Accommodating employees

Four hotel staffers share their stories

By ILANA SHTUTLAND
Jacuzzi521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Jacuzzi521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Most of us have at least a vague idea of what we’d like to do this summer, and some people have already reserved rooms at their favorite vacation venues. But whether your vacation takes place overseas or in Israel, hotel personnel will be an integral part of your holiday.
While you are out and about enjoying yourselves, they will be working their hardest to make your vacation as nice as possible. Some guests are perfectly warm and nice – in which case, the hotel staff get to go home with smiles on their faces. But sometimes hotel guests can be irritating and difficult.
So in an effort to prepare you for your upcoming vacation, we have asked four service staffers to talk about their positive and negative experiences working in hotels.
THE ROOM CLEANER Yana Balit, 40, from Hadera, is single. She works as a room cleaner in the Tel Aviv Grand Beach Hotel.
My favorite part: “I love meeting people from all over the world. Some of them are so nice – it’s such a shame when they have to leave.”
The hardest part: “I can’t stand it when people treat me poorly. They can be quite disparaging when I come to clean their room. And I don’t get any more money from them.”
The best guest: “It’s not so easy to do my job. It’s not easy to make everybody happy, and it’s very unpleasant when someone doesn’t appreciate your work and makes disparaging comments. Some guests are intelligent and quiet; I’m able to clean their rooms quickly, and they usually leave me a tip. But there are also guests who make me work very hard and don’t leave me even one agora.
“Most guests from Europe, the US and Canada leave tips, and sometimes guests from South America and Italy do also. Japanese always leave one dollar per day – they’re unique. Some couples come for two weeks and leave nothing at the end of their stay. [And] some guests stay only one night, but leave the room a complete mess.
“I’ve learned how to identify from the first moment which people will keep the room neat and which will leave a huge mess. If people treat me well, ask me for things nicely and smile in the morning, they will probably leave a tip. If they completely ignore me, they probably won’t.
“The most memorable incident was when a young couple, probably in their 30s, came from Moscow and stayed in the hotel for an entire month. The man had been in a terrible motorcycle accident in Moscow – a truck hit him – and his leg had been injured. He had a prosthetic leg and had come to Israel for treatment. I cleaned their room every day for a month. Every day they left me NIS 20 on the bed, and on their last day they left me NIS 100. They were such nice and good people. They used to talk with me and had no complaints. This made me feel really good, and I tried to clean their room as well as I could.
“Guests give anywhere from NIS 5 to NIS 20 a day.... But it’s not just the amount of money that makes a difference.
Even when guests leave just a small amount of money – even NIS 5 – it’s still nice, because this shows you that people appreciate you, as opposed to people who don’t leave you anything. I was so sad when the Russian couple went back home. They were so nice. I had become close with them and I had really enjoyed getting to know them.”
The worst guest: “Last summer, a few European families arrived. They took up almost the entire floor for which I was responsible. They would go out every night drinking and then sleep half of the day. I couldn’t go into their rooms in the morning because they were always sleeping. They would get up around noon, take a shower and hang out in the room, so I still couldn’t get in to clean their rooms, since it disturbed them. After they would finally leave, I would have to clean all 20 rooms in a hurry to get everything done. They were so unpleasant.
And they even complained at the end of the day that their room wasn’t cleaned well.
“And they left such a mess. They would eat in bed, and there were bits of food all over the room. The sheets would be strewn on the floor, as well as dirty diapers. The room looked like a pigsty. I had to work so hard to clean up their mess and didn’t even get a thank you from them.
They didn’t even leave 10 agorot – just their mess. They would leave the room, ignoring me as they passed by, as if I was part of the furniture and not a human being.
“It was so much work to clean up their room, and when they don’t say thank you, it’s just that much harder. They were here for the entire month of August, and I had to work so hard every day. But what can I do? You need to keep quiet and just get the work done even if the guests aren’t nice, because you have no choice.”
THE SPA MANAGER Nissim Elmalem, 45, from Tiberias, is married and has three children. He manages the spa at the Caesar Premier Hotel in Tiberias.
My favorite part: “The clients. I love it when people enjoy themselves and leave feeling satisfied. That makes me feel great.”
The hardest part: “The Israeli mentality. As a people, we need to learn to be more tolerant while waiting in line and to be more thoughtful.”
The snoring client: “A couple in their 60s came to the spa for their anniversary and took the ‘Loving Couple’ package, which included a 50-minute massage with a private Jacuzzi in the room. The package included expensive wine, fresh fruit and fancy cocktails – everything you need for a romantic and relaxing stay. When the couple came down for their massages the next day, they said they had had so much fun that they hadn’t slept all night. They went into the treatment room, and at the end of the massage, the masseuses realized that both of their clients were sleeping. The husband had begun snoring about halfway through. The masseuses gently told the couple that their massage had ended and that they could take their time getting up and could then go into the Jacuzzi in the private suite. The husband thanked the masseuses, who then closed the door and left the couple alone.
“After an hour, the masseuses opened the door to let in the next client, at which point they heard snoring and found both husband and wife deeply asleep. They woke up the husband, who sat up in shock, asking where he was and what was he doing there. He then called to his wife, ‘Get up, get up! You stupid woman – why didn’t you wake me?’ They began arguing, and he began yelling at his wife that she didn’t wake him up and now they’d wasted their vacation day.
“In order to calm them down, we extended their holiday and brought them chocolate with whipped cream to the Jacuzzi. In the end, they had a great time, and we had a good laugh.”
The problematic guest: “A 40-year-old Israeli guest who stayed at the hotel came to the spa for a massage.
Right at the start of the treatment, he took out a bunch of NIS 200 bills and told the masseuse that his wife was pregnant and that he would like the masseuse to satisfy his needs in any way she would like and that she could take as much money as she wanted.
“The masseuse told him this was out of the question. She said that she was doing him a favor by not leaving the room that instant, that if he wanted a professional massage, she would give him one, but if he wanted anything else, she would leave the room and file a complaint against him.
“The guest agreed, and she began giving him a massage. And then in the middle of the treatment, he turned over and tried to pull down his underpants. The masseuse explained to him again that if his behavior crossed the line of what was acceptable, she would leave and report him.
“Apparently the client could not control himself. He pulled down his underpants and tried to hold the masseuse by her hips. The masseuse quickly opened the door and ran to the reception area.
She was terribly upset, and after she told me what happened, I went into the room and told him that I was going to have to report the incident to the police. He pleaded with me not to report him. So, with the agreement of the masseuse, I allowed him to give me a written apology, including a promise not to come anywhere near the spa for the duration of his stay at the hotel.”
THE DEPUTY HOTEL RECEPTION MANAGER Anita Pianitzki, 45, from Eilat, is a single mother. She is the deputy hotel reception manager at the Club Hotel in Eilat.
My favorite part: “It’s never boring. I love dealing with people. I’m not hardwired to sit in a cage and do paperwork.
Every day something happens here that you could make a movie about. I love working in reception. I’ve been working here for 20 years. Despite all the tears and yelling, it’s still possible to enjoy this work and to make guests happy and want to come back again. That makes it all worth it.”
The hardest part: “The fact that some of the people who work here are not really interested in working, but are here just to pass the time.”
The faking guest: “On days when many guests were arriving and departing, we set up an additional reception room to process guests. One day, I was in charge there, which means that I am responsible for dealing with a host of problems that arise – assisting guests and hotel employees to deal with every issue and making sure that everything runs smoothly. It is hotel policy to process guests who are handicapped, have infants or are elderly without making them wait in line, to make it easier for them.
“Usually guests are pretty good about letting these people go to the head of the line. One day, the security officer came to me and said, ‘Anita, there’s a blind man in line. Can you squeeze him in now so he won’t have to wait?’ I looked up and saw a man with a stick and black sunglasses.
I told the security officer that he could go to the next available clerk, who then escorted the guest to the front. The guest said thank-you.
“Because he was blind, the clerk began filling in the guest card for him. She asked him each question and then wrote his answer on the form – address, telephone number and number of guests in the room.
“At one point, as I was standing nearby, listening to how the clerk was processing him, suddenly I saw him pointing to the form and telling the clerk that that was not how you spell the name of his street. I was not the only one who witnessed this – the clerk, as well as another guest waiting in line, also saw what happened. We all stood there stunned. Then the guest realized the mistake he had made.
“I got very angry, because there were other people whom I could have been helping at that moment but instead I had chosen to help him. I told him, ‘Sir, please get up right now and go to the end of the line. When it’s your turn, we will call you.’ He went to the back of the line, and when it was his turn again, he no longer had the stick or the sunglasses.
“This wasn’t the first time I’d had a guest pretend to have some handicap or another.
Once there was a man who was in a wheelchair. As soon as he got his room key, he stood up, folded up his wheelchair and left.”
The moving guest: “One time we received a phone call from a man in South Africa who explained that he was a quadriplegic who traveled around the world on a bed on wheels instead of a wheelchair, since he could not sit up. He wanted to know if the hotel could meet his requirements. He asked us a number of questions about details that were important to him. I forwarded the request to the appropriate departments, and we were able to arrange all the details to his satisfaction.
“The guest landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport, and an ambulance brought him straight to Eilat. We took all of the regular beds out of the room and put in a special bed that our security officer had brought from Joseftal Hospital. We also put a special fridge in the room for his medications. The hotel staff checked in on him hourly to make sure everything was okay, and every day we brought him breakfast. We gave him the best care possible.
“It was very moving to host him and to see how someone in his condition was still trying to enjoy life. He wanted to go places, see things, and was not embarrassed to receive help. He didn’t want to stay closed up in a hospital, but to go outside and enjoy the world.
“At the end of his stay, he had his bed brought to the reception desk, where he thanked us profusely and told us that he had really enjoyed his stay and all the attention we had given him. He sent us a very touching letter thanking us for treating him so well and for our warm Jewish hearts.”
THE SECURITY OFFICER Yaron Shaulker, 36, from Dimona, is married and has three children. He is the security officer at Le Meridien Dead Sea Hotel, which is part of the Fattal Hotel Chain.
My favorite part: “I usually work the night shift. I love the quiet and the nights that pass peacefully without incident.”
The hardest part: “We work very hard and don’t even have time for breaks some evenings. We run from place to place. The work is physically demanding. When the hotel is full to capacity, we do not have a moment to rest. But that’s just part of the job. I love it, and it’s how I make a living.”
The most surprising guest: “A month ago, I was working the Saturday night shift. I received a call that an Israeli guest who was staying at the hotel had forgotten a suitcase full of cash under his bed. I sent a security clerk to his room. I instructed her to take the suitcase and come with it straight to the security office.
“When she reached the office, we opened the suitcase with shaking hands. There were two envelopes with NIS 240,000 each. In other words, there was NIS 480,000 in the suitcase. That’s a crazy amount of money. Never in my life had I seen so much money with my own two eyes. I was taught never to touch things that weren’t mine, so I was intent on making sure that nothing happened to this money. I called the guest and told him that we had found the suitcase. Then I called the chief security officer to tell him that we were in possession of the suitcase. I asked my staff to keep quiet about the incident so that it wouldn’t get stolen.
“The chief security officer instructed me to stay in the office with the suitcase and not to let anyone in the room until the owner of the suitcase arrived. He arrived at midnight, and I led him into my office and watched as he opened the suitcase and counted the money. In addition to the cash, there were also checks worth about NIS 160,000. He offered me a reward of NIS 200, which is not a lot considering what he had left under the bed.”
The craziest guest: “Once a group of young religious Americans came to the hotel and started barbecuing steaks on their balcony. Soon after, we started receiving complaints from guests in other rooms that they smelled smoke, and smoke detectors all over the hotel began ringing.
“We knocked on their door and asked them to put out the fire immediately, but they refused – they wanted to continue their little party. So we poured water on the grill, and that was the end of that. In the end, they laughed about it and realized how ridiculous the situation was.
“Another story I remember is one day, I received a call from a guest complaining that her microwave wasn’t working. I told her, ‘Sorry, ma’am, but there aren’t any microwaves in the rooms.’ But the woman, who was about 80, insisted that her microwave was not working.
So I went to her room. She led me to the closet where the safe is and pointed to a sandwich sitting inside the safe.
I smiled and told her, ‘That’s not a microwave – it’s a safe.’ Only after I showed her how to enter the code to lock it did she believe me.”Translated by Hannah Hochner.