PR Internship Reflective Blog

Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://http://printernship-reflections2.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Management Cocktail Experience is always thrilling!

My experience at Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel has been very fruitful and enriching. I could not have thought of a better place than that as I was warm-welcomed by the front office department and its members. I was well-groomed by the Frontline manager and have gained help and support from my Guest Relations team members of Frontline department. I was assigned to be a Guest Relations trainee of the Guest Relations Department.

One of my most favorite experiences has been the Management cocktail which is held every Wednesdays where you get the opportunities to connect personally with the guests and socialize with them. The purpose of holding the Management Cocktail weekly was an opportunity for all the departmental managers and the guest relations staff and most importantly the general manager to socialize with the external members. (Hotel clients are termed as external members/ guests at the hotel.) All the staff are to communicate with each and every guest to gather feedback of their stay as well as to take note of their recommendations to further improve the hotel service. By performing this activity by all our staff, it helps us know our external members individually and if ever they would like something to be tailored according to their preferences in their service.

Being a Curtin student, I found this platform to be a golden opportunity to practice my graduate attributes such as performing good communication skills with tourists from all around the world, having an international perspective, cultural understanding for others and also show my efficiency of working individually and as a team which fall under professional skills. I also got the chance to apply my thinking and information skills while dealing with different people of different backgrounds and cultures. It helped me enrich and broaden your knowledge while applying principles learnt in new situations. My duties and responsibilities were to conform to all the hotel standards and their 20 basic attributes yet blending in my personal touch as an individual outperforming my graduate attributes I have been exposed during my three year course.

Left side: Myself with the Guest Relations Coordinator and Right side with a staff member with traditional Indian attire.

Another highlight of the cocktail party is to introduce our variety of Mauritian specialty beverages such as rum - based cocktails inspired by our bar specialists, local house wines and also international beverages and local homemade snacks. And the surprise of the night is the local Mauritian live Sega dance by our local troupe. Its aim is to spark the holidays with fun and excitement for our external members with live entertainment and also ice breaking atmosphere to dance with other external guests. They are also taught a few steps of the typical Sega dance and introduced with the local instruments used for the performance. A Spa therapist is also present by the pool side to give the external guests a 2-3 minutes complimentary massage to relax themselves and also promote the spa services.