HME: What are the requisite skills required to work in front office?
Dan Benzaquen: In front office, it’s good to have different cultures I believe, but it is difficult to find the right quality. You can always find someone who is interested to come to this department, but they might not have the right background, the right attitude or the right understanding.
As graduates you have different opportunities, because when you do hotel school you have various internships. My first internship at Shangri-La in Singapore was in the rooms division, which I liked. My second one I did in Paris in accounting, which I hated, after that I tried banqueting, which I liked but I didn’t see myself in. Then I thought ‘I’ll try sales and marketing’, but I couldn’t even sell you a cookie, so at the end of the day you have to think throughout your whole studies where you want to go. You always know if you like the contact of people, for front office, you need to like talking to people, you like to understand people. When you have someone that starts screaming at you for something you have to first of all have control of yourself, so I think in order to get into a sector such as front office you need to understand yourself first.
Mövenpick is opening a lot of properties this year — we’ve interviewed about 1000 people for the new properties and out of this you can only find less than 10% that could be potential employees within the company. It’s difficult to get the people who are willing to start a career, who have the will to grow within the industry.
HME: You all worked your way up through the ranks; do graduates coming out of hotel school expect to start on higher levels?
Frank Motzkus: Very true; let’s face it, this is what hotel schools sell. It really depends in my opinion on where this individual is coming from and if he has worked before. If it’s a pure hotel school education taking three to four years, I think the hopes are high but it turns out to be very difficult for them to succeed in finding a managerial position. Hotels schools are somewhat over promising if you compare it to what I am looking for.
Murat Askin: When we were finishing school at the beginning of 2004, we all thought we were going to be managers. I started as a management trainee for six months and I was on reception. In terms of recruitment, when these graduates from Europe come with such high expectations of the high positions they are going to get, you interview them for receptionist and they look at you funny, as if to ask — I did the hotel management school, are you going to interview me for receptionist?
Believe me as a person who comes from hotel management school, I realised, once you have finished the school, and once you start working, that the only thing you really have is your diploma on the wall. If you don’t work and don’t start learning the steps, then you will not be a manager.
Sridhar Kakarlapudi: When I was doing my hotel management, I had a lucky break in Sydney and took on my night managers role, so there were maybe a few people I knew who got managerial roles straight after school from the campus recruitment. It is not everybody’s case, but sometimes it happens, it depends on your passion. At the end of the day I sell myself to the person that wants to hire me. If I fall short, that’s my fault not the other person’s fault.
HME: What do you enjoy about working in front office?
FM: I think front office in a way is the mother of every hotel, the guest doesn’t know where to go for a complaint or a request, he’s not going to go to a restaurant, he’s going to come to the desk and ask to be either redirected or place that request with front office. It’s like centre stage, it’s like a theatre act, where you are always on stage and you always need to look your best and be courteous and smiling and professional. You’re on stage and you enjoy it.
Steven Mueller: It’s also the area I feel in a hotel where it’s personality over technicality. It’s as Ian Schrager says, it took me a long time to understand but his credo is, anybody who can work in reception can press four buttons on a computer, but it’s the personality that needs to shine through. His emphasis is on looks rather than the actual personality, but no guest is ever going to judge you on how beautifully you press the keyboard, they are going to judge you on how well you represented the hotel, how you represented the service that the hotel is going to offer.
The front office, and that starts very much from the doorman, the bellman, over to the reception, you are the first face of the hotel. If you mess it up, you mess it up for all other departments as well because the guest is going to be unhappy from the very beginning.
MA: I think it is a continuous learning. I started in front office when I was 15 and basically I’m in love with it, it takes my heart. You don’t know what you are going to get at the end of the day, every day is different. I’ve been through a lot of incidents and met with a lot of people, guests call you back, you’re out there. I did kitchens as well, and banqueting and accounting, but I love the front office.
SK: When recruiting I ask, ‘How many times has someone shared a happy moment with you?’ In front office, you are always the first to hear it and being in someone’s happiness really creates the difference. And that’s the choice I put to them — if they’re really good candidates, but they’re wanting something else, that is. work in a different department], then this is my sell line to them and it really does happen in front office. You stand in front office, it doesn’t matter what level, you know what’s happening in the entire hotel and that’s the advantage front office has compared to any other department.
HME: As well as hearing about happy moments, you also hear about the unhappy moments — how do you empower your staff and train your teams to handle those situations?
FM: I think the pinnacle of empowerment is the Ritz-Carlton approach, they give everybody a certain allowance and they can deal with it within this allowance without any questions asked. Times are different nowadays and that’s simply not an option. How do I train my team on this? For one, through learning by mistakes. We’re all humans and everyone gets to make a mistake, as long as you don’t make it again. And I’d rather you over compensate than under achieve with a guest and not have him come back.
Secondly, trust them, they’re dealing with the guest, they’re dealing with the person, they are engaging with them so they know best regarding what is going to make the guest happy. And this is the first rule when somebody comes to me, the first question, immediately ask them back is ‘what are you going to do?’ But I’m never going to answer a question for someone on this matter because I want them to think about it and to put themselves in the guest’s position.
Apart from that, obviously you have your compliant handling scenarios, the SOP on how to do it, the usual suspects of tools we are all familiar with on dealing with a complaint. That’s across all operations; where I try to be different and make a difference is the trust in the team, the empowerment I give and the support I give them to make decisions, and if it was a critical decision where my boss didn’t agree, I would still defend it, however, with my critical feedback I make sure that this person takes this feedback not in a defensive manner but say ‘next time, try this option’. So there is clear learning curve on dealing with x scenario. There is development there; no one is going to be a receptionist forever so we have to try and add that into their personal development at work.
HME: In what ways are your receptionists allowed to compensate? How do you avoid the ‘compensation culture’ trap?
MA: We have a little booklet with compensation guidelines, detailing different situations e.g. if guest complains about the food service and you have the minor implications, major implications and what needs to be done for the guest. There are currently around 50, 52 issues in the booklet. And to empower the receptionists you have a certain amount of dirhams they are allowed to compensate the guest without going back to their superiors. They have certain allowances, say up to AED100 on a particular issue.
SK: At Shangri-La we actually have something called delegation of authority guidelines. It’s revised every year depending on the scenarios. This is a sheet for all staff and training takes place annually. My sales managers might be entitled to give away a complimentary night but it’s all in a structured manner. Also in the guidelines, it tells them when to refer to the next person up, so it’s also a delegation of authority — more or less it works.
SM: What you should never forget about — yes also we have got a certain amount that every enthusiast is empowered to actually give comp — however, what I always tell my team as well is it’s not always about throwing around free stuff. If a guest gives you a problem, your main priority first up is that the problem is resolved. Then analyse, how does the guest react? For instance there are certain cultures that don’t want any free dinners, they feel offended at that, they just want the problem sorted out.
FM: Yes that’s part of the fine tuning process, which is part of individual development.
SM: Yes this is my approach — analyse the problem, counteract against the problem and then you can still think about how you can make up for the inconvenience of the guest, but never forget how much the guest was actually inconvenienced. If somebody says ‘I’ve checked in and my AC panel doesn’t work right, I would like to have it warmer’ and within five minutes, if it is warmer, there is no need to give a fruit basket or whatever. And that is very much happening in many hotels these days, that the colleagues just become too swift at giving things out for free for the sake of giving things out for free. They can please the guest only in one way and that is by giving something for free and that is becoming too much these days.
SK: That also relates back to the training we give them as well. It is like you giving them a knife but if you don’t teach them the proper way to use it, they may do a crime with it. And it’s back to us because we are the ones who provided a knife to them.
FM: Yes but you also have to consider your clientele. Being a mall hotel, we have a very strong GCC clientele and in my experience, giving amenities, fruits, Arabic sweets the whole nine yards, it works very well, We do have challenges with guests arriving on a Friday let’s say, and wanting the room on arrival, but because of our full occupancy they are not available until 1pm and the delay is say an hour and half. For me, no big deal. But for those with a family it’s an issue, and if you then get them in the room, apologise to them, sincerely deal with them, then they go to the mall, and in the meantime you send a nice fruit basket, it works a treat.
DB: For us it’s the complete opposite, our clientele is mainly European, so the food basket doesn’t work at all, they won’t touch it. It has to be a personal encounter.
SM: And that is what should never be lost, the personalisation. Things will always go wrong, approach the guest, empathise with them, and what I have always found, especially in Dar Al Masyaf at Madinat Jumeirah, where you are all over the place, you always saw the great butlers from the not-so-great butlers in terms of customer service. The not-so-great butlers say ‘The guest wants to speak to the manager’; from the other ones you hear ‘I had to give a fruit basket away, I’m sorry’. But in the latter case, the guests left happy and they probably left happier than if this incident, whatever it was, had never happened because they feel ‘Somebody is looking after me, somebody is taking care’.
I get back to the throwing free things around, that really is the most impersonal thing you can do. Yes there is a clientele who are just looking for it, however, the majority are just looking for problem resolution and a personal touch.
Dan Benzaquen
FOm
Mövenpick Hotel & Apartments
Bur Dubai
Benzaquen started his career in Asia and Indonesia and went to Switzerland for management school. After that, he worked in China for Sheraton as a guest services manager, before joining Mövenpick in Dubai.
Frank Motzkus
Fom
The Address
Dubai Mall
Motzkus’ previous roles include assistant FOM at Hilton Abu Dhabi and reception manager at Hilton London Metropole. Before that, Motzkus attended hotel school in Switzerland for just under two years.
Murat Askin
Fom
Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites
Askin was earlier assistant FOM with Rotana in Dubai. His previous international experience includes roles as a night manager in Chicago and a receptionist at Geneva InterContinental.
Steven Mueller
Director of front office
Media One Hotel Dubai
Mueller started his career at The Dorchester in London as a front role cashier. His first role in Dubai was as butler services manager at Madinat Jumeirah, overseeing 260-butlers and 29-villas at Dar Al Masyaf.
Steven Mueller
Director of front office
Media One Hotel Dubai
Mueller started his career at The Dorchester in London as a front role cashier. His first role in Dubai was as butler services manager at Madinat Jumeirah, overseeing 260-butlers and 29-villas at Dar Al Masyaf.
The opening act
(NULL)
HME: What are the requisite skills required to work in front office?
Dan Benzaquen: In front office, it’s good to have different cultures I believe, but it is difficult to find the right quality. You can always find someone who is interested to come to this department, but they might not have the right background, the right attitude or the right understanding.
As graduates you have different opportunities, because when you do hotel school you have various internships. My first internship at Shangri-La in Singapore was in the rooms division, which I liked. My second one I did in Paris in accounting, which I hated, after that I tried banqueting, which I liked but I didn’t see myself in. Then I thought ‘I’ll try sales and marketing’, but I couldn’t even sell you a cookie, so at the end of the day you have to think throughout your whole studies where you want to go. You always know if you like the contact of people, for front office, you need to like talking to people, you like to understand people. When you have someone that starts screaming at you for something you have to first of all have control of yourself, so I think in order to get into a sector such as front office you need to understand yourself first.
Mövenpick is opening a lot of properties this year — we’ve interviewed about 1000 people for the new properties and out of this you can only find less than 10% that could be potential employees within the company. It’s difficult to get the people who are willing to start a career, who have the will to grow within the industry.
HME: You all worked your way up through the ranks; do graduates coming out of hotel school expect to start on higher levels?
Frank Motzkus: Very true; let’s face it, this is what hotel schools sell. It really depends in my opinion on where this individual is coming from and if he has worked before. If it’s a pure hotel school education taking three to four years, I think the hopes are high but it turns out to be very difficult for them to succeed in finding a managerial position. Hotels schools are somewhat over promising if you compare it to what I am looking for.
Murat Askin: When we were finishing school at the beginning of 2004, we all thought we were going to be managers. I started as a management trainee for six months and I was on reception. In terms of recruitment, when these graduates from Europe come with such high expectations of the high positions they are going to get, you interview them for receptionist and they look at you funny, as if to ask — I did the hotel management school, are you going to interview me for receptionist?
Believe me as a person who comes from hotel management school, I realised, once you have finished the school, and once you start working, that the only thing you really have is your diploma on the wall. If you don’t work and don’t start learning the steps, then you will not be a manager.
Sridhar Kakarlapudi: When I was doing my hotel management, I had a lucky break in Sydney and took on my night managers role, so there were maybe a few people I knew who got managerial roles straight after school from the campus recruitment. It is not everybody’s case, but sometimes it happens, it depends on your passion. At the end of the day I sell myself to the person that wants to hire me. If I fall short, that’s my fault not the other person’s fault.
HME: What do you enjoy about working in front office?
FM: I think front office in a way is the mother of every hotel, the guest doesn’t know where to go for a complaint or a request, he’s not going to go to a restaurant, he’s going to come to the desk and ask to be either redirected or place that request with front office. It’s like centre stage, it’s like a theatre act, where you are always on stage and you always need to look your best and be courteous and smiling and professional. You’re on stage and you enjoy it.
Steven Mueller: It’s also the area I feel in a hotel where it’s personality over technicality. It’s as Ian Schrager says, it took me a long time to understand but his credo is, anybody who can work in reception can press four buttons on a computer, but it’s the personality that needs to shine through. His emphasis is on looks rather than the actual personality, but no guest is ever going to judge you on how beautifully you press the keyboard, they are going to judge you on how well you represented the hotel, how you represented the service that the hotel is going to offer.
The front office, and that starts very much from the doorman, the bellman, over to the reception, you are the first face of the hotel. If you mess it up, you mess it up for all other departments as well because the guest is going to be unhappy from the very beginning.
MA: I think it is a continuous learning. I started in front office when I was 15 and basically I’m in love with it, it takes my heart. You don’t know what you are going to get at the end of the day, every day is different. I’ve been through a lot of incidents and met with a lot of people, guests call you back, you’re out there. I did kitchens as well, and banqueting and accounting, but I love the front office.
SK: When recruiting I ask, ‘How many times has someone shared a happy moment with you?’ In front office, you are always the first to hear it and being in someone’s happiness really creates the difference. And that’s the choice I put to them — if they’re really good candidates, but they’re wanting something else, that is. work in a different department], then this is my sell line to them and it really does happen in front office. You stand in front office, it doesn’t matter what level, you know what’s happening in the entire hotel and that’s the advantage front office has compared to any other department.
HME: As well as hearing about happy moments, you also hear about the unhappy moments — how do you empower your staff and train your teams to handle those situations?
FM: I think the pinnacle of empowerment is the Ritz-Carlton approach, they give everybody a certain allowance and they can deal with it within this allowance without any questions asked. Times are different nowadays and that’s simply not an option. How do I train my team on this? For one, through learning by mistakes. We’re all humans and everyone gets to make a mistake, as long as you don’t make it again. And I’d rather you over compensate than under achieve with a guest and not have him come back.
Secondly, trust them, they’re dealing with the guest, they’re dealing with the person, they are engaging with them so they know best regarding what is going to make the guest happy. And this is the first rule when somebody comes to me, the first question, immediately ask them back is ‘what are you going to do?’ But I’m never going to answer a question for someone on this matter because I want them to think about it and to put themselves in the guest’s position.
Apart from that, obviously you have your compliant handling scenarios, the SOP on how to do it, the usual suspects of tools we are all familiar with on dealing with a complaint. That’s across all operations; where I try to be different and make a difference is the trust in the team, the empowerment I give and the support I give them to make decisions, and if it was a critical decision where my boss didn’t agree, I would still defend it, however, with my critical feedback I make sure that this person takes this feedback not in a defensive manner but say ‘next time, try this option’. So there is clear learning curve on dealing with x scenario. There is development there; no one is going to be a receptionist forever so we have to try and add that into their personal development at work.
HME: In what ways are your receptionists allowed to compensate? How do you avoid the ‘compensation culture’ trap?
MA: We have a little booklet with compensation guidelines, detailing different situations e.g. if guest complains about the food service and you have the minor implications, major implications and what needs to be done for the guest. There are currently around 50, 52 issues in the booklet. And to empower the receptionists you have a certain amount of dirhams they are allowed to compensate the guest without going back to their superiors. They have certain allowances, say up to AED100 on a particular issue.
SK: At Shangri-La we actually have something called delegation of authority guidelines. It’s revised every year depending on the scenarios. This is a sheet for all staff and training takes place annually. My sales managers might be entitled to give away a complimentary night but it’s all in a structured manner. Also in the guidelines, it tells them when to refer to the next person up, so it’s also a delegation of authority — more or less it works.
SM: What you should never forget about — yes also we have got a certain amount that every enthusiast is empowered to actually give comp — however, what I always tell my team as well is it’s not always about throwing around free stuff. If a guest gives you a problem, your main priority first up is that the problem is resolved. Then analyse, how does the guest react? For instance there are certain cultures that don’t want any free dinners, they feel offended at that, they just want the problem sorted out.
FM: Yes that’s part of the fine tuning process, which is part of individual development.
SM: Yes this is my approach — analyse the problem, counteract against the problem and then you can still think about how you can make up for the inconvenience of the guest, but never forget how much the guest was actually inconvenienced. If somebody says ‘I’ve checked in and my AC panel doesn’t work right, I would like to have it warmer’ and within five minutes, if it is warmer, there is no need to give a fruit basket or whatever. And that is very much happening in many hotels these days, that the colleagues just become too swift at giving things out for free for the sake of giving things out for free. They can please the guest only in one way and that is by giving something for free and that is becoming too much these days.
SK: That also relates back to the training we give them as well. It is like you giving them a knife but if you don’t teach them the proper way to use it, they may do a crime with it. And it’s back to us because we are the ones who provided a knife to them.
FM: Yes but you also have to consider your clientele. Being a mall hotel, we have a very strong GCC clientele and in my experience, giving amenities, fruits, Arabic sweets the whole nine yards, it works very well, We do have challenges with guests arriving on a Friday let’s say, and wanting the room on arrival, but because of our full occupancy they are not available until 1pm and the delay is say an hour and half. For me, no big deal. But for those with a family it’s an issue, and if you then get them in the room, apologise to them, sincerely deal with them, then they go to the mall, and in the meantime you send a nice fruit basket, it works a treat.
DB: For us it’s the complete opposite, our clientele is mainly European, so the food basket doesn’t work at all, they won’t touch it. It has to be a personal encounter.
SM: And that is what should never be lost, the personalisation. Things will always go wrong, approach the guest, empathise with them, and what I have always found, especially in Dar Al Masyaf at Madinat Jumeirah, where you are all over the place, you always saw the great butlers from the not-so-great butlers in terms of customer service. The not-so-great butlers say ‘The guest wants to speak to the manager’; from the other ones you hear ‘I had to give a fruit basket away, I’m sorry’. But in the latter case, the guests left happy and they probably left happier than if this incident, whatever it was, had never happened because they feel ‘Somebody is looking after me, somebody is taking care’.
I get back to the throwing free things around, that really is the most impersonal thing you can do. Yes there is a clientele who are just looking for it, however, the majority are just looking for problem resolution and a personal touch.
Dan Benzaquen
FOm
Mövenpick Hotel & Apartments
Bur Dubai
Benzaquen started his career in Asia and Indonesia and went to Switzerland for management school. After that, he worked in China for Sheraton as a guest services manager, before joining Mövenpick in Dubai.
Frank Motzkus
Fom
The Address
Dubai Mall
Motzkus’ previous roles include assistant FOM at Hilton Abu Dhabi and reception manager at Hilton London Metropole. Before that, Motzkus attended hotel school in Switzerland for just under two years.
Murat Askin
Fom
Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites
Askin was earlier assistant FOM with Rotana in Dubai. His previous international experience includes roles as a night manager in Chicago and a receptionist at Geneva InterContinental.
Steven Mueller
Director of front office
Media One Hotel Dubai
Mueller started his career at The Dorchester in London as a front role cashier. His first role in Dubai was as butler services manager at Madinat Jumeirah, overseeing 260-butlers and 29-villas at Dar Al Masyaf.
Steven Mueller
Director of front office
Media One Hotel Dubai
Mueller started his career at The Dorchester in London as a front role cashier. His first role in Dubai was as butler services manager at Madinat Jumeirah, overseeing 260-butlers and 29-villas at Dar Al Masyaf.
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