Very Different Environment

My first full shift at work yesterday was a very different experience. This is a hotel operation here as opposed to a campground operation and the clientele and procedures are vastly different. First of all, nobody has a rig that is checking in. The people are mostly from foreign countries that are here to visit Yellowstone National Park, or with families on vacation for the same reason. There are also bus tours that show up with anywhere from 20 to 50 or more guests. On those occasions, we deal only with the Tour Director and not the individual guests. Good thing. There were times yesterday that we had several groups of people waiting in line to check in. There are also about 20 different booking companies that we deal with, including Expedia and Orbitz, and they already have taken payment from the people and we need to know that so that we don't double charge them. The day is filled with hotel front desk situations and that makes for a whole new environment. It is better to be very busy than to sit around looking for something to do, so that is a welcome change.

The closing procedures take a lot more time and include many more steps than we've been used to. We began closing at 11 PM last night and I didn't get out of there until 11:45. Of course, it was my first night handling the closing and I did have help from my co-worker, Karen, who led me through the process. Most of the effort is manual since the total operation of our part of the business is very manually oriented. They do not have a sophisticated computer system - it is Excel spreadsheet based - and therefore it is automatically more time consuming.

Josie also begins her work schedule today, so we both will be on duty from 3 to about 11:30. Our "lunch" break is scheduled for 7 - 8 PM and Josie has a crockpot ready to plug in when we leave for work at 3 so it should be ready by lunch time. We still have to get used to a different sleeping schedule, so we'll keep you posted on that.

We are getting ready to take a walk down town to see some of the shops and businesses that are unique to this area. It's kinda nice having a few hours of free time before starting work everyday. See ya tomorrow...