front desk agent

Premier Inn

The company itself is a good stepping stone for getting your foot in the door with hospitality work. You can learn how to do F&B, front desk, housekeeping and maintenance here, however opportunities to progress seem very few and far between, and very much depends on: 1- who you know and 2- how much you're needed in your current role. Often there are different standards for different staff leading to an unbalanced work load despite being paid the same. As for pay, the night premium is not as much as other companies and the workload in some hotels is becoming more by the day as you're expected to help every other department. So you're not just a receptionist but a housekeeper, an F&B staff member and often (but not always) a chef. The company also promises a pay rise for those who work hard and "truly display the best of the brand", yet when you ask to even be considered for this 20p pay rise the response is that the company can't afford it. 

Recent changes have unfortunately left this company feeling as though it no longer cares about its staff, instead focusing on the shareholders and blaming the staff when the decrease in budget leads to complaints. That being said, in rural areas the hotels that feel more 'independent' are a good job. 

Generally never hated working at a place so much. 
Not only are you overworked continuously but you'll be underpaid and instead of recognizing your hard work, you are being told how "horrible" everyone is at their job when you have 20 plus rooms a day and are expected to finish before 3pm yet still meet brand standards even when the expected finishing time is usually pass 5pm. 

Constantly understaffed due to poor management and treatment of staff. I've never seen so many people quit in such a short time frame. 

Management is always slagging off staff to other members of the team and saying they want to fire every single housekeeper and start over. 

You are made to feel guilty for absolutely everything whether that's calling in sick or can't do overtime. There is no chance of having a balanced work life here as you never know when you are going to finish, they do the rota the night off or early morning most of the time, they change the rota without permission or informing you have the change then get mad at you for not checking the rota daily which is absolutely stupid, how you going to check on your day off? 
I would avoid working at the place at all cost. Prison would be nicer 😂

Was a lone worker with no support. Never got any breaks, had to make up beds for people that arrived who made a booking at reception- wasn't sure why house keeping had not already done this!!
While doing this if someone arrived in Reception they would ring a bell and you had to go and see to them as well. Very stressful at times. Especially if something went wrong, which happened frequently and you would end up with a queue of huffing people in reception who never understand the problems.
On site Manager who actually worked shifts on reception -so was never around when they were needed was brilliant but having to work reception shifts was ridiculous.
Upper Management, when they came to visit totally ignored me on reception - not very god.
Benefits were the best part of the job !!! Reduced rates in the restaurant and hotel accommodation. The rest of the staff were brilliant. Had to do a lot of lone online courses in a portal which was really boring and you don't really understand it !!

Handover. Receive a thorough handover from the previous shift.
Familiarise with emergency reports in case of an emergency.
Familiarise with meetings & events, groups & VIP`s arriving, detailed availability 7 house status.
Follow up on outstanding issues handed over from the previous shift.
Process any Express Check-out invoices, where applicable.
Check if any new arrivals are waiting for their room and process/follow up.
Check on the room status and follow up any vacant dirty rooms.
Count the float and bank any cash/foreign exchange received.
Proceed with shift handover.

  Continuation my professional skill and progress more using my previous experience, communication skills, linguistics.

Good organisation. Making decision about level of priority.
Good relationships with co-workers is essential.

The hardest part of the job is short staff.

Good services from staff. Happy guests which like to pay visit, again.

I don’t believe I have learnt anything from this job, the management and support is very poor. You get told off for stupid things that can be a common mistake as we’re all human. Everything is unorganised half the time people don’t know what they’re doing. Not to mention how this place affects your social life outside work and can never make any plans as the hours are all over the place and get changed all the time when you don’t know. You get excepted to know things that no one has told you to do. No one ever gets trained properly either.  The only think I enjoyed about this job was having my lunch break. You get timed of how long you take to clean a room and if you go over by like 5 mins then it’s a massive thing, which is ridiculous like again we are all human, and everyone talks about other people and their personal problems behind their back when no one should even know anything about it.

Managers will expect you to take on tasks that are both, above and below your pay grade on a daily basis. They will decline holidays and threaten you with loosing your job if you call in sick. They are absolutely clueless as to what it means to treat employees with respect and fairness. There is no HR team to support you if you ever raise a concern. They never provide the payslips on time. You should always be mindful of your holiday entitlement and timesheets (and hours you worked) as they tend to mess with both if you let them. They also mess up with your statutory sick pay payments. The management is usually incompetent and doesn't understand own policies and procedures, or they will blatantly distort them to fit their self-serving agendas. Please, do yourself a favour and stay away.  

Firstly, premier inn have been a great company to work for in lots of ways. I have learned a lot and it’s pretty flexible, but you are left to just crack on and get on with it. 

Lone working is definitely not safe given the nature of the business, many occasions I felt my safety compromised. Realistically, for the cost of one room - having two members of staff on at any one time wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But they won’t budge on it. It can get quite lonely sitting behind the desk on your own. 
There is no “training” - your shown a few videos on an ancient computer that doesn’t have any sound and then told that’s your “training” and if you make a mistake after having that, it’s your fault and the biggest deal in the world. 
It had its pro’s and cons I guess but I got fed up with how unsafe I felt 

So the company overall is great, could pay us more. But for whatever reason do not, but kept us all on during the lockdown which not many other companies did.

I'm not a rota'd night team member but always get rota'd on the night shift, then cheffing the next day. Its not that great.

As for a work life balance, its non existant as unless you are part time you're expected to do extra shifts constantly.

A hotel where the manager has 2 should not be run seperately or even if they are, should have an even spread of manager time not rely on everyone else to struggle in the meantime

What is the best part of working at the company?
Great team on housekeeping and reception 
Working well together ❤️ only down side is the hours available. No full-time hours at all only part time. So it's great for anyone after 15-20 hrs pw, but if you need anymore you won't get them unless your covering sick or annual leave

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
In the summertime and bank Holidays when it is extremely busy

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good in general,  great teamwork and air con in all rooms which is a god send whilst cleaning them 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Non stop from start to finish, but again the team you work with makes it worth while

What is the best part of working at the company?
Customers, and satisfaction of helping people. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management, ignorance,  lack of training, rudness 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Worst experience ever, made the company thousands of pounds through my contacts at St.johnstone,  worked extra hours without pay, got a five star rating, and sacked for wife showing me a text from a client dying with cancer at reception 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful,  but ok when left to deal with customer by myself

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