Ken Williams

11/26/2014
PRT 3800_Small Internship

PRT 3800 Reflection Report III

This internship has brought with it, as expected, a large amount of learning experiences. I
suppose as such, I got what I paid for. True, 3800 had with it the legitimizing assignments of goals
and objectives, which I will delve into shortly, the course also in merely the experience of it has
also shown me a fair portion of what to expect in the hospitality field. But, firstly, let me go into the
achievement of my goals and objectives.
One of my goals was to gain a greater understanding of the Strategic Plan of the company
as a whole through the reading of documents associated with the strategic plan of the hotel. I had
objectives of reading specific documents associated with the management of the company such as:
short and long range plans, marketing plan, operations plan, business plan, vision mission value
statements, etc. The other goal I had was to memorize the check-in, check-out, reservation and
reports areas/ sections within the Crystal Inn Training manual through the objectives that basically
amounted to simply going through the book and memorizing, and memorizing, and memorizing.
Concerning my first objective of gaining a greater understanding of the Crystal Inn as a
whole through reviewing its strategic plan I attained what I had sought to. In my course work at
the University of Utah, which actually takes a pointed approach to entrepreneurship in their
students more so than other schools, I expected (as the Crystal Inn is a legitimate business) that
such documentation of intent would of course be available. Contradictorily, such an assumption
was disappointingly wrong. As I came to find out the Crystal Inn is owned by Flying-J oil, a hotel
company originally intended to provide lodging for mostly transportation specialists (truckers),

intermediate business men, and road trip tourists along highways basically in the middle of
nowhere. And, since the Crystal Inn is owned by an oil company bluntly rolling in revenue there
was no need for such documentation of intentions and planning such as exist in a strategic plan or
marketing plan or operations plan of an entrepreneur. These documents are drafted most often to
gain financial backing (loans) something the Crystal Inn never needed in order to operate. And so,
their strategic plan is this, basically: get higher occupancy and higher ADR than the year previous.
Thats about it. How? What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How much?, doesnt really factor in much
as far as I can see. If the hotel loses money ( which it seems hardly ever happens) than they
simply make up the difference from the diving pool of revenue from Flying-J oil.
My other objective of memorizing the check-in, check-out, reservation and reports areas/
sections within the Crystal Inn training manual through the objectives that basically amounted to
simply going through the book and memorizing, I believe has been more satisfying. Firstly, I must
state that there was a change of plans, which happened fairly swiftly. I was originally hired for the
mid-shift ( 3pm 11pm) and shortly applied for and got the night-shift (11pm- 7am). These two
shifts varied in intensity and purpose greatly. And, whereas I found mid-shift to be exasperating in
several ways especially in terms of guidance from fellow employees night-shift has happily proved
to be quite the opposite. Plus, it has the added bonus in that Im not fond of the sun. I found it
next to impossible taking my studies from the training manual and applying it to working actually
on the job in mid-shift. Trying to do so (amongst other things) resulted in a neck so tensed that it
hurt for a week to even turn my head and many sleepless nights. However, in night-shift, which was
far better in forseeability, Ive managed quite well in memorizing the How-Tos of the position. I
went through the training manual: took notes, took notes from those notes, condensed and
revised, and came up with perfect notecards for memorization. A lesson I learned from being a
finals obsessed student. And, from such obsessive and mildly desperate, attention to the how-tos

of my new night audit position in less than one month I can do the greater part of my position
alone. My co-workers and boss ( internship supervisor) were and are very pleased. So am I.
Beyond my goals and objectives the internship experience has made more things known to
me than I could have possibly had expected. Let me explain. I had no idea the kinds of people
that frequent mid-level hotels. Ive now seen drug-ees, rich doctors, serious medical patients,
drunks, sports teams, convention goers and far more. And, there-fore the gamete of human
behavior and tendency that I never knew even happed before. Ive realized that I am not
responsible for the happiness of all guests under my care at all, but am responsible for one
request at a time and to be accurate and that is it. And, probably my hardest lesson-ish, goes in-line
with something I remember reading from an HR class I took at the U; that most people dont quit
their jobs but instead quite their bosses or their co-workers. True, True, True! I left mid-shift not
because the job was too hard but because the people I worked with were well taxing to work with,
and my superior (with my lack of seniority) didnt entirely seem willing to face the problem. So,
instead, I fixed it and my neck ache. I went to night-shift, and now actually love my job.