from other hotels, hit a rocking dance club like Popcorn’s (a long-gone place in King of Prussia, PA) till 2am, and then venture into the after-hours club down below (The Bebop Café). This was followed by a big Denny’s breakfast at 5am. Crawl into bed and then do it all over again.
The day came when I knew I had to make a choice: Either remain stationary at the bell stand - a great place to be, monetarily (I contend that a good bellman can earn as much in a year as most any sales man- ager), or move over to the front desk, all $7.25 an hour’s worth of it.
I was youthful, impetuous and at times, irresponsible, but I was also pragmatic, knowing that in order to climb the corpo- rate ladder, so I could one day become an esteemed general manager, I had to know how the front desk operated.
Like housekeeping, which is a mandatory- to-know back-of-the-house function, all departmental roads also lead to the front desk, if one wanted to be well rounded as a GM. And wasn’t that the dream? Isn’t it what I had gone to school for?
Bellmen are walking ambassadors, moving meet-and-greeters who generally are con- sidered as being benign to the guest. The front desk agent, then, is a stationary target. Heaven forbid if anything goes wrong with a guest’s stay, it’s usually the clerk wearing the bright red bulls-eye who gets to handle that situation.
I learned a lot about the human condition during my almost two years behind the front desk. I now look at individuals and groups of people with more of a psycho- logical slant, and a sociological one, too.
Checking in guests, I got to meet people from points everywhere; all accents and every type of attitude. I saw the very best in folks. For example, Mr. Dumal, a regular from Germany, thought enough to give me a crystal Orrefors candy bowl as a wed- ding present, which still rests in a China closet at home.
I saw the worst: The guy who loudly and lit- erally threatened my life from over the front desk when I informed him I wasn’t
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 77
The First Impression. What’s more important than that?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92