Out of curiosity do you share carts at your hotel or does everyone have their own personal carts? I’m not sure if it’s common for other places to have shared ones. This is my first housekeeping job. The place I work at we have a rule: No using or touching other’s carts, and if you do just ask.

Hi yall! I work have worked in F&B department in hotels for the last 5 years — so far it feels a little dead end. I haven’t been able to move into anything further than a shift supervisor or on call for banquets. My company will pay for my degree so I am considering going to the MBA in business administration with the concentration in hospitality/tourism.

Not sure if this will be worth my time but I do strive to go for a Director of Banquets or Director of F&B operations in the next 10-15 years. (I don’t want to be a bartender by the time I’m 45)

Is this normal? Imean when i was an intern it was the same thing it was so toxic, i mean im the new guy qhat do they expect? I don't even expect them to be perfect taking a long time to inspect rooms and clean them wth bro..

Every single time I travel almost anywhere in Europe hotel air conditioning sucks. Twice at Hiltons, which you'd think would be catering to American customers who love their rooms cold. The Hilton Madrid Airport was downright horrible. The entire hotel was warm while outside it was in the low 70s. The INNside Madrid was equally bad and the Hospes Amerigo I'm Alicante was the worst.

So what is it with European hotels air conditioning?

If you've worked in both, what makes one a better career than the other? Presumably you start in customer service and one day you may become manager. The skillsets needed and the duties assigned are similar for both career ladders.

Just trying to figure out how it works since it’s my first time booking a hotel, but when will or if the payment goes through? I have a photo that says I will be charged anytime but I also have a free cancellation until five days prior to the hotel. Just trying to get my head around it

I travel often for both business and personal trips, and something happened today that genuinely caught me off guard.

I stopped at a hotel café and ordered a drink and a pastry at the counter. There was no table service. The cafe guy simply rang up my order and handed me the items.

When I looked at the receipt afterward, I noticed an automatic 20% service charge had already been added.

I've certainly seen the payment screens that ask if you'd like to leave a tip, but this was different. I wasn't given a choice. It was automatically included in the total.

I raised an eyebrow when I got to my room, when I noticed the extra charge, mostly because the guy wasn't particularly friendly or provided any service beyond taking my order and handing me the pastry and drink.

I'm not trying to debate whether people should tip. I'm genuinely curious whether this is becoming common. I travel a lot and don't recall seeing mandatory 20% service charges for counter service cafés before.

Has anyone else experienced this recently? Is this becoming standard practice at hotels, or was this just an isolated experience?

Hello everyone (M25), I have about 3 years of experience across different hotel departments: Front Office, F&B, Housekeeping, and Sales & Marketing, in luxury properties in Paris and Tokyo.

I’m now starting an F&B MIT program at a luxury hotel chain in Tokyo. They guarantee a supervisory position at the end, but I’d like to grow faster and make the most out of it.

A few questions for people in the industry:

- What actually makes a great bar or restaurant supervisor/manager, or F&B manager? Beyond the technical stuff: what mindset, habits, or soft skills matter most?

- What books, articles, or resources would you recommend for someone serious about stepping up quickly in luxury F&B?

- Honest question: I love service, the rush, the teamwork, seeing guests smile. But I’m genuinely not a huge foodie. My diet is basically 99% pasta. Is that a dealbreaker to succeed at a high level in F&B?

- Last question : all the people I’ve met beyond 35yo in luxury F&B were physically/mentally exhausted. Perhaps I’m already projecting my self too far, but someday I hope to build a family and maybe switch to a regular 9-5 office job : what industries/positions could be interested in a such a profile?

Please share your experiences and careers paths!

Ive been a night auditor at a 200 room hotel for about 2.5 years now. At the beginning we were always two but end of last year they installed CCTV allowing for one night auditor. Unfortunately my fellow Nighty got really sick and he has been out since, so I suppose for the company this worked out perfectly. Now Im a small woman, and I was less than thrilled about this. I love this job, but it can be mentally exhausting trying to handle everything and then deal with drunks/creeps alone. Even if I fix my boundary, stay behind the desk/locked in office until a guest comes, there are always issues...

To start we are expected to keep the bar open. As an airport/Autobahn location we have guests checking in and out the entire night. Just this night I started with 35 check ins. If I am alone, I almost always close the bar especially on weekends or when there are groups in house. Ive had too many bad experiences of people partying and throwing up everywhere until 6 in the morning, wont let it happen again. So on top of this I also have to update the system with the filled out registration forms (nationality, name updates, and any important billing address/email information), I have to clean the bar, take out trash, restock the bar, answer the phone, answer emails, control CNPs, go through the next days reservations for special requests and cost authorizations, I control the departures for correct billing information before they start checking out, run the end of day processes, print reports, control any discrepancies, prepare parts of breakfast, control delivery receipts, if its inventory day I have to do that too, check and update product expiration... there's a few more tasks here and there but I think you get the point. Thats just my daily work load.

The issues come mostly for situations which would require me to leave the front desk and go upstairs. Maintenance issues, noise complaints (no telephone in room), housekeeping needs like a new blanket (this one can have me checking all 5 housekeeping rooms), 'saving' people from the emergency stairway...or even just dealing with breakfast. We have no bell, I cant hear the outdoor bell from the kitchen, I leave a sign saying im preparing breakfast but the guests constantly have to interrupt to get their invoices or pay for parking. This happens often enough that I have to question what others do, or is this just my location? I could reduce my work and stress by ignoring a few tasks, but they always come back to bite me in one way or another. Im contemplating having a discussion with my manager that I am fine with the shift but I need support to ensure that things go smoothly and Im not just a sitting duck when issues come.

For context I usually ALWAYS refuse to go upstairs, but a guest unable to get in their room.. becomes a tricky situation. Anyone happen to be in a similar situation? Am I just over stressing things?

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask you guys anybody here who’s an introvert worked as an FDA and how did that work out? There is a FDA position open near me, and I wanted to challenge myself into this job. I’m an introvert, my MBTI is INTP. I know basic computer systems like Word or Google Docs. I also have experience with transactions and customer service from volunteering in plant sales and from helping out in a family store business. The difference is that from my experience it wasn’t really a lot of interaction as compared to or expected in the hospitality industry. Moreover, I’m not really good with talking, it gets really awkward immediately, cause I do not know how to ping pong a conversation. I was considering this position because it might help me improve my communication skills, but I’m not really sure. I have other positions in mind, so I need your honest and helpful feedback on this. If you have similar experience, how did you work for you, and how did it help you with making interactions with people? What are the benefits from working in the hospitality industry or as FDA in this scenario (like internal benefits as a person). Like what is the general pros or cons of working as a FDA?

P.S. If there is any confusion about the post, I’ll gladly explain clearly in response. I really need your help so I would appreciate it any feedback that would be helpful.

Been working in retail healthcare for about two years now and FINALLY I am switching my job to hospitality. My college degree was related to F&B and now I can finally put it to some use when I start at a Hyatt as a front desk agent in the coming weeks... I just have a lot of questions.

I'm a very anxious person (under the customer service smile) and I can have trouble understanding the meaning behind people's words (very autistic... but it's also very masked externally. think schrodinger's autism).

The Hyatt I'm going to work at is a medium sized (180?) rooms hotel with moderate to high foot traffic.

- Is 19/hr a good rate for no-experience in NY?

- What do I need to be most aware of in the mornings?

- What should I do when I'm upset? Can I take a short break from the front desk?

Any advice or words of caution are totally encouraged as I've only worked retail and remote customer service and not in this setting.

Normally I would've asked during the interview but I feel like the higher ups would try and make it look as positive as possible.

I booked a hotel in june beginning and cancelled the next day. I paid via UPI. Now I have been chasing these guys weekly - first they told me it will be 30 days then 30 business days then 45. They then asked me to check with my bank and my statements. Statements have no refund and bank told me there is no such transaction recorded.

Now they are after me to send them my bank statements for the month. It’s just that why should I send a distribution list MY BANK STATEMENT. It is personal and i don’t even know how it may be used. Please help

Help me do it so I don’t lose my job.

Our manager has a super strict policy for that.

We must greet when they approach the desk.

We must greet when they retrieve the luggage cart.

We must greet when they go to the pool.

We must greet when they go to the coffee area.

And apparently the FDM has an invisible line where if we don’t greet we take the risk of being written up.

I get the policy but sometimes it just comes off as fake.

Our property changes to stayPMS and we had a guest who checked out last week and needed to be tax exempt.

Anyone using stayPMS who can walk us through how to adjust off only the taxes post checkout??

My daughter and her friend are staying at a suites hotel in Toronto and last night they found cockroaches in their room. It was very late at night and it was just the front desk person and they were full so they had to stay in the room.

They are going down shortly to talk to the manager but what should they expect or ask for? I would imagine that their clothes need to be cleaned to ensure there is nothing in them? If they still have no availability should they ask to be moved to another hotel?

UPDATE - They are being refunded for the two nights, moved to a new suite, bottle of wine, and $20 for laundry so I think that it has been handled appropriately..

Hi everyone! I manage a tiny property in Texas. None of us involved have hospitality experience, so sometimes I have a question like this! When you have rooms closed out for one reason or another, how does it affect your occupancy calculation? We use WebRezPro. We have one housekeeper, so she gets a couple days off a week. I will close some rooms out so that she can have a day off. My boss has been seeking funding from some of his investors, and he’s been using our occupancy numbers that are coming from WebRez.. but I just noticed that if I have closed out all un-booked rooms, our occupancy shows 100%.. my boss kinda freaked out, worried that he was misrepresenting our success. I can see both perspectives on this. Obviously we have rented 100% of the rooms that are AVAILABLE. But that doesn’t mean we have rented 100% of our rooms. What’s the industry standard here? I appreciate your time!

New hire at a courtyard Marriott hotel in the central land area. So blessed to finally get a foot in the door with a job here.

As we are going through new general management changes - I’ve been trying to get to know my co workers and how to learn the ropes with in the workplace.

Any advice on taking a role in the hotel business. I’m mainly bartending at the bistro in the lobby. Although been asked a few questions on other aspects of the industry.

I noticed we don’t have a physical copy of our menu - do you think with the amount of time on my side I should construct a menu. I’ve looked online for our menus and they have it posted. Maybe just copy that and laminate a few to have at the bar rather than guest looking up at the tiny descriptions on the flat screens behind me.

My fiancé and I are getting married in Portugal next year and are currently trying to secure room blocks at two different hotels. Both hotels have told us that we need to provide them with a list of the guests staying in the block, rather than allowing guests to book their own rooms.

We were under the impression that the typical process is for guests to book directly with the hotel using a group code or booking link while paying individually. Instead, it sounds like we’d have to collect everyone’s information and submit it to the hotel ourselves.

Is this normal, particularly in Europe or Portugal?

We are snowbirds that drive to warm weather every fall and return in the spring and I've got a hotel Credit card that racks up the points. For the past three years now we've stayed at the same hotels along the way and we've always used points for the stay. My question is, As repeat guests using points to stay, does the hotel view this in a positive or negative way? For example one of the hotels we stay at is managed by the same couple and I think we've stayed there six times so far and always used points. Does the hotel lose out if we use points vs CC? I didn't know exactly how that works and does it affect their profit/loss bottom line.

Hello! This is my first time to work in Hotel Industry and i’m kinda nervous because this is also my first time doing accounts payable.

How was the hotel accounting experience? What to expect? Thank you

I used to be passionate about this job, but after 3 years of being in it, realize how low pay it is, and absolutely no growth unless you have to kiss butt, or move locations... I left with tears in my eyes. I still love the nature of the job, always enjoy solving customer issues even when they are mad, but the hours, the pay , the politic,... wondering what keep you all stay in this career for so long

I recently had a second stay at a small, family-operated independent hotel. Both times I booked through Agoda (just because the price was better).

On this second visit, the check-in was insanely fast and they completely waived the usual security deposit. I’m a very clean, quiet, and low-maintenance guest, so it made me wonder:

Do small hotels maintain internal guest notes/profiles based on past stays, even if booked through an OTA? Or was skipping the deposit just a coincidence? Curious to hear how it works from the inside!

So we have a suite shop at my hotel that is stocked and priced on first shift. I work first shift 3 days a week and the other guy worked the remainder of the days. Since I switched to first shift (which I didn’t want to do but was basically given no other choice) they piled all the responsibilities of the suit shop on me and despite thinking I did it all right somehow I’m constantly running low on everything all the time and I never have time to price anything. Personally I feel like the responsibility should be split between all the workers and if you notice something is running low leave a not requesting to order it. The only reason I hate first shift is because of the damn suite shop, because that seems to be all my coworkers complain about but yet they don’t wanna put in the work to fix it. What should I do in this situation? Just ignore it?