CHAPTER III EXPERIENCES AND OBSTACLES. famous architect Bill Bensley. The Lorin landscape was also designed by him.

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1 CHAPTER III EXPERIENCES AND OBSTACLES A. Lorin Solo Hotel 1. Brief Description of Lorin Solo Hotel Lorin Solo hotel is a five-star hotel in Solo. It was built and designed by a famous architect Bill Bensley. The Lorin landscape was also designed by him. The top leader of the hotel is handled by Tommy Soeharto. The owner of the hotel is PT. Hotel Anomsolo Saranatam (PT. HAS) and managed by PT. Lor International Hotel (PT. LIH). The hotel was inaugurated by former President Soeharto on December 21th, 1996 with name Sheraton Solo hotel where a link of this hotel is International Hotel chain. Then on January 30th, 1999 the hotel was taken over by Lorin Hotel (Labuhan Oriental Resort International) management Indonesia and changed the name into Lorin Business Resort & Spa hotel. Then on January 26th, 2013 it changed the name into Lorin Solo hotel. Along the time and period, Lorin Solo hotel becomes operational center of PT. LIH. The company has had 13 hotels under the management. The hotels that are managed by PT. Lorin Indonesia are: 1. Lorin Solo hotel 2. Lorin Belitung hotel 3. Lorin New Kuta hotel 9

2 4. Lorin Sentul hotel 5. D Wangsa Maluku Jakarta hotel 6. Lodging Kartasura hotel 7. Syariah Solo hotel 8. D Wangsa Louis hotel 9. The Brother hotel 10. Anugrah Palace Solo hotel 11. Loji hotel 12. D wangsa Noormans Semarang hotel 13. Amantis hotel Lorin Solo hotel comes to offer culture and agricultural nature of Javanese atmosphere mixed with friendly service and modern facilities with a five-star class resort hotel. This is the only one five-star resort hotel in Solo equipped with complete and modern facilities, supported by vehicles that cannot be found in other hotels in Solo and it was built the area of five hectares surrounded by green fields. Lorin Solo hotel is a resort concept. It consists of 356 rooms which are equipped with LCD TV, satellite channels, conditioning, and showers. Even though the hotel is the five-star hotel, the customers will get the optional services with affordable price in its class, only at Lorin Solo Hotel. 10

3 2. Vision and Mission Vision To create a professional chain of international business management with the main focus on improving customer service quality of both products and services, to increase the quality of life of employee, and to give the investors high level of profit. Mission The missions of Lorin Solo hotel are: A. Lorin Solo hotel will unite the natural Indonesian friendliness and experience in the hotel industry to give quality service consistently to all customers. B. Lorin Solo hotel will be known by customers both local and international as a world class exclusive hotel in Indonesia. It will be reached by keeping the quality of product and standard of services for all services. C. Sales and marketing team will maximize revenue and compete for the high respect from the competitor and the community. D. Our staff will feel proud in successful, efficiency,and the conduciveenvironment for career advancement in Lorin Solo hotel. E. Shareholder will get profit from our confidence in increasing investment return value to them. 11

4 F. Management will set procedure to guarantee friendly environment for keeping the natural environment of Solo. 3. The Location of Lorin Solo hotel Lorin Solo hotel is located at Jl. Adi Sucipto no. 47 Solo. Its location is very strategic where it connects Adi Sumarmo International Airport and Central of Solo. Central business and shops are located about 10 km from the hotel and from the International Airport is about 5 km. Lorin Solo hotel prepares shuttle service from Airport and also prepares bus for guests. 4. The facilities of Lorin Solo hotel Lorin Solo hotel as the five-star resort hotel in Solo has several facilities making the guest enjoy and feel at home during their stay such as Kampoeng Ikan Resto, Sasono Bujono Restaurant, Jolotundo Poolbar, Sasono Kridango Health Club, LC Lounge, Lorin Spa. Besides, this five-star hotel has also many facilities. Lorin Solo hotel has 356 guest rooms. There are one Sultan room, one Raja room, one Pangeran room, six Deluxe Suite rooms, eight Moderate Suite rooms, 46 Executive rooms, 54 Deluxe rooms, 239 Moderate rooms (D wangsa rooms). Lorin Solo hotel has also three bungalows that have a private swimming pool in this hotel; they are Bungalow 1 (Bagaskoro), Bungalow 2 (Kirana), and Bungalow 3 (Kartika). Each of the bungalows has a private swimming pool.there are many facilities inside the rooms such as magnetic card system s key, TV satellite, mini bar, individual air conditioner system, tea and coffee maker, bathtub, shower, hairdryer, iron, and free internet access. The hotel has a perfect space for any 12

5 functions; those are business center, meeting rooms, and ballroom. The guests can also enjoy many hotel facilities such as Sasono Bujono Restaurant, meeting rooms, ballroom, Kampoeng Ikan, Sasono Kridanggo health club, swimming pool area, Lorin Spa, Lorin Coffee Lounge (LC LOUNGE), Logo Shop, and business center. 5. The structure of organization of Lorin Solo hotel Lorin Solo hotel also has an international standard organization to manage the hotel well. A hotel will get a good achievement depending on the team work well suitable with the planning. Lorin Solo hotel has eight departments, they are: 1. Housekeeping department (HK) Housekeeping is a one of the departments of a hotel which handles things related to beauty, tidiness, cleanliness, and completeness of the entire room, as well as other common areas. So, both the guests and the employees can feel comfortable and safe in the hotel. HK is led by a manager, and the manager is helped by supervisor. 2. Human resources department (HRD) HRD consists of HRD manager and HRD secretary. The main task of HRD is to make the employees do the tasks and help the employees to solve the problems during the work. This department requires people who are able to motivate and to organize the employees effectively and efficiently. 13

6 3. Food and beverages service department (F&B services) F&B service is a department which task is to give the best food and drink to the guest. The department consists of kitchen and banquet. The kitchen is handled by an executive chef who has much experience about food and drink. All systems and operational in F&B service department are managed by manager of F&B service who is helped by a secretary in doing the activities. 4. Engineering department (ENG) The responsibility of this department is to maintain the hotel building and its facilities. Maintaining the building and facilities make the guests feel comfortable.the function of engineering in a hotel is to repair and to check the electricity in order not to disturb the hotel activity. This department consists of manager of engineering, secretary, technician and helper. 5. Front office (F.O) Front office can be called as front liner because this department is the first department that will be met by guests. Besides, F.O is a centre of information in a hotel, if there is a problem or mistake the guest will complain it to F.O. F.O department consists of receptionist, bellboy, reservation, operator, and driver. The responsibilities of this department are to receive reservation, to give information and account to the guest, and to receive the guest s payment. 14

7 6. Accounting (ACC) Accounting is the department which manages the money circulation of the hotel.this department is handled by a financial manager controller that is supported by supervisor, general cashier, purchasing and money controller.this department requires persons with high accuracy in arithmetic. 7. Sales and marketing division (S&M) Sales and marketing (S&M) is a department which main task is to look for and invite the guest to stay in the hotel. In Lorin Solo hotel, S&M department is led by director of sales (DOS). DOS makes a budget and target then it is given to the sales executive. 8. Security department To keep the safety of the guests and the employees of the hotel, Lorin Solo hotel also has executive security department. The security leader in Lorin Solo hotel is usually called captain. This department is very important in the hotel. The top leader of Lorin Solo hotel is General Manager (GM). The main task of a GM is to lead a weekly meeting and monthly meeting, to manage and to control all activities of each department, and to make a regulation develop the hotel. In the activity, GM is helped by a secretary who prepares the document that is needed by GM and makes a meeting schedule. Employee in Lorin Solo Hotel is classified into three parts: staff, casual, and trainee (intern). 15

8 B. The Activities during the Job Training This report is written based on my experience during the internship. I did it as an intern in the housekeeping department at Lorin Solo hotel for three months starting from March 2nd 2015 until June 2nd I worked in two housekeeping main sections: houseman section as a public area attendant and room section as a room attendant (room boy). In those sections, I did various activities and in order to improve the quality of the services, I should be responsible for my jobs on my work areas of each section. 1. Houseman Section In the houseman section, I did as a public area attendant for 45 days. I had the same activities with other daily workers and staff. I worked not only in every shift but also in the same ways with other daily workers and staffs. I worked five days with one day off. As a public area attendant, I should look clean, tidy and well-dressed in order to give a good image to guests whom I met directly. My job as a public area attendant was to keep the cleanness and tidiness of Lorin Solo hotel s public areas such as corridors, restaurants, meeting rooms, lobby, ballroom, office space, fitness room, terrace, elevators, restrooms, and locker room. Being a public area attendant made me have to do many activities based on arranged schedules. The public area job was divided into three shifts i.e. morning shift: am pm, evening shift: pm pm, and night shift: pm am. 16

9 On the first day, I did as a public area attendant at morning shift. The morning shift started at 07.00am and ended at 03.00pm. Firstly, I took the attendance in security room which was located in the back of the hotel. After taking attendance, I entered to housekeeping office to do a briefing. The briefing was handled by a housekeeping supervisor. The supervisor allotted job description and partner to each public area attendant. The briefing was always started by praying. The duration of the briefing was usually 45 minutes. After giving a briefing, my senior asked me to prepare the guest supplies into caddy tool such as tissue and soap. I also prepared the public area attendant s equipment such as dust pan, plastic broom, lobby duster, windows squeeze, and stick mops set. I was actually very confused with the hotel s terms because it was the first time for me to work in a hotel. Furthermore, as the first job, I was assigned to memorize the hotel areas, the names of chemical liquid used to mop the floors and other job descriptions I was assigned on. Lorin Solo hotel is a resort concept hotel that is why the hotel has large area. I was tired and confused to memorize the public areas and what I had to do. The morning shift was usually more crowded than other shifts. Every day, the hotel was always crowded by many guests staying at this hotel. I met not only the local guests but also the foreign guests. On the first day of my job training, I did not know what I was going to do, but my senior taught me what I should do. I was assigned to do many tasks. My daily activities were maintaining all the public areas. The public areas that should 17

10 be cleaned were lobby, restaurants, corridors, restrooms, meeting rooms and ballroom. The public area I hated the most which I should clean was Sasono Kridango pool restroom because I should clean the restroom by using chemical liquid. Then, I was asked to clean the guest restrooms like mopping the floor and dusting the furniture. After finishing those tasks, I cleaned Sasono Bujono restaurant and Kampoeng Ikan restaurant after the guests finished having breakfast. I should sweep the floor, clean the mirrors and put the garbage. When the break time began, all of the employees should take a break and have a meal in the canteen. It was the time for all employees to do their personal business such as having lunch and praying. It was fun because I could have many new friends and shared experiences to each other. When the break time ended, I should have been ready working again. After having lunch, I started working by checking all the restrooms in my work areas. I was taught by my senior the procedure of cleaning restroom. Before entering the restroom, I should knock the door three times and say housekeeping. I should make sure the restroom keep drying such as the floor, the toilet bowls, and wastafles. At the women's restrooms, I should be careful when entering the restroom because I should make sure that the woman's restroom was not used by the guests so that the guests would not complain to me. The important areas that had to be cleaned were lobby and corridors. I had to maintain the areas keep clean and tidy because they were very vital and crowded. Many guests whether they are local or foreign guests were passing by in 18

11 this areas. Accordingly, I had to be responsible for the cleanness of the areas. I was asked by my senior to do several things in these areas such as to sweep the floor, to dust the furniture, and to put the garbage. I got some interesting experiences in this area such as getting tips from the foreign guest when I was just asked about the tourist areas in Solo. Living in Sragen near Solo made me know a little bit more about Solo so that I could give them the recommendation of several tourist attractions in Solo such as Sangiran museum, Mangkunegaran Palace and Kasunanan Palace. When the hotel was in high season, I had to work overtime. When the my work time was over, my supervisor assigned me to clean other areas and I did not have any choice but to do it even though it violated my right as an intern. It disappointed me because if I came late, the supervisor rebuked me, but they arbitrarily took my right to come home on time. After finishing my works, I did the briefing at the housekeeping office. I had to fill in the list of what I did on my worksheet and also reported it to the supervisor. Then, the supervisor allotted job description and partner to next shift. Before I was going home, I took the attendance again at the security room. Furthermore, I ever worked in the evening shift. Evening shift started at pm until pm. The main tasks of the public area s evening shift were to finish the tasks that had not been finished by the public area s morning shift. The task was such as being in charge of the area used to hold an event that was still 19

12 going on. Actually, the evening s tasks were not much different from the morning shift. I also ever worked in the night shift. Night shift started at 11.00pm until 07.00am. From the three shifts that I have done, the night shift was the most different. I did not only do my job as a public area attendant which was keeping the cleanness and tidiness of Lorin Solo Hotel s public areas but also served the guest as a substitute for the bell boy section, because the bell boy section had no night shift schedule. I got an experience in night shift when there were guests staying awake until late at night in the hotel and they asked me to show several facilities the hotel had. Overall, there were a lot of experiences I got from the houseman section. One of them is the experiences as a public area attendant in the morning shift. In that shift, I could know and meet many people, including the guests and the employees. The morning shift was the most crowded shift. I had ever had conversations with foreign guests when UMS and Lund University of Sweden held an event that was followed by 12 countries for ten days starting from March 2nd until April 2nd 2015 at the Lorin Solo Hotel. When I was in charge of maintaining cleanliness at the ballroom, I was often asked by the guests in English. Many of them asked me to tell the hotel facilities. I was having difficulties when I had a conversation with the guests from Africa. I had had misunderstanding with them because I did not really understand with their accent. After listening carefully, I understood what they said. 20

13 2. Room Section After the houseman section, I was placed in the room section. I did the job as room attendant or room boy for 45 days. Similarly as public area attendant, I worked not only in every shift but also in the same ways with other daily workers and staffs. I worked five days with one day off. As a room attendant, I should look clean, and tidy. My main job as room attendant was to keep the cleanness and tidiness of Lorin Solo hotel s guest rooms. The room section was divided into two shifts: morning shift am pm and night shift pm pm. In this section, I had several difficulties adapting to the situation of this section because it was the first time for me to work in this section. On the first day, I did as room attendant at morning shift. Similarly in the houseman section, firstly, I must take the attendance in security room which was located in the back of the hotel. Then, I entered the housekeeping office to attend briefing. The briefing was handled by the manager housekeeping and housekeeping supervisor. The briefing was important to do before carrying out room attendant s duties. There were many topics that were discussed during the briefing such as dividing the job allocation and a partner, the review of work results, and suggestions from the supervisor. After doing briefing, I got extra briefing from supervisor since I was new in room section. The supervisor explained to me the SOP of room attendant so I would not make any mistake as well as remembering them. I then went to the 21

14 pantry with my senior and I was taught about many things such as filling out the worksheet and preparing the amenities. Furthermore, as the first job, I had to know room status, whether it was occupied or not, how many rooms that had to be handled. This was the first time for me, so I just followed my senior and did what my senior asked. I was given a direction by my senior how to make beds, clean rooms, and set up the linen in the room attendant s trolley. The room attendant s trolley consists of three spaces. The first spaces contained a king bed sheets, twin bed sheets, pillow cases, and bath towels. The second space contained a king size blankets, twin bed blankets, bath towels, and bath mats. The upper space contained the guest needs such as tea coffee, sugar sweetener, pens, scrap paper and bathing equipments such as soaps, shampoos, combs, and others. At the back of the trolley there was a basket to put the dirty linens and in front of the trolley there was a basket for the garbage. On the first day, I felt nervous because the first room that I made up was a room with OD (Occupied Dirty) room status I had to be careful when I cleaned the room since there were many guest s luggages. From what my senior taught, I got some new experiences how to clean the OD room. After that, I made up a VD room (Vacant Dirty). I was taught the step by step of how to clean the room such as making up bed, dusting all of parts in the room such as tables, chairs, cupboards, refrigerators, TV. Besides, I also had to be responsible for checking the room s amenities and room supplies, as well as vacuuming the floor. It was very useful for me and from that experience I got 22

15 some left foods and tips under the pillow, but the room was very mess and dirty. I needed extra time to clean the room totally. Then I cleaned to VC room (Vacant Clean). It was the easiest job among other rooms because it had been already clean. I just needed to take care of it. Even though it was easy, the experience was very useful to me. In this room, I must also recheck the room s condition. It was necessary to do because it was to make sure that the room was to be used by the guests ready to be offered for customers. When rechecking room conditions, the most important thing to do was to recheck room supplies whether it was all accomplished or not. Sometimes, I got something broken in the OD room such as a licking from wash basin. As a room attendant, I had to make sure the guest experience when entering the room is perfect. I then made a call to the housekeeping office about this problem, and then the housekeeping office would forward it to the engineering department so that the problem could be followed up. When I entered and cleaned a guest room, I had to make a report to the housekeeping office so that they could know my current position. If something happened, the housekeeping office would call me, for example if there were any special request from the guests. I also had ever found a cell phone when I cleaned a room. I immediately made a report to the housekeeping office that I found a guest s stuff, and then housekeeping office would forward the information to the front office. 23

16 I got bad experience when I was in the corridor, when there was a guest walked toward me. He was very angry with me and mocked the hotel. He asked me to follow him to his room. When I entered his room, the TV quality was bad and he complained to me that the price he paid was not worth it. This was one of the risk of my job and I could only listen to him and asked for apologize. I then said to him that I would try to fix the problem as soon as possible. I came out from the room and told my senior about the problem. In this moment, the guest did not care even though I was only a trainee. I had to handle the complaint well as the guest was a king. One day, I had ever met a foreign guest which I met at the corridor. He was a pilot and asked me about the facilities of the hotel and asked me to clean his room. Even though his room was not my section, I did not reject his request but accept his request. He gave me a tip Rp I was happy and I asked my friend who had the section to clean the room. Every day, at least I cleaned 25 rooms. This working load made me tired. Even though I was a trainee, I was regarded as a staff and had the same responsibility. Sometimes, I had overtime since there were several unclean rooms. I understood that this was the risk of my job. After finishing doing the entire job, I went back to the pantry and clean it. I had to fill in the list of what I did on my worksheet. I also had to tidy up the room attendant trolley before going to the housekeeping office. I handed the 24

17 guest s lost stuff, and wrote the hand over. After that, I attended a short briefing and report all the problems faced during the work. Then I went back home. Moreover, I had ever got an evening shift. The evening shift started pm until pm. The first thing I did was taking an attendance. The job was to assist the cleaning untidy rooms of room attendant s morning shift. After that, I noted the handover left by the morning shift room attendant and filled in the water stock in the pantry. I completed the left handover and stood by while waiting to be called by the housekeeping office if there were special requests from the guests. There were so many special requests and I had to handle them with my senior. The guests would not care if I was a room attendant or bell boy. They only knew that they wanted to be served well and I had to be able to handle them. This evening shift was the most complicated shift for me. I was very tired because I delivered the requests from the back side of the hotel to the front side and the area was very wide. In the evening shift, I had to bring my cell phone in silent mode. Every time there was a request, the housekeeping office would call me to explain the special request and the room number. I had to make sure that I did the request as fast as possible so the guests did not have to wait too long and I would not get any complain. I had a very interesting experience when I was in the evening shift. I got a call from the housekeeping office and I was asked to go to the room number After I got there and knocked the door, it was a foreign person. I talked to him 25

18 with English but surprisingly he did not understand what I said at all. He did not understand Indonesian language as well. I was very confused and my senior was away from my area. I ended up using a body language to him. I finally understood that he wanted a towel and then I delivered it to him. I got one euro from him, I was very happy and entertained with his funny way of communicating. Sometimes, there were three persons who stayed in a room with double bed. They asked me to give one more bed. I had to walk along the corridor, picked two heavy beds, and brought them again to the room. I did not only deliver the bed, but I also set up the sheet and duvet. I used to get a tip every time I did the extra bed at least Rp but that was just luck. C. The Importance of English for the Staff of Housekeeping Department in Improving the Services Quality at Lorin Solo Hotel. In the tourism industry, giving the best services to tourists is considered as the essential thing that should be done. One of those best services can be done through creating good communication with tourists. Creating good communication can be very important because it can make the tourists know and understand everything they want to know. It can certainly make them feel satisfied. In building good communication, one of the things that should be emphasized is language and the language that should be mastered well especially 26

19 in the case of tourism industry is English. English is the international language that a lot of people use it to communicate with foreign people from foreign countries. This is really closely related to tourism industry which is also related to many people all around the world. As the part of tourism industry, hotels also try to serve their guests well by giving good English communication. Therefore, they will make a good English ability as one of the requirements all their staffs should have, whether the staff are front office department, F&B service department, engineering department, security department and also housekeeping department. As the one who did the internship in the hotel, in the housekeeping department exactly, it is also a must for me to have an English ability. There were many experiences I had ever got about communicating with foreign tourists in English. One of them is when I met a foreign guest in the lobby. He asked me Hey, could you please tell me the attraction of this city? Then I replied You can see antique collections at Mangkunegaran palace and ancient man fossil at Sangiran museum. Then the guest replied Can you tell me more about them? I replied You can find some carriages and gamelan music instrument at Mangkunegaran palace and Sangiran museum is the largest ancient man museum in the world. That is what I know sir. The guest said thanks to me then. From this experience, I had no problem during the conversation with him because his voice was clear for me. 27

20 Furthermore, when I did my job in the public area of the hotel, the Lund University of Sweden held an event at Lorin Solo hotel. I had some conversations with the guests and one of them was an African. He asked me Where is the swimming pool? I answered Follow me, sir. While we walked to the swimming pool, he said something to me with his African accent. I felt that the words he spoke became one and it was very difficult to understand. Then I tried to ask him to repeat what he said. In the end of the sentence, I heard he spoke I like it very much and this is the first thing I want to try. From that sentence, I concluded that the unclear words he spoke were about his love about swimming and I thought that I have misunderstood with him because I did not really understand with his accent. After listening carefully, I understood what he said and tried to figure him out. Another experience I got was when I was a room attendant. I met a foreign guest whom I met at the corridor. He asked me Hey, can you tell me the facilities in this hotel? Then I answered Of course sir. You can swim at the pool barright over there. There are also Nalendra meeting rooms at the fifth floor. The guest then replied Where is the lunch?, and then I replied You can have the lunch at Bale Raos restaurant near the lobby sir. Ok, thank you very much, here is a tip for you. And please make up my room. I replied Okay sir. I wanted to give more replies but I lacked of hotel vocabulary, so that I only gave short answers. From those experiences, I could conclude that English was very important in the hotel industry, especially in housekeeping department. The guests did not care that I was an intern because they just knew that I was the hotel staff. Although I 28

21 worked as a housekeeping staff, English was also important for me in order to improve the service quality at Lorin Solo hotel because I served not only the local guests but also the foreign guests who spoke English. Its duty was not only cleaning the public area and room, but also serving the guests well. I did not only serve a domestic guest, but also international guest since Lorin Solo hotel often had foreign guests. I did not have to master English language very well, but at least I had to be able to communicate with foreign guests, understand what they wanted and able to serve them well. If I could not serve the guest well, then my job as a housekeeping attendant would be failed. If I could serve the guest especially the foreign guests well, it meant that I successfully improved the services quality at Lorin Solo hotel. D. Problems and Solutions Encountered in Lorin Solo Hotel. During the job training at housekeeping department in Lorin Solo hotel, I had to adapt to a new atmosphere and different responsibility from student life to working life. I encountered several problems. The problems are: 1. Hotel s terms In my college, there were any English for Tourism classes. In that class, I was only taught about hotel in general such as front office department, housekeeping department, food and beverages department as well as their meaning. In this case, I did the job training as housekeeping 29

22 attendant (public area attendant and room attendant) in the housekeeping department which of the terms was not taught in the tourism class. The tourism class only taught me that housekeeping was a person who kept the cleanliness and tidiness of public areas and guest rooms whereas, when I did in housekeeping department, there were many tools, amenities, and room status which I could not find in the lecture but all of the terms was in English. I learnt English but I had never deal with hotel world. It was the first time for me to work in the hotel. In the lecture, I did not get the terms about hotel in detail so I did not really understand about hotel s terms. The solution was to read more and to ask more about the hotel s terms that I have not known. As the time went, I learnt more about hotel terms because I was pushed to understand all terms in English in order to do my job as a housekeeping attendant well and I asked my senior more about the terms I have not understood yet. 2. Misunderstanding In the lecture, most of the lecturers were local persons. They spoke clearly and I could understand them because I was familiar with their accent. In the hotel, I had to deal with foreign guest. It was not only foreign guests from England, but also guests from different countries which used English with different accent according to their own country. I did not have a choice but to serve them well. I had ever encountered a problem when I had a conversation with foreign guests from Africa. I had 30

23 some misunderstandings with them because I did not really understand their accent. I felt the words that they pronounced were not familiar. Accordingly, I tried to ask them to repeat what they said and then I had to listen carefully and tried to figure their words. 31