A Hectic Work Day

Even though we are selling out just about every night at the lodge, every day seems to bring new problems. Last night was no different. The problems last night were more reservation related than anything else. There were several occasions where the people either made the reservation for the day before or day after their arrival, or the person taking the reservation either misspelled the name or didn't save the reservation at all. We have what we call "Safe Rooms" each night which are extra rooms that are used in the event of such problems or used to move guests who are unhappy with their assigned rooms. We like to keep at least one Safe Room for every 10 reservations, and release them one at a time for walk-in guests as the check-ins are reduced. Last night, we were worried that we wouldn't have enough Safe Rooms as the problems resulted in assigning more than the normal number of rooms to disgruntled guests. At one point, we had 40 outstanding check-ins and only 3 Safe Rooms left. We managed though, and the night ended with a problem free final couple of hours.

Our work schedule this year is all afternoon shifts, versus a split of three mornings and two afternoons last year. This year, we have more free time to enjoy on our days off and we get to sleep in every day. There are advantages to each schedule, but the afternoons carry a longer busy period than the mornings. Folks who check out in the mornings and don't need a receipt can just leave the keys in their room and leave and not come into the office at all. That represents quite a few of the check-outs. On the other hand, every guest has to check-in and there are no shortcuts to that process. The problems at check-in are also more of a nuisance as people are getting situated in their rooms and need a lot of extra attention - more towels, shampoo and ice bags, a rollaway cot, TV problems, directions and or suggestions for dinner locations, etc. We also get to respond to the tour bus crowd whereas the morning shift doesn't have to worry about the tour guests because they leave at 8 AM each day - at the latest. The morning shift has its busiest time between 7 AM and 11 AM, and they cruise until the shift ends when we arrive at 3 PM. The afternoon shift (ours) is busy, non-stop, from check-in time at 4 PM until almost 10 PM when just about everybody has checked in and the most activity is on the phone with wake up call requests.

It is a beautiful morning outside today and the forecast is for nice weather until, you guessed it, - Thursday when we start our weekend. We will still schedule some fun outside stuff no matter what the weather, so we will hope for the best...