Reflective Journal: Front Office and Housekeeping Experience in Hotels

This student journal entry reflects on the writer's experiences in the front office and housekeeping departments of a hotel, specifically Premier Inn. Utilizing the Gibbs reflective model, the author describes their initial challenges, particularly the pressure of customer interactions in the front office, and how support from seniors and improved communication skills helped them adapt. The journal evaluates the author's strengths in self-management and weaknesses in time management, analyzing how these skills will translate to future roles. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of communication, flexibility, and time management in the hospitality industry, proposing an action plan to improve time management skills through software and practice. The journal provides references to relevant academic sources.

Student Journal

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Reflection on experience of front office and housekeeping........................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Refection is a way of critically analysis of experience on knowledge development. In this
study, I am going to discuss my experience of working in front office and housekeeping
departments. I will discuss my feelings of experience and placement in Premier inn hotel.
Reflection on experience of front office and housekeeping
On the basis of my experience of working in housekeeping and front office department in
food and beverage company, I want to reflect on my skills and knowledge. I have got placement
in premier inn hotel and for working there in an effective manner, I want to know about my skills
and weaknesses. With the help of Gibbs reflective model, I can reflect on my experience such as:
Description: I want to share my experience of working as housekeeping and front office
assistant and in this regard, I can say that working in these both departments is not an easy task.
These both departments are responsible for satisfying customers. When customers have any
problem then they directly come and visit to front office department. It increases pressure on
staff, Initially (South, Giuntoli and Kinsella, 2017). I became frustrated but support of my seniors
helped me out in working as an efficient staff. I was encouraged to interact with guests and
solving their problems in an effective and timely manner. I believe that this encouragement
improved my communication skill. Now, I can communicate with different behaviours of
people and this experience would help me out in the future and working in Premier Inn as an
effective and professional employee.
Feeling: In regard to experience that I share, I can say that we must take risks and should
work even after when we are not comfortable and sure. Risk taking skill plays a vital role and
each task that is new to us makes us feel nervous. Practice makes us perfect and having
confidence is also important. After working in these departments, I came to know that employees
in these departments need to be aware with organizational information. Guests can ask for
anything and this post increased my knowledge relevant to other fields as well. Staff of front
office department needs to interact with other departments like production, housekeeping and
others. Guests do not go directly to managers even if they face problems relevant to other
departments. So, it is imporatnt to have knowledge of other department vallen & Vallen, Jerome,
(2014). In this regard, I can say that this post increased my memory as I can learn number of
things at once. I believe that I can manage number of tasks in an effective manner. This task
management skill can make me able in performing in Premier inn hotel in an effective manner.

Evaluation: I want to evaluate my experience of housekeeping and front office assistant.
In this regard, I can say that front office assistant needs to be calm in all situations because their
main aim is to satisfy client whether they are wrong or right. We need to answer them in a polite
manner so that we can increase their experience and help out company in accomplishing goal of
attracting customers. When I was asked to provide in depth information to guests and managing
their data then I became nervous. Due to lack of time management, I updated wrong data and it
affected my performance. At that time, I came to know that having time management skill is
vital otherwise, it can increase depression and frustration that directly affects our performance.
Peers supported me at that time and helped me out in improving time management skill. On the
other hand, I found that I am good in self management (ASET. 2017). I can mould myself as per
the situation. At the time of covid-19, we all were asked to work from home and some
employees faced problems while working from home. But my self management skill helped me
out in adapting this changing situation and accordingly, I workers with effectiveness. Overall, I
can say that I am good in self management and lacking behind in time management as well as
technical knowledge.
Analysis: On the basis of above discussion and experience, I can say that this role can
make me able in working in Premier Inn hotel and satisfying guests. I can use communication,
self management and task management skills and can help out hotel in accomplishing goals of
being the market leader (Gregg, 2018).
Conclusion: It has been summarized from above discussion that communication,
flexibility, self management and time management skills play a vital role for working in hotels.
These skills make us able in improving performance and confidence as well.
Action plan: As I found that I am lacking behind in time management skills and by
developing professional development plan, I can increase strength.
Skills need to be
improved
Actions Time-frame
Time-management By using Toggle and other time management software
as well as prioritizing tasks, I can improve this skill.
Practice is also the main key so by practising tasks as
well as decreasing procrastination, time management
Approximate 3-
4 months

skill can be improved (Ho, 2020).

REFERENCES
Books and journals
ASET., 2017 ASET good practice guide for work based and placement learning, ASET,
Sheffield 2017
Gregg, M., 2018. Counterproductive: Time management in the knowledge economy. Duke
University Press.
Ho, Y.Y.C., 2020. Communicative language teaching and English as a foreign language
undergraduates’ communicative competence in Tourism English. Journal of Hospitality,
Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education. 27. p.100271.
South, J., Giuntoli, G. and Kinsella, K., 2017. Getting past the dual logic: findings from a pilot
asset mapping exercise in Sheffield, UK. Health & social care in the community. 25(1).
pp.105-113.
vallen, G.K. & Vallen, Jerome J. (2014) check in chek out: managing hotel operations ninth
edition: Pearson new international

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