Handling Incompetent Front Office Staff When Communicating With Foreign Guests in Grand Serela Hotel.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dunia perhotelan kini menjadi semakin maju di dalam dunia bisnis. Di dalam sebuah hotel, para tamu hotel harus diberikan pelayanan yang terbaik. Di samping itu, kemampuan pekerja front office dalam

berkomunikasi dengan tamu merupakan hal yang penting. Tanpa

kemampuan berkomunikasi, sebuah hotel tidak akan dapat memberikan pelayanan yang baik.

Di dalam tugas akhir ini saya akan menganalisa ketidakmampuan pekerja front office dalam berkomunikasi dengan tamu asing di hotel Grand Serela. ketidakmampuan ini dapat menyebabkan kesalahpahaman di antara pekerja dengan tamu hotel, dan juga pekerja tidak dapat

menyampaikan informasi dengan baik kepada tamu hotel.

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FLOWCHART

Causes

- lack of listening and speaking skills

- the vocabulary is enlarged

- the English skills will become better

- the listening skills becomes better - gain more vocabulary

Chosen Solution

- giving front officers an English training once a week

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

The world tourism today is getting attention in many countries. This is proven by the many established hotels or inns, and also tourism place. Therefore, hotels or inns compete one with another by providing best service. To be able to give best service to guests, front office staff should be competent in communicating with foreign guests. In this term paper, I analyse the problem of the incompetent front office staff in communicating with foreign guests in GSH. I choose this topic because as a front office staff, being competent in communication is very important in a hotel. A front office staff has to be able to make good communication with the guests; hence, there will not be misunderstanding between the staff and the guests. Moreover, if front office staff can communicate well, the guests will feel satisfied. Therefore, being competent in communication with the guests is important.

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B.

Identification of the Problem

When I was doing my internship, I had a problem that is I am not competent in communicating with foreign guests. The questions concerning the problems that will be analyzed are :

1. Why are the front office staff at GSH not competent in communicating with foreign guests?

2. What happens if the front office staff are not competent in communicating with foreign guests?

3. What should the front office staff do to improve the competence in communicating with foreign guests?

C.

Objective and Benefits of the Study

The objective of the study is to find the best solution to the problem of incompetent front office staff in communicating with foreign guests in GSH. The benefits for me as the writer is I can know how to improve my competence in communicating with foreign guests to avoid

miscommunication. The benefit for the readers is the readers will know about the importance of being competent in communicating in a hotel, especially communication between the staff and the guests. This is

especially beneficial if the readers are interested in working in a hotel as a front office staff.

The benefit for the institution is it is able to solve the problem of

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Maranatha Christian University possibilties to have miscommunication between front office staff with the guests.

D.

Description of the Institution

GSH was established by Mr. Hendri Husada in 2005. This three-star hotel is situated in a very strategic area. It is located near factory outlets in Riau street.

There are 77 rooms at Grand Serela Hotel, they are superior, deluxe, executive, grand room, deluxe suite, and regal suite. In each room there are also a TV set, air conditioner, a telephone, hot and cold shower, a minibar, a safe defosit box, a coffee and tea maker.

The vision of GSH is to be the best tree-star hotel in Indonesia. Whereas, the mission of GSH is to give the best service to the customers, therefore the good image of the hotel will be maintained. GSH also wants to create a good relation and communication among the staff and also to have good coordination among departments to achieve the best result. There are 8 departments at Grand Serela Hotel. They are the front office department, housekeeping department, food and beverage department, laundry department, storekeeper department, security department, concierge department, and reservation department.

E.

Method of the Study

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F.

Limitation of the Study

The research that I did at GSH is only at front office department. The research took thirty days. Furthermore, I observed the communication between the foreign guests with the front office staffs.

G.

Organization of the Term Paper

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

During my internship at Grand Serela Hotel, I faced a problem that is the

front office staff are not competent in communicating with foreign guests. The

incompetence is caused by lack of listening and speaking skills, and

vocabulary. As a result, the guests did not feel satisfied and complaint. In

chapter III, I analyze the problem with its negative and the positive effects.

Moreover, I describe some potential solutions to solve the problem. However,

there are also negative and positive effects of the potential solutions.

There are three potential solutions. The first is to find the opportunities to

talk with foreigner, the second potential solution is to give front office staff an

English training once a week, and the third potential solution is watch English

movies without Indonesian subtitles. I have chosen the second and the third

potential solution. The reason I choose the second potential solution is

because from the theory that I have read, taking English training is a good

way to improve English skills. Based on the second potential solution theory,

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listening and speaking skills. Beside the second potential solution, I also

choose the third potential solution because by watching English movies

without Indonesian subtitles, we are forced to hear what the actors or the

actresses say in English. By doing this, our listening skills will be improved.

The reason I do not choose the first potential solution because it is difficult to

find foreigners in Bandung city. Another reason is there is a possibility that

the foreigner will reject to give a respond because some of them do not want

to waste their time speaking with someone they do not know. Therefore, the

opportunity for front office staff to get a chance to talk with foreigners is very

small.

To conclude, competence in communicating with guests is very important

for a front office staff. Without that competence, front office staff cannot

interact with the guests well and cannot fulfill the guests’ needs. Moreover,

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