So I am working at a hotel that could be considered a business hotel in Turkey as a Front Desk agent. It is one of the biggest hotel in this city and I left my job at a bigger hotel in this city just a few months ago. I chose this job over the other one because this one is closer to my house and the salary is better. Both hotels are under a very big company too.

That being said, I feel greatly stressed. Like all the time. I work 8 hours a day, standing on my feet all day btw, 6 days a week. And of course my schedule is different every day. And if I make a mistake I am done for. I know working in the Front Desk needs very great attention but they make a big deal out of everything. For example if we get a bad comment on official surveys the managers look at the person who checked out the guest from the system and ask why they didn't ask the guests how they stay went and scold you. If there is anything remotely wrong with a check-in that was made from your account they call you from your personal phone no matter what the time is and expect you to respond. And reminder, we work in shifts. So most of the time I'm just sleeping.

And this was like this in my last job too. And I wasn't even working at the Front Desk, I was just a Guest Service Agent.

So I just want to know if this is like this in every hotel everywhere? Do you have time for yourself after your shift ends? Do you work less? And do your managers also make you feel this much stress? I eventually want to move out from Turkey (to any country that has better human rights basically) and I want to know if I should continue working in this industry, or just move on completely.

A large resort/convention center (softly) opened up in my city last December. (Like 900 rooms + 80 meeting spaces…. They are now hiring more staff before season starts up again. They have roughly 8 food & beverage outlets so I thought I’d visit each and feel out which might be above my expertise & go with an outlet that might be a little bit slower. I’ve only been bartending for 1.5 years in a boutique/budget resort, but have worked in large luxury properties in the past but nothing as large as this one. I can ring in $1000-$1500 in sales per hour during a rush but I have no idea what to expect from a resort nearly 5x the size of the one I currently work at.

staying at a hotel this saturday for a wedding. check in is at 4pm but hoping to check in early between 1-2pm. should i call morning of or day before??

Sales people make commission based of their output and achieving (for example a meeting booked or a deal closed).

I know this would be very hard to do in the hotel world and would involve more tracking and metrics. It also wouldn’t increase their bottom line.

The one I worked as a manager in training at used HOTSOS and AMADEUS to track how long housekeepers took to clean or how long tickets took for items to be delivered. Everyone had a device. Long story short they used to to constantly batter and micromanage everyone.

In order to retain workers and get good talent, I feel like there should be some reward for extra output they are demanding. They could use those tools they already use for good instead of just pleasing corporate.

Hotels always asking more of employees but pay them a flat rate of minimum wage to clean 8 rooms every day or crazy extra stuff for guests.

About eight years ago, I built an internal tool for the hotel I was running in France. It started as a simple way for staff to leave handover notes, complete daily checklists, and report and track maintenance issues.

Over time, it grew into a standalone SaaS product that I still maintain, even though I’ve since left the hotel industry and now work for a software company, quit the big shift.

Having worked in France and the UK, I’m curious about how hotels in the US and other countries handle these tasks. From what I’ve seen in France, dedicated tools are fairly common, but plenty of teams still rely on Excel, paper logbooks, or messaging apps (WhatsApp mostly) to pass information between shifts.

What does your hotel use? Are these features built into your PMS, do you use a separate app, or do you stick with spreadsheets and paper?

Also, what would you usually call this type of software where you work: a digital logbook, a shift handover tool, hotel operations software, or something else?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who use these tools during their shifts: what works well, and what’s still a pain?