Hospitality Reality's topics - tribe.net

magnets and keycards: operator error or physics issue?

UncleFishbits — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:59:22 GMT

Season 1 Episode 3. They debunk that eel skin wallets can hold a magnetic charge and erase a credit card.

to the point... placing a card over a 1500 gauss supermagnet (appox a MRI strength) nothing happened. But by waving the card over the magnetic, it shifts the molecules on the strip out of place making it unreadable.

I have a couple questions... it looks like they used hotel keycards...

1) Are you able to choose how strong a magnetic stripe you put onto the card? Are all magnetic stripes equal? Is it like optical imaging, where you can go 1x versus 24x for CD? Because the real crux of this is hotel keycards.

2) The things we come in contact with everyday are around 0-100 gauss. 100 being a good fridge magnet, a cell phone around 30 or so.... Are there any magnetic forces that I could be forgetting that would be big enough to cause a problem? Like a MRI sized force?

3) Are keycards in a hotel vulnerable to magnetic interference? I believe it is operator error... but I can't prove it. Will an oscillating magnetic field at 50 gauss effect a card differently than a stationary one at 100?

posted in Hospitality Reality - 0 replies

communications systems for a campus?

UncleFishbits — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:57:43 GMT

I think we are the only ones in here... BUT....

what radio system do you use? How big is your property? We have 45 acres to cover, and this is getting spendy!!!!!

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

Are there any contacts for jobs in your area?

UncleFishbits — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:39:02 GMT

let's pretend I wanted to leave the United States.

What hotels are up there I could look into working at?

posted in Hospitality Reality - 5 replies

Hotels attract weird people. I like weird people. Like this guy. But....

UncleFishbits — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:44:04 GMT

This guy is *NOT* staying at our properties.

Mr Cavallaro, the Canadian-born artist, is known for using food ingredients in his art, on one occasion painting a hotel room in mozzarella cheese.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6509127.stm

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

problems with room service

UncleFishbits — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:46:31 GMT

funniest story ever....

http://shelleyberman.com/roomservice.htm

(Reading hints: You are on the phone. The other party is also in the hotel.)

Morny, rune sore-bees.

Oh sorry, I thought I dialed room service.

Rye. Rune sore-bees. Morny. Jewish to odor sunteen?

Yes, order something. This is room thirteen-oh-five. I want...

Okay, torino-fie. Yes plea?

I'd like some bacon and eggs.

Ow July then?

What?

Aches. Ow July then? Pry, boy, pooch...?

Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry. Scrambled, please.

Ow July thee baycome? Crease?

Crisp will be fine.

Okay. An Santos?

What?

Santos. July Santos?

Uh...I don't know...I don't think so.

No? Judo one toes?

Look. I really feel bad about this, but I just don't know what judo-one-toes means. I'm sorry...

Toes! Toes! Why Jew Don Juan toes? Ow bow eenlish mopping we bother?

English muffin! I've got it! You were saying toast! Fine. An English muffin will be fine.

We bother?

No. Just put the bother on the side.

Wad?

I'm sorry. I meant butter. Butter on the side.

Copy?

I feel terrible about this but...

Copy. Copy, tea, mill...

Coffee!! Yes, coffee please. And that's all.

One Minnie. Ass rune torino-fie, strangle-aches, crease baycome, tossy eenlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy. Rye?

Whatever you say.

Okay. Tenjewberrymud.

You're welcome.

posted in Hospitality Reality - 2 replies

saga of the hotel soap

UncleFishbits — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:44:24 GMT

The Saga of Hotel Soap

The following letters were taken from an actual incident between a London hotel and one of it's guests. The Hotel submitted the letters to the London Sunday Times for their humor column.
Dear Maid,

Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.

Thank you,
S. Berman

Dear Room 635,

I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily. I hope this is satisfactory.

Kathy, Relief Maid

Dear Maid - I hope you are my regular maid.

Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc. Please remove them.

S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,

My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn't remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance.

Your regular maid,
Dotty

Dear Mr. Berman,

The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this morning that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.Thank you.

Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper

Dear Miss Carmen,

It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 7:45 AM and don't get back before 5:30 or 6PM. That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me?

S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,

Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.Thank you,

Elaine Carmen,
Housekeeper

Dear Mr. Kensedder,

My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.

S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,

I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Martin L. Kensedder
Assistant Manager

Dear Mrs. Carmen,

Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don't want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.

S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,

You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily. I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don't know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.

Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper

Dear Mrs. Carmen,

Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:

- On the shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
- On the Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
- On the bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet,
- 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
- Inside the medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
- In the shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
- On the northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
- On the northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.

Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.

S. Berman

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

hotel jokes?

UncleFishbits — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:44:09 GMT

A person checks into a hotel for the first time in his life, and goes up to his room. Five minutes later he calls the desk and say, "You've given me a room with no exit. How do I leave?"

The desk clerk says, "Sir, that's absurd. Have you looked for the door?"

The person says, " Well, there's one door that leads to the bathroom. There's a second door that goes into the closet. And there's a door I haven't tried, but it has a 'do not disturb' sign on it."

================================================================================
http://www.workjoke.com/projoke84.htm

has anyone ever read the book "a hotel is a place" by shelley berman? Here are some excerpts. FUNNIEST BOOK EVER...

a couple stories from it coming!

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

resources?

UncleFishbits — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:41:16 GMT

I was thinking of starting my own resource site for hotels... as they seem splintered and all over the place...

Here is a cool forum:

http://www.hotel-online.com/Views/

anyhoo.. I think I am way way way a hotel dork in thinking that people geek out about hospitality like me.

Whatever the case... if you know resources, let me know. It is a lovely idea to go to a site where you could download SOP's, operating manuals, checklists, critical paths, etc. To riff about software and infrastructure.

that would be coooool. That being said, I am posting this tribe elsewhere, like the burning man tribe (a lot of burners work in hospitality).. or other ones I think people might be interested.

just so you know. and now you do. so there.

=)

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

Are your PMS and S&C modules integrated? and hotel IT AND how big is your property?

UncleFishbits — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:29:07 GMT

Is anyone using Delphi on their property where it is integrated to the PMS? And what is the PMS?

Just building a hotel and stuff. jeezus, this is over my head.. thin client, redundant servers with centrix... or citrix? oh who knows.. but it is sweet infrastructure.

I just don't think we need to spend the money to integrate sales and PMS, as upkeep is reviewing the pick up and drops for each day... what's that take. a few minutes?

how many rooms are your hotels... I think moderator is 12?

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

What a CRAZY MONTH!

Cass — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 17:56:10 GMT

So this is probably initially the reason I made the tribe... to vent and share funny or frusterating experiences =)

So here goes...!

So January was really cool. The snow was awesome, everyone as winding down from a busy busy holiday. We had the best guests in.... all adventure tourists with the intent of ripping powder every single day.

And then February came along... lol. What a shit show. Seriously.... it was like, I'd time warped into sketchy-ville and invited everyone to stay!

After having to fire an employee on the spot (for smoking weed on shift again!) I was desperate to find a competant front desk agent to fill the void before the owners took off to Mexico for 3 weeks. Now for a small hotel (19 rooms) I still have a pretty big job as the Onsite Manager. I live here... but I try not to make it a 24 hr a day job.

I hired this new guy and he's been doing very well considering he has no real first hand experience in the industry. This is kinda where the problems started to come in. Being such a small hotel we can be very picky about who we choose to stay. For example, we dont like all the young first-time drinkers/partiers comin in and satying here. We prefer business travellers, adventure tourists, families.... that sorta thing. But this new guy just doesn't know how to discriminate... ya know? In the industry you have to be selective... if you're not, you're opening up yourself to a world of shit each and every morning, and in the long run, the one-night revenue just isnt worth the trouble.

By the end of the owners' 3 week vacation we'd had one convict, 5 guys get kicked out for disturbing the peace, one very angry man who thinks his entire stay should have been comped, a blonde firecracker from carlsbad california who refused to move rooms (after already agreeing to it at check in), and 3 cracks heads.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

I dont think we've had that many problems PERIOD! TOTAL! SINCE WE'VE BEEN OPEN!!

So I had a long chat with the "non-judgemental" staff member and I think, as a result, having seen exactly what can go wrong... he's much more the wiser.

Cause let's face it... In this industry, if you give an inch, people will take a mile.. and then some!

Hope everyone's having a great winter and start to the spring!!! Busy season will be here soon!! Oh god, help me....

Peace, Cass :P

posted in Hospitality Reality - 2 replies

howdy

UncleFishbits — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:54:31 GMT

happy days crew! cheers!

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

PMS, other modules, and overall hotel systems?

UncleFishbits — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 02:56:06 GMT

what do your props use?

PMS? Opera? Springer Miller? Maestro?

sales and catering if any? Delphi?

POS? Aloha? Micros? for retail and or F&B?

Spa?

back of house? accounting software?

Just wondering?!?

Hi!

posted in Hospitality Reality - 1 reply

1920's - 1940's art deco hotel luggage labels from all over the dang place...

UncleFishbits — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:54:18 GMT

I should have posted something here with the first lot. POO. If you know how to navigate ebay, you can "advance search", and then pick the box "completed listings only" and choose from seller "unclefishbits"

Anyhoo.. here are the ones listed now...
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZunclefishbitsQQhtZ-1

and don't freak out. My great grandparents came over from europe... and one of the things listed is a pre-WWII carlsberg beer label with its original logo. They changed it during WWII because the nazi party hijacked their logo for the party.... which was the swastika. It is a serious collector label, and I am auctioning into the hands of serious people only. I am auditing the bidders, and making sure none of them are fascists, idiots, racists, or messed up creepy jerks.

I wanted to share the hotel labels... cause they are so cool... and I had a lot of consternation about posting the beer label. I even had to talk with ebay to get it done.... but I am a good guy who wants to distance himself of anything so... <ahem> COMPLETELY FUCKED UP AS NAZIS.. or dictators.. or wild, messed up bizarre political climates that led to human disaster ... I could go on. Read the description.. the history of the label is fairly interesting.

Anyhoo... just nervous rambling.

SO enough of that now... I hope you are well.. and happy hoteling.

posted in Hospitality Reality - 2 replies

Creative Solutions

Cass — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:51:36 GMT

Just trying to brainstorm a little with my staff... What are some attractive ways to smooth over certain comments like:

"I'm sorry, $10 per extra person over double occupancy? That's Rdiculous! Why?"

Looking for something that's going to make a difference to the guest personally... nothing like policy or costs, cause really they dont care much abuot that :)

"We've really had some positive feedback actually... It's acted as a great deterrent against large groups of young partiers"

Any other ideas???

Thanks! :)

posted in Hospitality Reality - 0 replies

Guest Directory

Cass — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:59:58 GMT

Making a small guest 'go and do' sort of thing for the front lobby... churches, grocery stoes, places of interest, museums, spas, golf courses, skiing and snowboarding hills, artisans...

what am i missing?

posted in Hospitality Reality - 0 replies

Hey Cal and Michael

Cass — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:51:52 GMT

Hey guys, just wanted to say hello and thanks for joining the tribe!

Whereabouts do you guys work, what type of hospitality business are you involved in?

posted in Hospitality Reality - 5 replies

Welcome!

Cass — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:44:09 GMT

Hey Cal, welcome to my little corner contribution to Tribe. I'm always looking for new ideas on how to motivate, manage, please guests and run a successful hotel. I was looking around on tribe and found nada, so here goes. Kind of a brainstorming type of place for new ideas, existing ideas ready to be shared, and getting those bad experiences (we all have) off our chest!

So Give'r! If you have anything to share, anyone to invite plese do so :)

Thanks for joinin!

Hospitality Reality's topics - tribe.net

magnets and keycards: operator error or physics issue?

communications systems for a campus?

Are there any contacts for jobs in your area?

Hotels attract weird people. I like weird people. Like this guy. But....

problems with room service

saga of the hotel soap

hotel jokes?

resources?

Are your PMS and S&C modules integrated? and hotel IT *AND* how big is your property?

What a CRAZY MONTH!

howdy

PMS, other modules, and overall hotel systems?

1920's - 1940's art deco hotel luggage labels from all over the dang place...

Creative Solutions

Guest Directory

Hey Cal and Michael

Welcome!

Incentive Program Ideas

Are your PMS and S&C modules integrated? and hotel IT AND how big is your property?