Essays

Yvonne Charles - 2005-2006
My name is Yvonne Florence Charles of The Flamboyant Hotel & Villas, Grenada.

I have successfully completed my Housekeeping Training at the Aruba Hotel School, and was granted a certificate to work as a Professional Housekeeping Supervisor.

The course was very interesting; I gave it my all. I attended classes 6 days per week from August 24th to December 9th, 2005.

At the Hyatt Regency, where I did most of my training, it was very challenging having to work at such a large hotel with 360 room and 9 floors, which I never did before. After being there for 1 month, I was left to perform on my own. I had to do inspections of all the Housekeepers and Housemen stationed on my floor section. I learned quite a lot of different ideas at the Hyatt Regency, for example, getting my room status from the computer automatically by selecting certain code numbers and entering my personal ID. The standards and ways of preparing the rooms for arrival, how they arrange the amenities for V.I.P arrivals were slightly different to those of the standard rooms. I also had the opportunity to experience how the hotel did its preparation for Banquets and Pirate Night Dinners. I also had the opportunity to visit different casinos on the Island, just for the experience, since we do not have any in Grenada. What I experienced was very different to what I heard about casino life. I found it to be very decent.

I also visited other hotels on the Island, such as, The Holiday Inn, where I met with the Manager, Mr. Sylvo de Nascimento. Also, the Renaissance Hotel which is an upscale resort of 358 rooms and 340 staff. When I visited the Wyndham Beach Resort I filmed the arrival and departure procedures at the Front Office. I visited the Radisson Beach Resort where I also filmed some of those activities that took place at the Front Office. The Front Office Clerk took some time off to explain the Guest Folio, Guest Vouchers, Guest Accounting, Guest Reservations, Guest History, Etc. It was very interesting.

During my visit the Aruba Beach Resort I met with the General Manager, Mr. Martin Valtarain. He gave me some of the Hotel's History and names of different units, such as, Deluxe, Royal and Superb units.

At the EPI - Ensenza Professional Intermedio College - where I did most of the Housekeeping and Front Office operation course, was also a great experience for me as well. There I was taught that quality Housekeeping is the mark of excellence of any hotel, and that the sort of things that will immediately impress our guests are total response to the rooms, appearances & quality service of the Housekeepers, even courtesy must be convincing in order to make our guests a potential repeat customer.

I also learned that in the Lodging Industry to be a professional Housekeeping Supervisor or Room Inspectress one has to be knowledgeable about Front Office Operations. There must be coordination, in order to avoid room status discrepancies.

I found the entire programme to be very interesting. If given the opportunity I would not mind doing it all over again, but at a higher level.

Last but not least, I will like to take the opportunity to say thanks to the Caribbean Hotel Foundation for granting me the scholarship. The programme taught me self-respect, how to develop my self-esteem and how to listen to one's problems and how to try to help solve it.

Sincerely yours,
Yvonne F. Charles

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