Central day pissup, a hotel managers perspective
06-04-2005, 02:47 PM
#1
Central day pissup, a hotel managers perspective
Hi, my names John and i would like to tell you about how my career with Travel Inn UK ended.
First a quick note to say that of course as a hotel manager its very important to get the correct staffing levels in order to manage both costs and customer expectations.
The weekend in question was back in April 2005 , the 16th/17th in fact
The weekend looked like being a good one, all the rooms were booked for both nights of the weekend, so i was looking forward to a bumper till reading at the end of the weekend.
The family rooms had all been booked in advance, by people like a nice sounding welsh man called Ivor Biggun.
I figured that although the hotel was full I shouldnt overstaff in a lot of areas as families are very easy to cater for in all ways except looking after the kids, so i kept the bar staff to a minimum, had no security staff, and had all 3 nannies on shift to make sure the little ones were taken care of.
I had been on the early shift from 5:30am (and up since 4) so got a very early night on the saturday, all the rooms were starting to fill, and there seemed to be a large number of very clean cars in the car park, most of which were sierras, so i assumed most of the familes had arrived by taxi.
No kids noises yet, so they must all be well behaved.
I have no detailed recolection to give you of what happened during the next 5 hours, as i was sound asleep, but at midnight i was woken by the fire alarm.
The horror that i was confronted with still haunts me with nightmares to this day.
As i emerged from my room into the hallway, Cheryl, the 19 year old exchange student Nanny from the Cheque republic was being what i can only describe as "thoroughly spit roasted" by two large men wearing black jackets with "passion"something or other written on the back of them and talking loudly in an essex accent, i can only assume they work for a porn studio of some description, the sprinklers were going off, and there was shaving foam and beer all over the walls and a bra and a pair of thongs were perched on a traffic cone leaning up against the wall, i proceeded into the reception area to find the other two nannies uniforms, but no sign of the nannies, there were members of the fire brigade stood around drinking beer and two blonde girls kissing whilst sat on the reception desk, several males, including a tall ugly guy with glasses and a bristol accent were shouting encouragement at them.
I exited the building in accordance with the fire alarm procedure and to my horror in the carpark there were strange large black circles all over the place and there was a smell of burning plastic or rubber or something along those lines.
The police cars were just starting to arrive.
Several hours later i managed to regain access to the building after the forensic people had left and the nannies had been identified and interviewed in one of the hotel bedrooms, where they were "getting to know" a large group of welshmen.
I called a local industrial cleaning team up with whom we had a 24 hour callout program and i worked with the through the night.
In the morning, first thing i immediately phoned every available member of staff in order to guarentee that i had enough staff to handle the following night, sod the payroll cost for once, one cockup my career could withstand as i had a good name in the company, but the second night couldnt be allowed to go the same way.
At approximately 9am, all the guess appeared from the room simultaneously (they were apperently all going to the same place) and proceeded to cancel their rooms for the second night, leaving me with 76 staff on that day and no guests.
And that my friends is what ended my career as a hotel manager :'(
First a quick note to say that of course as a hotel manager its very important to get the correct staffing levels in order to manage both costs and customer expectations.
The weekend in question was back in April 2005 , the 16th/17th in fact
The weekend looked like being a good one, all the rooms were booked for both nights of the weekend, so i was looking forward to a bumper till reading at the end of the weekend.
The family rooms had all been booked in advance, by people like a nice sounding welsh man called Ivor Biggun.
I figured that although the hotel was full I shouldnt overstaff in a lot of areas as families are very easy to cater for in all ways except looking after the kids, so i kept the bar staff to a minimum, had no security staff, and had all 3 nannies on shift to make sure the little ones were taken care of.
I had been on the early shift from 5:30am (and up since 4) so got a very early night on the saturday, all the rooms were starting to fill, and there seemed to be a large number of very clean cars in the car park, most of which were sierras, so i assumed most of the familes had arrived by taxi.
No kids noises yet, so they must all be well behaved.
I have no detailed recolection to give you of what happened during the next 5 hours, as i was sound asleep, but at midnight i was woken by the fire alarm.
The horror that i was confronted with still haunts me with nightmares to this day.
As i emerged from my room into the hallway, Cheryl, the 19 year old exchange student Nanny from the Cheque republic was being what i can only describe as "thoroughly spit roasted" by two large men wearing black jackets with "passion"something or other written on the back of them and talking loudly in an essex accent, i can only assume they work for a porn studio of some description, the sprinklers were going off, and there was shaving foam and beer all over the walls and a bra and a pair of thongs were perched on a traffic cone leaning up against the wall, i proceeded into the reception area to find the other two nannies uniforms, but no sign of the nannies, there were members of the fire brigade stood around drinking beer and two blonde girls kissing whilst sat on the reception desk, several males, including a tall ugly guy with glasses and a bristol accent were shouting encouragement at them.
I exited the building in accordance with the fire alarm procedure and to my horror in the carpark there were strange large black circles all over the place and there was a smell of burning plastic or rubber or something along those lines.
The police cars were just starting to arrive.
Several hours later i managed to regain access to the building after the forensic people had left and the nannies had been identified and interviewed in one of the hotel bedrooms, where they were "getting to know" a large group of welshmen.
I called a local industrial cleaning team up with whom we had a 24 hour callout program and i worked with the through the night.
In the morning, first thing i immediately phoned every available member of staff in order to guarentee that i had enough staff to handle the following night, sod the payroll cost for once, one cockup my career could withstand as i had a good name in the company, but the second night couldnt be allowed to go the same way.
At approximately 9am, all the guess appeared from the room simultaneously (they were apperently all going to the same place) and proceeded to cancel their rooms for the second night, leaving me with 76 staff on that day and no guests.
And that my friends is what ended my career as a hotel manager :'(
06-04-2005, 02:59 PM
#2
Too many posts.. I need a life!!
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: brighton
Posts: 630
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
pmsl 
what i can only describe as "thoroughly spit roasted" by two large men wearing black jackets
several males, including a tall ugly guy with glasses and a bristol accent were shouting encouragement at them.
Trending Topics
but 
06-04-2005, 04:09 PM
#13
Phil, i know, even on a 7 hour day (30 an hour not 25) now its a very far cry from what i used to earn when i knew you before but if you subtract forum postings and emails etc, i only normally work a 2 hour day or so probably LMFAO
:cry
absolute quality 
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
nico12
Restorations, Rebuilds & Projects.
6
31-12-2015 04:42 PM