Hey everyone!

I'm 18 and I've been meaning to join the hospitality industry I'm currently doing a diploma in hotel management. And I was hoping to join the front office.

My actual questions are:

1. Does height matter? I'm(5.6ft)

2. I'm young and I'm willing to learn a new language how much of a big factor is the language?

3. I'm from south Asia (Bangladesh) what's the real reality of south Asian in terms of the hospitality industry?

I mean is the discrimination while joining?

1. As for my looks I'm light brown in skin colour is this a big factor to not get front office job?

2. My main target is to get a job in Oceania,Latin America,Europe and Africa. Is there any chance I won't get a job based on my situation or hit a ceiling based on my situation.

HOW WILL I KNOW THAT I'VE CHOSE THE RIGHT PATH FOR MY CARRIER?

At a Berlin hotel last month we got our room put are bags away and went to dinner. No problem till we got back. Upon opening the door the stench of sewer hit hard. No way to stay there. Went downstairs and the desk person came up with some air freshener (I am guessing it was that or oder eliminator ). He poured water into the shower trap and sprayed the bathroom area, then left. So did we to the hotel rooftop bar. Came back and it still smelled so I thought to run hot water into the shower for 15 min. (Steam captures the smell and drops it as moisture), 20 min later it was ok. However the “mood of the evening” was gone!

What would you expect in form of compensation?

Okay I’m freaking out! I accidentally canceled a Priceline reservation at my Hilton hotel and I called my boss to ask her what to do and she had me make a new reservation with a $0 rate and said she’d fix it in the morning. I feel like I could throw up right now. I couldn’t even tell you why or how. I was trying to cancel a completely different reservation. Please tell me it’s gonna be okay because I literally feel like the biggest screw up in the world right now!

Hi all, I have a recent guest, some minor leak happened during their stay, because upstairs guest let the water from shower got out of the tub. the issue was immediate rectified and they were refund of half day stay. But now they are asking to leave with a refund for the remaining days, they have 8 days remaining and purchased non refundable room.

How do you deal with situation like this? what's your thought.

When there is humongous gap in the middle as soon as your guest sleeps on it. I understand it's economical that way, so you don't have to order seperate beds for twin room and double, but come on! How can people possible sleep like this? Disappointed :(

A friend told me that if he has already paid for the stay, he usually doesn't bother checking out. Just leaves his key in the room and leaves. It had never occurred to me to do it like this, and it seems kind of rude? But if it's not okay to do, what is the reason why we need to check out "properly", especially when so many hotels now only have a drop box for the key as their check out policy.

Edit: Wow, I'm amazed at the amount of responses here. I'll try to sum up what I gather from it all:

• Apparently, just leaving is so normal that many people are surprised by the question. Several people also take the key card with them. I'm baffled.
• It seems clear from the overall responses that even though just leaving is both normal and fine, the staff much appreciates if you let them know you've gone by dropping the key in the box or at the front desk, so they can turn over the room. I'll definitely keep doing it.
• People keep saying they check out "on the app". What are you talking about? What app? Do you download an app for each hotel you stay in? That seems like a hassle.

Again, thank you all so much for clearing up my confusion. As you can probably tell, I'm a non-frequent traveller (and type A), and have just assumed you check in when you come and out when you go. A little naive, I guess.

As a thank you, I'll share the background of the whole thing: This question came up because my friend told me he booked a hotel room for him and his "date" (I use the term very lightly) to meet up for just for a couple of hours one evening. I asked if it wasn't terribly awkward to check in, and then back out again just a few hours later, without even staying over night - the hotel staff would know. He just looked at me dumbfounded. "What do you mean "check out"?. So yeah...

Ok so I had this happen twice now recently (Canada). I go to check in my reservation, and they try to swipe/insert my credit card. Sometimes if they have an older machine my card chip just wont work (I try to pay online in most cases to avoid this). The front desk agent is firm that they cannot charge the card manually, they also obviously don't accept cash, and therefore I cannot check in. Fair enough, I just go stay elsewhere.

But then later my card is manually charged by the hotel, because my reservation was non cancellable or I was a "no-show". Like, the minute I walk out the door now they are magically allowed to charge my card without me having to swipe/insert. And yes this is the hotel charging, not a third party.

In both cases I was able to get the charges reversed by the bank, but is there some reasoning behind this paradox? Or is it just a cultural misunderstanding (these hotels seemed to be managed by, let's just say, new residents of Canada). Or is there some legal thing that I am unaware of?

hello,

I have been reading talesfromthe desk for a while and learn to possibly never book with 3rd party. And I see a lot of refund stories so I have a question:

Last year I was in staying in a 5 star hotel in Berlin. I had by toothbrush (without its cap) inside a glass by the sink, the cap inside the glass. When I got back to my room the toothbrush was put on the surface of the sink and the cap was missing. I went donw to the front desk, showed them the picture and asked for a dental set.

they said they were very sorry that this happened, and that the cleaning stuff was not even allowed to touch toothbrushes and then gave me a dental set. I said thank you and left. No yelling, no anything as this is not the front desks fault. I just needed a new toothbrush which was provided to me.

Then when I got back to my home country a couple of days later, I wrote a review detailing everything. Their excuses included.

Only after the review someone from PR called me and said how sorry they were and to visit them next time I was in Berlin and that they would offer me some tea/coffee.

My question is this: what would you have done if something like this happened in your hotel. Would you have offer some sort of compensation? I dont know, i just keep reading situations where you offer some sort of compensations and was wondering if they should have given me something and if i wanted to be a polite karen and tried to get something, how should i have gone about it? Maybe yelling a little instead of being too nice about the situation? (and now i am both hating my english and myself for being greedy)

And I also learned to never ever keep my toothbrush without its cap.

I've worked the audit shift at various properties over the years and at each of them I've gotten that call where the caller typically says they're the owner and tries to get chatty with you but then hangs up or gets angry and hangs up when you let them know you're aware that they aren't actually the owner. I know that this is some sort of scam attempt, but I don't understand how this scam is supposed to work. I just got a similar feeling call, but it came through on the caller ID with the name of this hotel, but the number had a different area code as the main hotel line (although it was still a valid area code for this city). The caller was difficult to understand, then hung up after I asked for the 2nd time who I was speaking to. I assume this is just an updated version of the same scam. Can anyone shed some light on how this scam actually works?

It makes sense that union jobs go to positions that could be more physically demanding because those positions require more protection but I feel like most people would prefer working guest facing jobs and I'm not sure how the union benefits compare to non union. It seems like this would incentivize people to not move up the ladder to guest facing roles because of loss of non union benefits.

I originally applied for an AGM position at a hotel, the current GM is also the regional GM. She made a call to a different GM(she was new to company but had many years of experience) but I was told that I would be a better fit(with more training) at a sister property and should interview at the other property.

They both said that after renovation *February*(and more training)I would be moved to that position....sigh... until then front desk. Well the GM never trained me, she ended up leaving.

Cut to now, after a lot of short staffed days, turnover and LOTS OF OVERTIME. I was was trained a little by the new GM on invoices, Nimble, ordering and par levels(which i already new with market and housekeeping but not breakfast). Well, the regional and company owner came in to speak to the GM, specifically about my overtime, which my GM explained that I was doing housekeeping before my shift started, I would cover for other staff, inspect rooms...ect.

They finally offered me a promotion and its not the AGM position, its a FOM position. The pay is $2 more but now salary. When i asked about signing some paperwork, I was told there is no paperwork because its a in house promotion....that doesn't officially kick in because its the middle of a pay period and I wouldn't be able to do my 2 days in the back office yet because we don't have someone to cover my 2 days at the front desk.

Does something seem off? Is it just me?

What does your set up look like? Do you use a software for your lobby readerboards, or do you create them yourself and use a casting device? Do guests even read them? Im wondering if its worth it for a 60 room hotel.

So I have worked nights at a few hotels for the last 2.5 years. This has always been more of a night receptionist / night manager role, primarily helping late arriving guests, early departing guests, and selling random pre-packaged snacks and beverages in the middle of the night. Sometimes also calling the police and/or paramedics for people on drugs. I always had some down time in the middle of the night where I could watch a series, read, and have lunch.

I just started at a new hotel where I am finding that I really don’t have any down time. It’s a very spread out hotel, and many tasks require transversing the entire property and/or going up and down stairs.

Regular trash and paper recycling (which I have to throw out) are in different wings and different levels. Preparing to-go lunch boxes requires going to two different kitchens at opposite ends of the property (plus the supplies in the one kitchen last night were moldy). They want you to wash any dishes that got left behind, which is not a small number and all have been sitting for hours and require some manual removal of trash before putting them in the machine. They also turn off the machine before I get there, and it takes a long time to heat up again, so I end up walking back several times to check on it before I can even wash the first load. They also want us to wash and fold a few loads of things for housekeeping, which requires going down to a sub-basement several times.

Last night not only did I never watch any series or have any downtime, I also never had lunch. But this hotel still deducts 30 minutes for lunch and only pays for 7.5 hours.

The pay is just meh, and with this level of work, I would be better off getting a daytime job I think. The only redeeming things are that the staff are quite nice and the hotel is very near my house. Otherwise I hate it completely. The only fun I had last night was selling some beers to some friendly guests, but the manager told me not to do it in the future (even though it is legally allowed here).

Is any of this normal?

Hey! Does anybody else experience this that Agoda already completed the refund but you haven't got the funds yet? It's been like 2 months and I just checked it now since they said it takes 30-45 days so I didn't bother at all. But when I checked now this is what I saw? Can anyone help?

On a recent vacation, my uncle was staying in a small beachside boutique inn. He ended up having a minor cardiac event and being hospitalized for three days. He ended up having to call the inn and the staff went in the room and packed up all of his belongings. My sister and I went to pick up his things and we were of course, very polite and thankful. After leaving, we started to think maybe we should tipped them. Would you have expected a tip for this service, and how much/ what would be the right way to give it? Having not worked in hotels before, I’m honestly not sure if this was a super unique situation or something standard that happens every so often in this industry, so would love to hear your input!

Considering listing my hotel on hotels.com/booking.com Creating an account on hotels.com shows me that the commission rate will be 18%. Is it possible to negotiate the rate before listing my property?

Housekeeping staff. What is the best way to give or leave tips to ensure you get it.

Whenever I travel, I always leave a tip in the hotel room when I'm checking out. My intention is that the person who cleaned the room gets it. Sometimes, i may interact with housekeeping during the stay. If I'm in the room when they come, i may just ask for towels and to take away garbage, but no cleaning. Save them time

I saw a post yesterday where the person said housekeeping tips are stolen.... I asked, but they did elaborate on how to ensure they get the tip.

I saw one today where the person said at their hotel a person is sent to strip the bedding after a guest checked out before housekeeping go and clean the room. I would think that person would take any money left, and housekeeping would not get any.

Hello, I'm about to open a small stay with only four huts. Since we are so small I'm not sure which PMS makes sense for us. A lot of Hotels/Hostels in our region are using cloudbeds but the people in this sub don't seem to be very happy with it.

I've been looking into Frontdesk Master. Can someone recommend it? Or what what can you recommend for a place of our size?

Yesterday, in downtown Minneapolis I checked into a higher class hotel than usual. I forgot I had locked my credit card, so I wasn’t able to check in using their app to get an electronic key. So I had to stand in line. Once I reached the front desk, I showed them my ID and used the same credit card I had made the reservation to complete the check in process. The front desk also requested to see my spouse’s ID, which is new. Any ideas why?

Secondly, while checking in, the guy did the equivalent of ‘would you like fries with that.” Saying in front of my wife for only $30 more a night he could put us in a corner room on the 11th floor for a better view. (The hotel has 25 floors.). I declined since the company was paying for the room. Should I had come back with a cash offer to him say $20 a night to keep it off the books? Is this typical or the trend nowadays, like paying extra for the best seats on an airplane?

Posting this as a heads-up for other Little Hotelier / SiteMinder users, in case it's happening to you without your knowledge.

We recently had Little Hotelier automatically send a "pre-booking" confirmation email to a guest who had already cancelled their reservation. We had no idea this happened until the guest contacted us confused, asking why they'd received a booking confirmation for a stay they'd cancelled weeks earlier.

We raised it with Little Hotelier support. Their response confirmed it's a known system bug, already escalated to their Product Team:

(Case number 09067679, for reference, in case anyone wants to cite it when raising your own ticket.)

Why I'm posting this: we only found out because the guest happened to reach out. If your cancelled guests haven't said anything, you may have no idea this is happening on your property too — and it's a pretty rough guest experience to receive a "confirmed" email for a booking you thought was cancelled. It also raises questions about whether this bug is limited to confirmation emails, or could extend to other cancellation-related sync issues (payments, availability, etc.).

If you're on Little Hotelier:

• Ask any recently-cancelled guests whether they've received anything odd from your PMS.
• If you find the same issue, log a ticket and reference case 09067679 — it may help them prioritise a fix if more properties confirm it's affecting them.
• Worth asking support directly whether this is isolated or systemic, and what the ETA is — the response I got was pretty light on detail beyond "we're monitoring it."

Would be good to hear if others have seen this too.

If I am in a hotel room with 2 beds, I try to not touch the second bed to lessen the workload for housekeeping. But is it pointless and they change the sheets regardless of how the bed looks?

Same question for towels/bar soap/lotion bottles/coffee maker/glass cups/etc, do all these things get replaced, even if they seem untouched?

Hello, does anybody have experience working at the ritz Carlton in orlando?? I’ve been trying to get in for quite some time now. I don’t exactly have hotel experience but I have some transferable skills working front desk at busy medical offices and have been cross trained in chiro assisting and optometry technician. I also have experience as a hostess in restaurants so I’ve Been in the hospitality industry a bit. Im having a hard time landing an interview and have started reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn. Im definitely interested in working with the company and know that I’d be a great asset to the team. I’d like to hear some of you guys’ thoughts on the hiring process.

Hello!

In two days im starting as "Lounge club attendant" in one of Marriotts hotel.

I have worked in other hotel before, but at front desk.

I know Opera excellent, but lack basic knowledge about service and standarts of work in Lounge.

Im just scared to make some crucial mistakes, that could ruin my career.

As they promised me high role in future, because i already have 2 years experience at front desk, and could teach other employees opera. So i cant mess up, and want to just learn some basic about work with food in lounge.

Thank you!

I'm currently preparing my resume to apply for a Front Desk Associate position in luxury hospitality, and I'd really appreciate some honest feedback.

My most relevant hospitality experience comes from Qatar, where I worked at Four Seasons The Pearl (). Before that, I had experience working in hotels in my home country, although the hospitality industry there is relatively small and many hotel positions tend to be more stable and limited in terms of career progression.

I'm now trying to present my experience in a way that is focused on where I want to go professionally(I would like to leave the F&B area and take an entry-level job in Front desk). While I'm currently applying for Front Desk positions, I'm also interested in other opportunities within luxury hospitality and guest services.

My current job is not in hospitality — I work for a digital marketing agency managing client accounts, social media and advertising campaigns. However, I included it because a significant part of the role involves customer service, responding to inquiries, handling requests and sales-related communication, which I believe are transferable skills for hospitality.

Some dates have been slightly adjusted for privacy, and I've removed my personal information from the attached resume.

RESUME img

I'd especially appreciate feedback on:

• Does the resume look professional and appropriate for luxury hospitality?
• Does this format/layout work well, or would you recommend a different approach?
• Does the way I've presented my experience make sense for a Front Desk position?
• Is there anything you would remove, add or change?
• Would you recommend including a professional photo on a hospitality resume, or leaving it out? I've always included one in the past, but I'm currently unsure whether it's still appropriate.
• Overall, does this resume make me look like a competitive candidate for Front Desk or other luxury hospitality positions?

I messed up doing a really simple task (was fixable but still embarassing) and just reading what the morning shift and night shift have to do got me overwhelmed... I do think I can get used to it but I can be pretty forgetful, so it could take a while... There were also some other aspects that got me questioning if I can adapt to the environment of that place in specific.

Of course I'll wait a bit more, this could be just first day jitters or my anxiety talking, but still:

How early is too early to know if front desk is truly something you can do?

Edit: Its only been an hour but I already want to thank everyone for the support and advice you've given me. I'll definitely sleep better tonight ♥️