Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Undercover Boss, Choice Hotels, 09262010

The undercover boss that just recently aired was the president and CEO of Choice Hotels, Steve Joyce. Did you know that Choice Hotels are franchise hotels such as Comfort Inn, Econolodge, Quality Inn amd Cambria Suites? I didn't know that! I learned something new again today!

It seems the storyline of Undercover Boss is the same, the CEO or president disguises as a new hire to look at the different aspects of the business. The undercover boss flies to different locations of the business, then while working gets the life history of the person training them! He then exposes to the employees his real name and his real job!!! How corny!!!! The undercover boss gets emotionally nudged by the story and gives one or two employees a big break, gives someone in the family or the employee a scholarship and sends the family on a week long vacation for free!!! Well, that is good! What other storyline can they have except that??? I do not know, it tends to be repetitious and boring! But it is a different company everytime! It does not matter, it is still the same story!!!

Steve Joyce's story was the same. He flew to Orlando, Florida to meet the maintenance man who had 2 jobs to support his family and the youngest child going to medical school! We see Steve Joyce cleaning the pool, cleaning the tables and doing the garbage in a 94 degree weather! Since he is not familiar with these tasks, he sweats profusely and was very tired. Well, Steve, what do you expect? You are not physically fit to do all those physically challenging jobs walking from place to place! As a result, he gives a scholarship to the maintenance child and buys him a golf cart to eliminate wasted time walking from task to task! Isn't that nice??? Woo...hooo....

He travels to another location where he met up with the housekeeping. Wow! I did not know that there is a time allotment for each task, like 27 minutes to get one room done, a few minutes to load up a cart of towels and toiletries! Of course, he failed miserably! That is why the housekeeper said that he should go to a housekeeping boot camp! Was she serious?? Is there really a housekeeping boot camp for hotel employees??? My goodness!!! If everything they do is timed, I wonder how many failed??? I do not think I will pass their training!!!! Yikes!!!! So, next time that you are in a hotel, think of how hard the housekeepers work with minimum pay!!! Goodness gracious! How many rooms are they expected to do in a day? Thirty??? My! My! My! Any comments, anyone??? The housekeeper was sent for management training and became a general manager. Her family was sent to Disneyworld for a vacation ... all expenses paid!!! Way to go, girl!!!!

Then he goes to the sales department. He was sooo impressed with the guy that he was with that he offered him to work for him globally! I was too, considering that he was just there for 2 1/2 months! Wow!! This guy will go very far!!! Very impressive with the way he talks and deals with clients!!! That is a big loss for the franchise owner but a big gain for Steve!!!

His next stop was the front desk. Since the lady works by herself at night, she does the cleaning, laundry and the front desk! That is sooo many tasks to do by yourself! Well, at night, it is usually slow anyway. Still, they expect too much from her! What did she get for showing such multitasking? She must have been rewarded also?? Honestly, I really do not know what the reward was because I got distracted by a phone call!! Oh, well.

So, next time you go to a hotel, think of how hard the employees worked to take care of our rooms and surroundings. Are they not amazing to get everything in order before you go into the room??? Does that mean more tip is in order??? I am not going to touch that for now since I am not sure of the correct amount for tipping!

Posted by vs at 9/28/2010 9:41 AM | Add Comment

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