Ready or Not...
So as I have said I am the Assistant General Manager for a Residence Inn which is a Marriott Hotel. I really enjoy the Hotel business because you have the opportunity to meet so many people. And I really enjoy the property I am at because... well not to gloat... but we are really really good. We are one of the better properties in our area.
As a Marriott property we receive what we call "GSS Scores" every Friday. This is the results of Surveys that Marriott will send to guests via email once they have checked out of the hotel. This is pretty random.. not everyone will get one... and again not everyone who receives them will fill them out. But every Friday we get our GSS Scores that rates us from the Guest's point of view as to how well we are doing. Anyway, our property as a whole gets pretty good scores. Since I have been there the scores have gone up.... I would like to believe that me being there had something to do with that... but it could just be coincidence. The AGM that I replaced was evidentally "not so motivated" and did not always follow through on things. But I try to make it a habit to follow up and take care of loose ends on a daily basis. Anyway point to telling you this is recently we have started a few different "Best Practices" that hopefully will increase our scores even more. So I cannot wait until Fridays to get the GSS scores to see how we are doing. If we keep this up we will be in line for an Award through Marriott. Yippee!!
So to any of you travelers.. if you stay at a Marriott property and you get a Survey once you have checked out, please take a moment to seriously complete them... they give the hotel so much information and feedback that you would not believe. Also, if you ever do have a problem at a hotel...or anywhere else... let someone know about it so it can be corrected. A big hurdle that we see is that a guest will have a problem and never notify anyone while at the hotel... then they leave and complain about it. A little something to remember "We can't fix it if we don't know it is broken". You don't know how many times at past properties a guest will say upon check out... or later "Oh, I didn't get any sleep last night.. the people next door were being so loud" then when we ask "Oh, did you call down to the desk?" They reply with "No". That kills me!!! The Front Desk cannot stand outside of every door and keep the noise down. If someone is being loud, we need to know.. it is a simple phone call to the Front Desk. Then the Front Desk can investigate and call the room and ask them to keep the noise down. Many times it is just that easy... and they quite down. It just kills me when a guest does not notify anyone that they are having an issue until it is too late.
So anyway another thing that Marriott does to keep all properties consistent and make sure that all hotels are good enough to keep the Marriott name (if you will) is conduct what is called "QA Inspections". These inspections are done every 4-6 months and are to be taken very seriously. I have yet to go through a Marriott QA but have been through them with Choice Hotels. What generally happens is an inspector through Marriott will come to the property (many times unannounced) and sit incognito in the Breakfast Room to make sure everything is flowing correctly and the attendants are doing what they are suppose to and that all the proper foods are out. Then they will announce themselves to the Front Desk and ask to Inspect 10% of the hotel rooms. They go through the rooms with Management and inspect for cleanliness and Maintenance. Then there is certain paperwork to be inspected (certifications, food temperatures, fire extinguisher inspections, etc, etc.) and then they will ask the staff questions. Anyway, the last inspection that our property received was just before I started and we received a 96% which is Superb. Actually it is quite uncommon, so uncommon in fact, that we got special recognition from Mr. Marriott himself... he sent us a very nice letter in the mail. Something to really be proud of.
With that said, we just got information today that our inspection could very well be later this week. The inspector was in town today, "QA-ing" some of our sister properties. So tomorrow will prove to be a long day. Paul, my General Manager, and I have agreed to come in early tomorrow and bring knock around clothes as we have some tidying to do. And we even discussed the possibility of repainting the exterior walkway leading up to the hotel. So it will be a come in early and leave late kind of day. But if it means getting even more recognition from Mr. Marriott then I am more than willing.
So anyway Ready or Not it could happen later on this week... we are thinking Thursday. Well that is about all today. Sorry if I rambled but I am really proud of my hotel and want us to really exceed the competition.
In other news.... we won $11 in the Powerball. And yes we did spend it all in the same place... MORE Powerball tickets.
That's all for tonight kids.
As a Marriott property we receive what we call "GSS Scores" every Friday. This is the results of Surveys that Marriott will send to guests via email once they have checked out of the hotel. This is pretty random.. not everyone will get one... and again not everyone who receives them will fill them out. But every Friday we get our GSS Scores that rates us from the Guest's point of view as to how well we are doing. Anyway, our property as a whole gets pretty good scores. Since I have been there the scores have gone up.... I would like to believe that me being there had something to do with that... but it could just be coincidence. The AGM that I replaced was evidentally "not so motivated" and did not always follow through on things. But I try to make it a habit to follow up and take care of loose ends on a daily basis. Anyway point to telling you this is recently we have started a few different "Best Practices" that hopefully will increase our scores even more. So I cannot wait until Fridays to get the GSS scores to see how we are doing. If we keep this up we will be in line for an Award through Marriott. Yippee!!
So to any of you travelers.. if you stay at a Marriott property and you get a Survey once you have checked out, please take a moment to seriously complete them... they give the hotel so much information and feedback that you would not believe. Also, if you ever do have a problem at a hotel...or anywhere else... let someone know about it so it can be corrected. A big hurdle that we see is that a guest will have a problem and never notify anyone while at the hotel... then they leave and complain about it. A little something to remember "We can't fix it if we don't know it is broken". You don't know how many times at past properties a guest will say upon check out... or later "Oh, I didn't get any sleep last night.. the people next door were being so loud" then when we ask "Oh, did you call down to the desk?" They reply with "No". That kills me!!! The Front Desk cannot stand outside of every door and keep the noise down. If someone is being loud, we need to know.. it is a simple phone call to the Front Desk. Then the Front Desk can investigate and call the room and ask them to keep the noise down. Many times it is just that easy... and they quite down. It just kills me when a guest does not notify anyone that they are having an issue until it is too late.
So anyway another thing that Marriott does to keep all properties consistent and make sure that all hotels are good enough to keep the Marriott name (if you will) is conduct what is called "QA Inspections". These inspections are done every 4-6 months and are to be taken very seriously. I have yet to go through a Marriott QA but have been through them with Choice Hotels. What generally happens is an inspector through Marriott will come to the property (many times unannounced) and sit incognito in the Breakfast Room to make sure everything is flowing correctly and the attendants are doing what they are suppose to and that all the proper foods are out. Then they will announce themselves to the Front Desk and ask to Inspect 10% of the hotel rooms. They go through the rooms with Management and inspect for cleanliness and Maintenance. Then there is certain paperwork to be inspected (certifications, food temperatures, fire extinguisher inspections, etc, etc.) and then they will ask the staff questions. Anyway, the last inspection that our property received was just before I started and we received a 96% which is Superb. Actually it is quite uncommon, so uncommon in fact, that we got special recognition from Mr. Marriott himself... he sent us a very nice letter in the mail. Something to really be proud of.
With that said, we just got information today that our inspection could very well be later this week. The inspector was in town today, "QA-ing" some of our sister properties. So tomorrow will prove to be a long day. Paul, my General Manager, and I have agreed to come in early tomorrow and bring knock around clothes as we have some tidying to do. And we even discussed the possibility of repainting the exterior walkway leading up to the hotel. So it will be a come in early and leave late kind of day. But if it means getting even more recognition from Mr. Marriott then I am more than willing.
So anyway Ready or Not it could happen later on this week... we are thinking Thursday. Well that is about all today. Sorry if I rambled but I am really proud of my hotel and want us to really exceed the competition.
In other news.... we won $11 in the Powerball. And yes we did spend it all in the same place... MORE Powerball tickets.
That's all for tonight kids.
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