, and since a lot of fellow bloggers read this blog, I figured it was worth the space since I’ve found out how much it rocks when researching and preparing for posting). You can now return to your regularly scheduled postings, already in progress!

Unlike most other industries, there’s not a lot of hotel related blogs penned by employees & insiders actually working in the hospitality industry - most seem to be just another marketing or promotional avenue written by hotels themselves as a management/public relations tool. While this is great, and I’m glad that a lot of hotels are catching onto the trend (yay, technology=good!), it leaves a lot to be said. While reading about the latest and greatest in room types and package promotions is always a good thing - more often than not, I’d much rather be reading about what really goes on behind the scenes, from the perspective of the staff that works there. The things that go on ‘behind the desk’ (and the BOH in general) are some of the most interesting & entertaining stories I’ve ever read. I know I probably have had enough happen to me in my career so far to fill several volumes of books, and I’m sure the same could be said for most in the industry. So where are all the blogs like this for our industry? Short answer: there simply aren’t that many. I’m not sure if it’s more because of the amount of turnover we have, or because the hotel keeps us so busy that we don’t have the time to commit to keeping up a blog, but whatever the reason, we’re far and few between, and that’s unfortunate - for both us, and the general person that has no idea what life is like ‘behind the desk’.

Since there aren’t that many of us (yet), I think I should take a moment to recognize the few that I’m aware of, and ask you to check them out. And since are are such a small group of bloggers, we need all the linky (and no, I didn’t say kinky, LOL) love we can get. I have only even considered myself a member of this small but growing group for just under six months now, so it’s possible I’m just not aware of some of the other bloggers, and if I’ve left you out it’s certainly not on purpose - just send me an email or leave me a comment, and I’ll update this post and my blogroll with your link.

Now, onto the show! - Here’s the major players in our little blogworld (again - if I’ve left you out, PLEASE let me know!) that I’m aware of. These are in no particular order, other than how they were displayed in my Google Reader (I promise!). Leave a comment or email me(frontdesk.blog@gmail.com) if you’ve been left out & I’ll remedy it ASAP.

Employee/Insider Blogs

• Front Desk Blog (www.frontdeskblog.com)
  Maybe I’m biased (lol) but since I write this one, it goes on the list. Penned from the viewpoint of a hotel front desk manager, with stories from an insider’s viewpoint. Not updated as frequently as I’d like, but it looks like that’s getting better.
• Get A Room (getahotelroom.blogspot.com)
  Penned by a true industry insider - meet Don, the Director of Sales & Marketing for a Virginia Beach hotel group. He presents the perfect mix (in my opinion) of industry news and insider stories and his own viewpoint. One of my top picks in my feedreader.
• Daniel Edward Craig (www.danieledwardcraig.com/blog)
  Probably would win the ‘most promising’ award if there was one. His previous writing on the Opus Hotel Blog (see below) kept me returning for each post, however this current project is rarely updated, though has great content when it is.
• Hotel Chick (ohmyhotel.blogspot.com)
  Wow, I didn’t realize I had so many favorites. Hotel Chick is penned by a housekeeper with a witty style of writing. Probably the only industry blog I know of that’s written from this perspective & I love it.
• Hotel Hallways (hotelhallways.blogspot.com)
  I think the name says it all. No more, no less - hotel hallways at their finest!
• Crazy Hotel Workers (community.livejournal.com/hotel_workers)
  Without a doubt, my #1 pick! Although not a blog by a single person, it’s a LiveJournal community (think blog aggregator) written soley by true industry insiders - those of us working directly with guests on a daily basis, whether behind the front desk, at Central Res., or in some other capacity.
• VacantReady (www.vacantready.com)
  Self-proclaimed ‘Hotel Industry Blog’ - while falling short on the more personal stories and posts, it does have great articles about the industry.
• Feather Or Foam? (featherorfoam.blogspot.com)
  Another of my favorites, though not updated nearly enough to feed my craving, lol. A hotel manager blogs about her life at the hotel, with many interesting stories and experiences in the industry.

Mixed Bag (little bit insider, little bit corporate):

• Hotel Chatter (www.hotelchatter.com)
  Focused mostly on reviews, ratings, and openings - but occasionally has some great articles from insiders about the industry. One of my favorites in this group.
• Happy Hotelier (www.happyhotelier.com)
  More focused on industry headlines than anything else, but a few viewpoints along the way from the author. Personally I think I’d like to read some stories from the author, as I like his style.
• Park Sleep Fly Blog (blog.parksleepfly.com)
  A blog about the Park/Sleep/Fly concept that occasionally presents tales and viewpoints from inside the industry, though not necessarily hotel related.
• Hotel HotSheet (blogs.usatoday.com/hotelhotsheet)
  Although she’s not ‘in the industry’, you wouldn’t know it by the way she writes some of her articles. Kitty Bean Yancey is a Travel writer for USAToday, and often presents articles about hotels and their staff that are ‘fluffed’ or poorly researched, but on the whole, it’s just another feed in my reader - not too good, not too bad, keeping in mind she gets a check for her articles, most of us don’t.
• Bed-Jump (www.hotelsbycity.net/blog/bed-jump/)
  Similar to Hotel Hallways, above, it’s just what it says & photo filled.
• Opus Hotel Blog (www.opushotel.com/blog/)
  OHB was much more of an ‘insider’s viewpoint’ blog when the previous GM Daniel Edward was at the helm, but since he left it’s become much more of a regular promo tool for the hotel, and I’ll guess has lost a lot of readers like myself. He has started his own blog though - with this promise: “…no longer constrained by the conventions of being a hotel manager, I’ll be able to speak even more candidly. If you thought hookers and drag queens were risqué, stay tuned.”

Some others that I have on my radar (and feedreader) that may not be necessarily hotel or hospitality industry related, but do have an occasional interesting article or post (still all travel related) include: 4 Hoteliers, elliott.org, Travel-Rants Blog, Travel Stuff, Travolution Blog, Upgrade: Travel Better, Young Hotelier, Hotel Warrior, Living With Legends, Mystery Guest Alert, Online Travel Review, TravelBlogs, & VagaBlogging.

So now that I’ve given you some new blogs to add to your arsenal (after all, we all have to have something to read during our down time, don’t we?), it’s your turn. Let your favorites pour in! I’m sure there are many that I’ve left out - either by accident, or simply because I’m not aware of it - so let me know what industry related blogs rank on your list of ‘must reads’.

Oh - and for those of you that are waiting for the ‘Confessions from a Hotel Front Desk’ post, keeps your eyes open! I’m putting the final touches on it and it should appear in the next day or so. As usual in this industry, the holiday weekend was busier than expected, and I didn’t get the draft done as soon as expected. Also, the site’s makeover is about 75% done, so everything should be near perfect by week’s end. Thanks for everyone’s love & support so far - without you I’d just be blogging for the heck of it, and we all know how boring that can be

Ever wondered what all that hotel and travel industry jargon means? Just click on ‘Hotel Lingo’ at the top of the page to find out! I’ve started compiling a list of all the slang and industry specific terms, and now it’s ready for review - if you have any more to add or clarify, feel free to leave me a comment or email.

Hotel Industry Lingo

Whether you’re making a reservation, or just checking-in, now you can speak like those in the know. Left something out? Leave a comment!

UPDATE: I forgot to link to Don over at ‘Get A Room‘ who looks like he has what might be the first of these types of lists, and while some of the same terms are covered, he has some different ones, as well. Check out his blog at http://getahotelroom.blogspot.com - it’s certainly one that I read everyday, & thanks Don!

Just a little internal housekeeping - the layout & design (& the backend software, too) of FrontDeskBlog will be updated over the weekend, so just hang in there, and if you find anything that’s broken or looks funky just shoot me an email or leave a comment, and I’ll get it fixed ASAP. In the meantime you may find a broken link or image while it’s in the process of updating.

FrontDeskBoi!

I laughed when I saw this story by one of my favorite travel writers, Kitty Bean Yancey, of USAToday’s ‘Hotel HotSheet’. She mentions the new promotional gimmick of Crowne Plaza’s Sleep Advantage program. One of the taglines of the program and the advertising for it is “Guaranteed Wake-Up Call, or your room is free“…. well, duh! This isn’t anything new, and short of a power failure or a rogue employee, wake-up calls are pretty impossible not to be guaranteed, right?

I’m sure almost everyone is aware (or are they?) that almost every single hotel uses a computerized wake-up call system - many of them with the ability to set it right from the phone in your room by just punching a few numbers on the telephone keypad, without ever having to come in contact with anyone from Guest Services or the Front Desk. So - how can your wake-up call go wrong? Well, it really can’t. Even the small motels almost always have it built right into their phone system - it’s not like there’s a giant list and the front desk person personally calls your room in the morning to wake you up Certainly some small (or just really expensive) or botique type hotels may offer this service, but it’s certainly the exception to the rule from my experience.

Crowne Plaza is obviously just looking for a good promotional gimmick, and anything with the words ‘…or it’s FREE‘ tends to work pretty well. Of course you’ll always have a few that try to game the system, or insist their call didn’t come - which of course the front desk can technically prove them wrong because each and every time the computer rings a wake-up call to a room, it’s logged - with a success, line busy, or no answer (failure) message.. of course whether you want to dispute that with a guest is a choice left up to the situation, and what level of service you provide. But when it’s all said and done, short of an employee screwing up the time of your call, it’s a pretty safe bet that Crowne Plaze won’t have to pay out on many legit claims that wake up calls didn’t happen.

Have you ever had a wake-up call that an employee didn’t set, or missed one for any other reason? I’d be interested to know your take on this. Gimmick, or good faith offer on situations that really happen?

There’s a new service that launched today, called ‘TripKick‘, that takes an interesting twist on the common hotel review. Instead of reviewing actual hotels, they review individual rooms! Kind of a novel concept, and though it sounds like that’s a huge feat to accomplish, if you know a thing or two about hotels, you realize just how easy their task is.

Inside a hotel, there may be several different types of rooms, of all different shapes, sizes, and layouts - however due to the way buildings are built, 99% of the time the rooms are all the same vertically! Ah, you say, you’re catching on already - Great, just think Lego’s and you can’t go wrong! So if I have a hotel with handicap rooms (read: larger & more spacious than a standard room by design) on the first floor (where they’re required to be, usually) - let’s say rooms 125, 127, & 129 are handicapped. Now, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to put handicap rooms on the upper floors, yet when the hotel is build, the rooms stack on top of each other like legos. So, you better believe that rooms 225,227, & 229 will be of larger size and extra spacious, too (just like the handicap rooms below). So, with that in mind, you could ask for any x25, x27, or x29 room in our imaginary hotel, and you’d have a larger room for the same price as a standard, simply because the handicap rooms are directly below them in the cookie-cutter way hotels are built.

That’s the major part of the concept behind the new site, TripKick. Reviewed today by TechCruch & The Washington Post. Of course, the lego/building block theory doesn’t always work perfect, due to renovations or something different on a particular floor, but in general the concept works, and that’s how they can claim so many rooms ‘rated’ already - obviously they haven’t stayed in each and every room, but any exception can be noted *after* someone takes there advice and finds out the hard way.

But what about the flipside. How will those of us in the industry take to having a guest ask for a particular room in a series (x04, or x19), or even a very specific room number, when checking into the hotel? I know that many of us pre-bock our arrivals many hours (or sometimes days, even) before the guest arrives at the front desk. We do it a specific way for a reason, and if everyone begins to wreak havoc with our blocking pattern, it will end up that we just have to tell the desk that a particular room isn’t available, end of story (or completely change the way we currently handle room blocking & reservations: see below). While I don’t think this will be a major problem, that’s just a worst case ending. I don’t think the site has near the number of listings for that to become a problem anytime in the next year or two. Currently they only even offer a few major metropolitan areas.

So, sure, if a random guest or two requests a certain room (or a room in a series) then we’ll likely try our best to accommodate them to the best of our ability, it’s what we do in the hospitality industry, but it really begs the question - will our PMS (property management system) eventually be updated to actually let the guest book their specific room when making a reservation (like picking a seat on the airlines)? Of course, this presents it’s own set of problems like overbooking, stay-overs, maintenance, walk-ins, etc… but those are all things that could be worked out. After all, we already let guests book specialty suites and similar rooms on their own, but those are set as their own ‘room type’ in the system already - never before (that I know of) have we let guests pre-make their own selection of a particular room from a group of rooms within a room type.

Can you imagine some of the horror stories though, as in the case of an overbooking in which the guest knows what room they’ve reserved when they walk in the door, so they go to the room to confront the guest already there that’s decided to stay-over, or that we’ve let overbook… that’d be one conversation I wouldn’t want to be a party to. What’s your thoughts on the new service, TripKick? I’m certain that the views will be wildly different from each side of the front desk, and I can see both good and bad coming from it - but first it’s got to actually expand and catch on, or get bought by Hotels.com or TripAdvisor.com, etc… (or maybe that was their goal in the first place, eh?). Let the fun begin!….

Technorati Tags: hotel,tripkick,hotel room review

OUCH*!*AHH*HURT*!*PAIN* - That’s how to best describe my current state of being, as well how the past couple of days have been. What’s wrong with the otherwise normally fabulously FrontDeskBoi, you might ask? I had a tooth surgically cut out. yea, O.U.C.H.!

I had a pretty major back tooth (#31) that’s been giving me problems for quite some time, and this past week it got to the point that not only was it hurting me a lot in general, but it was also causing a terrible earache in my right ear. I had not experienced an earache before, except when i was a toddler according to my family, but OMG it’s very painful, and something I’m glad I’ve not had to deal with before. So now I’m recovering, it’s been just over 36 hours since they cut out my tooth and it still hurts very much. It’s still as painful as the hurt that the tooth was giving me, so once the initial pain from the extraction is over and the pain level gets down below that, I’ll be in good shape, I hope.

I actually attempted to go into work today, and stayed only about 30 minutes before my D.of.O. called in someone else to cover my shift, since she said I looked like I felt awful (which I did!). I suppose contributing to that fact is also that I can’t speak clearly or loudly without causing myself some serious pain, so I’m taking today and tomorrow off to try to stay still and let this heal up and start to feel better. I’ve got a couple of posts saved up that I haven’t published yet, so I may finish those up so you’re not without your FrontDeskBlog fix for the day As for now, time to lay back down and rest.

In the meantime, head over to the partner’s blog www.RagingServer.com if you want to good customer service/restaurant related posts to read, as he’s a blogging machine & Leave him a comment that I sent ya - check out the entitlement junkies category, as those are some of the best.

Dear lady who just checked in: get over yourself, please. You are not all that, despite however much you probably think you are. Everyone is not out to get you, I promise! Nor is anyone really interested in anything to do with you, much less your room number, or where you sleep any night of the week - tonight is no exception, rest assured. You are not a special snowflake, now go to bed. Scurry towards the elevator, and let me read some blogs in peace.

So what’s all the fuss? What happened? Gather round, dear readers, while we enter the mind of a psycho lady:

It’s around 8PM, and I have a relatively empty lobby, only my shuttle driver is sitting in it (I suppose it’s important to note our shuttle drivers do not have a ‘uniform’ per say, so a guest coming into the lobby would have no idea the person worked for the hotel). In walks a lady with a couple of rolly suitcases, plops them in front of the Front Desk, and goes back out the door, only to return with another armful of luggage. I go through the usual spiel, we do the discount and entitlement dance and finally come up with a room and a rate and I get her registered. So far so good, and nothing stands out up until this point. I do this many times per day, and the script in my head is quite perfected, yet slightly tailored on-demand sometimes for subtle differences as needed depending on the guest or situation. Included in my spiel is “…your room number is ___. Take the elevator to your left up to the __floor, and your room is down the hallway to the left/right…” etc…, that way the guest has heard the room number aloud and it tends to help them remember it. I also write the room number on the keycard holder when presenting it to them. I’ve never had an issue with this process before - not once. So i complete everything and send the guest on their way. She makes the first trip up to her room with half of her luggage in tow, leaving the other rolly suitcases just sitting all by their lonesome in front of the FD without a word or apparent care in the world. A couple of minutes later she reappears to retreive her second load of luggage and to leave me with some advice.

She leans way over the very tall front desk, and whispers in a very stern tone “I don’t think you’re supposed to say the room number out loud!, hmmph!” and starts to trot off. But oh no - she isn’t going to walk away and leave it at that. Not gonna be an ass to FrontDeskBoi and get away with it that easy. And, excuse me, but I’m pretty sure I’m the one behind the desk, so I kinda get to decide what I’m ’supposed’ to do or not. So I ask her what she means and she replies “..well for security and such, you’re not allowed to say the room number outloud when telling it to a guest.” Ummmm OK. I suppose we’re gonna get telepathic or just do sign language now, heh. Anyways, what I thought was going to be a quick ‘turn and burn’ fleeting comment directed toward yours truly, ends up being about a 5 minute conversation where I figure out that she must have been scared that the latino chick in the lobby (i.e. my shuttle driver, but she didn’t know that) was going to know what her room number was. WTF. I mean REALLY, lady, GET.OVER.YOURSELF.BUY.A.CLUE. And where does she get off telling me what ‘policy’ is - and not even like it’s hotel policy, but just some random policy that we all must adhere to, regardless of flag or destination. As if there’s some Hotel Guests Bill Of Rights that demands we never speak a room number aloud when registering a guest. LOL. Can you imagine?

I mean, sure if there’s some shady people at the front desk (which I can’t imagine there being for longer than the 30 seconds it would take me to notice them before kicking them out the door) then SURE, I might be extra careful and point to your room number or something silly like that. Or if you have some crazy boy/girlfriend stalking you and you tell me so up front - hell, i don’t know,but I’m sure there ARE a FEW situations where I would be more discerning about saying your room number aloud. But c’mon here lady, if anyone really cared (and they DON’T) what room you were in, all they would have to do is follow you around. Frankly, if I was this paranoid, I’d be more worried about just leaving a huge suitcase on wheels in the lobby unattended without telling anyone while I went up two floors to my room - Jeeze, some people are just DUMB, and have NO COMMON SENSE. What information could anyone REALLY do with her room number? Am I totally missing something here, or am I just too comfortable from being in the industry. Does she really think that someone could get into her room by simply knowing her number? I should take a moment to mention that we are in an airport business district, too - not some roadside hotel that’s out in the boonies, so it’s not like anyone would be hanging around that’s too shady. 75% of my guests are direct from the airport. I also can’t imagine any scenario where anything could happen from someone just knowing what her room number happened to be.

At the end, I was probably much more snarky than I should have been (and I hope no one from my property reads this, so I’m not setting a bad example as I DO NOT condone my behavior, but sometimes you just have to have a little fun with a guest, even when they end up being appreciative of it, and miss all of the snarkiness hehe), however I figure that as psycho and paranoid as this lady is, that if she -did- complain to anyone they would likely write her off as loony (as would I if i were hearing about her tell the story). What did I do? I took a plain white sheet of paper from the printer, and in yellow hi-lighter (so it could not be read from more than a couple feet away) wrote:
IF YOU’D PREFER TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A NEW ROOM FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY AND PEACE OF MIND, PLEASE NOD ‘YES’ AND I’LL WRITE YOUR NEW ROOM NUMBER BELOW SO IT WON’T HAVE BEEN SAID OUT LOUD.
She nodded her head no, and mouthed ‘..but thank you’, and took her rolly suitcase and up the elevator she went. I think was nuts, we’re talking tinfoil hat level, and actually appreciated me asking her the way i did, LOL. I promptly shredded the evidence, and went on with my night. She checked out the next morning without incident or complaint.

So a guy calls up tonight, being a complete ASS. This is one of those examples where had he played nice, he would have gotten (some of) what he wanted - however he chose door number two, and got zilch. Why do people insist on being total asses when talking to other humans?

(Small Setup: Our hotel has a VoIP phone system, and when you place an outside call it simply shows up as the main hotel phone number, no matter where you’re calling from inside the hotel)

AHC: Asshole Caller
FDM: Your lovely front desk manager monkey
*ring*ring*ring*
FDM: Thank you for calling *blah* this is FDM, How can I help you?…
AHC: Um, hello? STOP CALLINGME! <click>
*ring*ring*ring*
FDM: Thank you for calling *blah* this is FDM, “what’s up” (well, you know the drill, hehe) …
AHC: I SAID QUIT CALLING ME <click>

This goes on a couple more times, until finally I get a word in edgewise and he realizes he’s calling a hotel:

AHC: This number has been calling my cell phone about 25 times in the past 5 minutes, and I DEMAND to know who it is.
FDM: Sir, you’re calling a hotel with over a hundred rooms, and I have no way of telling who’s calling you.<gets cut off by the AHC>
AHC: Let me speak to the manager
FDM: Speaking! (I reintroduce myself)
AHC: Now, as I said, I DEMAND to know who is calling my phone from this number
FDM: Sir, as I told you I have no way of telling…<cuts me off AGAIN>
AHC: (at 100mph)Who’s your manger, everyone has a manger, so don’t give me some bullshit about no one else being available. You can’t run a business with only one person working, it’s impossible, now who’s your boss, I DEMAND to know right now…
FDM: Sir, that would be the hotel General Manager, and I can assure you that you’ll receive the same answer, however he won’t be in until tomorrow, as I’m the only one here right now, would you like his na<click>

Had he been nice about it, and not hung up on me 5 or 6 times to start with I would have probably walked over to the phone call accounting printer and seen who was dialing his number, and although I would not have given him any information, I would have likely checked with the guest to see if they were forgetting to dial the correct area code for their phone call by mistake, therefore getting someone local with the same number, different area code (happens all time, really!). But instead he was a total ass about it, so he gets zilch. I had several hangups shortly afterwards, who I assume were him, either to be childish, or hoping to speak to someone else.