Inside a hotel

Streaming video - 2014

The MacDonald chain of luxury hotels serves business and leisure customers across the UK. Their people are integral to their success. This film goes inside one of its hotels to discover what they do. Service is everything: Guests have to be greeted with a smile. Neil, the concierge, is virtually a "personal organiser" for everyone who visits the hotel. The receptionist is in the front line, too, checking people in and dealing with angry customers. Giuseppe, the head waiter, has been in the restaurant business for over 30 years. Many guests fall below his standards! Conference business: Long gone are the days when big hotels relied on selling people a bed for the night to make their money. Now the big market is the corporate market... and conferences. Recruitment, training and "mystery shoppers" like Colin and Wendy are all vital to keeping up standards of service. A lack of nibbles in the bar or newspapers which don't turn up mean Colin and Wendy mark the hotel down. Highs and lows: Working in a hotel is a bit like being on stage. The highs come when you meet your goals, the lows when you fail to make a customer happy. By no means all hotel workers find their jobs satisfying. A foreign hotel worker (not employed in the MacDonald chain) describes experiences of outrageous sexual harassment and bullying. She says she would never let her child work in the industry. more