Let’s connect to the other part of the world!

 Hello Everyone, I would like to share one of my wonderful experiences I used to look forward to have every morning and it was to connect with different nationalities of people round the globe. It could not have been better to be at one place and get connected with people of different culture, background and nationality and different personalities, unique in its way. It was always exciting to connect, learn and broaden your knowledge with life experiences tourists shared. It was a kind of feeling to be linked for a moment with their memories somewhere in a different world.

This was also the time to show your confidence and communication skills with an international perspective. Managers are always around, observing if everything is going on smoothly. Conversations varied from individual to individual. I got the chance to share the Mauritian history and also answer their questions related to Mauritius and also advise them places of interest according to their preferences and hobbies.

While having quick chat with hotel guests, some of them also want to be listened as they share their life experiences and about the place they originate from. I would also seize an opportunity to ask them feedback about their stay and the services.  It was always nice to hear words like “keep it up, your hotel staff is going a great job” or | "their holidays could not have been better than that, its heaven here”.  Feedback noted are used to further improve the hotel service and preferences specified by guests are noted in their files to better personalize their stay among us at Paradise Cove. 

There are certain guests who are hesitant to open up during check – in procedures. It is the staff’s duty to communicate with them at their convenience to ask them if they are satisfied with the food and if they prefer to have any alternatives. One of our Basic attitudes of the Attitude Group followed by the hotel says that “Whenever a guest has a problem or needs something special, we break away from our regular duties to address and resolve this issue as a priority. Therefore, negative feedback from our guests must be turned into a positive action. Whoever receives the complaint will be responsible to do the needful on the spot in order to meet the guests’ total satisfaction.” A meeting is fixed with the Chef and the guests to further personalize any menu he or she has been unhappy about to achieve our guests satisfaction.

At the entrance of Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel

At the reception Desk of Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel

PR internship has been a life changing experience for me as it has introduced me the professional world. It has been wonderful for me as a trainee where you get a platform to put into practice whatever you have learnt during three years of study. I also got to discover myself and learn about my capabilities of performing in a real workplace and also be guided by managers to further improve my skills.

By Tina Devi Halkhoree

Curtin Student - Charles Telfair Institute Campus, Mauritius

I.D. Number:17480767

Ready to Launch

Working for a start-up program is hard work especially now that launch day is getting closer and closer.

After one of our Mentors a few weeks ago made us realise we had gone off track from the main goal that Yellowbanana.com wants to achieve, we had to push back our launch date two weeks so we could refocus and really know what the public wants and how Yellowbanana can achieve it before anyone else. So we stripped back to each category and did a Lean Canvas for why ‘Teachers’ and ‘Learners’ would use our product above competitors like Gumtree. Lean Canvas was a fantastic learning tool for our whole team as it really focused us as to what we need to do in order to ensure success.

Now that we have refocused our idea on what Yellowbanana is we can finally launch.

The Yellowbanana team is working a million miles an hour to reach our goal of launching on Monday the 25^th of May. I have been busy helping the team by churning out media release after media release so they are ready to be sent out on Monday.

Our plan is on Monday morning to have a major media and marketing day. This involves the sending out of all media releases to our media contacts, blog contacts and other forms of media. This means that this week I have been working on updating our existing media contacts filling them in a way that they can be easily accessed on Monday.

Along with that I have also been creating and editing promotional posters for our social media pages. I found this quite hard because I haven’t used Photoshop since a first year tutorial. But I very excited to have my posters used on our sites.

I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks at YB, working on a brand new product is when PR is most important to in order to get people interested in the product. I think this is a great opportunity to learn about how to succeed.

Shameless promo time Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/yellowbananaoz?fref=ts

Emergency calls only

So this is the end, my last day as intern at Arcadia Travel. I must admit that even though I am thrilled to get at least one week of holiday before going back to university, I will miss Port Louis and this great team made of amazing people. They’ve taught me more about work, communication, the importance of sharing and the significance of a simple “thank you” than I could imagine.

Port-Louis is the hemisphere of work. Every corner, shop, café or alleyway is imprinted in this ambiance, it is something I’ll never forget. Obviously, anyone who knows a tiny bit about Mauritius, knows this but still being part of this working group is something else, it’s incredible.

I have learnt the real value in practice of a PR plan. It requires more than what I previously believed it did, in-depth research at all levels, concise objectives, a complete and detailed timeline and thorough evaluation amongst others. The plan doesn’t even feel like hard work when the goal is so very concrete.

But as promised, the internship proved to be a lifetime experience. I learnt valuable lessons about public relations, I created numerous connections with people that helped me and that might help me later on and I acquired the very unique skill of working with colleagues which is not simple I assure you. There’s a whole list of experiences that helped me grow personally and professionally and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity.

But for now, I am packing all the paperwork in a pretty little yellow plastic pocket and enjoying my unique and final week of holidays.

x

Gaëlle