Hospitality Supervisors
Supervise the operations of establishments which provide hospitality services.
Friday night at Wattle Creek Hotel
You are the hospitality supervisor on a Friday evening at a country hotel, looking after the bar, the dining room and the front desk team. It is 5pm and a wedding group arrives soon. One housekeeper has left early, a bar attendant is new and the dining room is nearly full. You are the person everyone looks to.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
The wedding party is arriving in an hour and six of their rooms are not ready. I am the only one on the floor. The front desk is saying the guests will be early. What should I do first?
Ask the front desk to hold guests in the bar, then pick which rooms matter most
The delay is covered for now, but the bar is busy and the guests are waiting without a plan. You solved the timing and left the real problem, the six rooms, sitting there.
Tell Tui to do as many rooms as she can and you will deal with whatever is left over
Tui rushes, one room is missed and a guest finds it unready. Without a clear plan, the pressure moves to the person least able to carry it.
Send Tui two helpers, order the rooms by arrival time and warn the desk
Four rooms are ready in time and two guests are happily given a drink while they wait. Sharing the load and telling people early keeps small problems small.
A man at the end of the bar wants another drink, but I think he has had enough. He says I am being rude and he knows the owner. What do I do?
Tell Kaz to serve him one more drink because he knows the owner
Serving someone who has had too much breaks the licence and it can be dangerous for him. You also tell Kaz that rules depend on who is asking, and that lesson is hard to undo.
Back Kaz and calmly offer the man water or food instead
He grumbles, then accepts a glass of water and a meal. Kaz learns a licensed venue must not serve people who are drunk, and sees how to say no without a fight. Staff can only hold that line if you stand with them.
Take over the conversation yourself and send Kaz off to another job
The man is dealt with, but Kaz feels they did something wrong. You solved tonight's problem, but missed the chance to show them how to handle it next time.
The till is out and I cannot find where. It is late and I just want to go home. Can I leave it and you count in the morning?
Let Josh go and count in the morning, since everyone is tired
A morning count cannot show what happened. The gap is bigger by morning and no one remembers a thing. Cash problems get harder every hour you wait.
Count with Josh now, check the dockets and note any gap in the book
You find a voided order that was never recorded. It takes twenty extra minutes, and Josh learns how to do it. Careful closing protects the staff as much as the business.
Tell Josh to cover the difference from his own pocket to settle it
The till balances, but Josh feels punished and never really knew what went wrong. Staff should never pay for a gap, and the cause is still unknown.
How it went
The last guest leaves and the till balances. You moved people around, said no once and counted twice. Supervising hospitality is half logistics and half looking after your team when it is hard. Which half do you think you would like better?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The Friday roster that fell apart
A fictional case set in a country hotel with a bar, a dining room and a front desk.
The situation
At the Wattle Creek Hotel, Dee ran the bar and dining room on Fridays. At four o'clock a bar attendant and a waiter both rang in sick, with a function of forty people booked for six. Dee had six staff for work that needed nine. The owner suggested she cancel the function, but Dee knew the group had planned it for months and had travelled to be there.
What they did
She called the three people who had asked for extra shifts and offered two a part shift each. She moved a trainee from the front desk to cover glasses and set-up and asked the kitchen to simplify the menu for the function. She told the function host about the changes before they arrived. During service she checked in with each section every twenty minutes and sent people on breaks on time.
How it turned out
The function ran slightly slower than planned, and two guests mentioned it kindly. The host thanked the team for being upfront. Dee later wrote down the call list and the simplified menu so the next gap would be easier to manage.
What would you do?
- Would you have cancelled the function, or tried to make it work?
- Why do you think Dee told the host about the changes before they arrived?
- What does a good supervisor do for the team during a stressful night?