Internship_report_hyatt_regency_kuantan.doc

Acknowledgement I would like to thank my beloved parent my friends Aazwan, Aazrul, Tan Chee Wern, Farzana for their utmost assitance during my 2months time of internship. I would also like to thanks my understandable lecturers who allowed me to submit my report late and understand and giving me the flexibility to undergo my military training(Reserve). And first before u start reading my report i would like to address that there’s no intention from me to harassing or blackmailing anyone but what i wrote is the truth and in best possible way and in less formally manner to make it less mundane.

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Introduction The demand of high quality labor in malaysia is rising due to the increase in the number of local and foreign investor. Due to this matter, Universiti Tenaga Nasional which is one of the universities in malaysia that imposing industrial training as one of their course subject. This is to enhance the student knowledge about the industry they involve in, by giving a hands on experience that will helps the students in the future. On 2012 the university make an agreement with alam venture(the owner for Hyatt Regency Kuantan resort) to take 15 students from business courses to undergo industrial training there. The training will be beased on the operation and so the administration. The allocation for operation is 75% while 25% is for the administration part. The training starts from 28th of may 2012 until 20th of june 2012.

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Company Background

As Hyatt Regency Kuantan resort is owned by Alam venture SDN BHD, unfortunately due to comprehensive detail on their background. Even during our internship, we were only being acknowledged that the hotel is owned by the company but somehow all the history and the background is all abour the hyatt international with somehow i said irrelevant as what tehy present is not what they deliver, especially the hyatt people. Nevertheless i just give a brief explantaion abut the Hyatt. The original owners were entrepreneurs, Hyatt von Dehn and Jack D. Crouch. Von Dehn was eager to get out of the hotel business after a few years, so he sold his share in the hotel to Jay Pritzker. Jay's younger brother Donald Pritzker, under Jack Crouch's mentorship and along with his brother Jay, took over day-to-day operations of the company and acquired motels and hotels. Over the following decade, Donald's handling of the day-to-day operations and Jay's leadership and deal-making abilities helped drive acquisitions and financial strategy, making Hyatt the fastest-growing hotel chain in the United States. After Donald's death in 1972, Jay remained at the helm, helping to shape Hyatt into a major competitor in the hospitality industry. In 1969, Hyatt opened its first overseas hotel, the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong (which closed at the end of 2005 and was demolished; a new facility replacing the old opened in 2009. In 1980, the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands were introduced. Hyatt has become known for its resorts after the opening of Hyatt Regency Maui in 1980. Today Hyatt has over 480 hotels worldwide. In 1972, Hyatt formed Elsinore Corporation, a subsidiary to operate the Four Queens Hotel and Casino and the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. After Hyatt became a private company in 1979, Elsinore was spun off into a public company. The company opened the Playboy Hotel and Casino as a joint venture with Playboy Enterprises. In June 2004, substantially all of the hospitality assets owned by Pritzker family business interests, including Hyatt Corporation and Hyatt International Corporation were consolidated under a single entity called Global Hyatt Corporation. This created a hospitality company with a single balance sheet, a single organization and a single focus. On June 30, 2009, Global Hyatt Corporation changed its name to Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

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In December 2004, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced it would acquire AmeriSuites, an upscale chain of all suite business class hotels from affiliates of the Blackstone Group, a New Yorkbased private equity investment firm. Blackstone had inherited AmeriSuites from its 2004 acquisition of Prime Hospitality. The AmeriSuites chain was rebranded and converted to a new concept called Hyatt Place. With Hyatt Place, Hyatt Hotels Corporation will better compete with the limited service products Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn offered by industry leaders Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide, respectively. In December 2005, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced a second limited service acquisition, Summerfield Suites. Again the seller was the Blackstone Group. Blackstone had inherited Summerfield Suites from its purchase of Wyndham International. In January 2012, Hyatt Summerfield Suites were rebranded as Hyatt House and positioned to compete in the upscale extended stay market against brands such as Residence Inn, Homewood Suites and Staybridge Suites. On August 6, 2009, it was reported that Hyatt Hotels Corporation filed plans to raise up to $1.15 billion in an initial share sale. On November 4, 2009, Hyatt completed an initial public offering and began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol H. According to the filing, Mark S. Hoplamazian will serve as CEO and Thomas Pritzker will serve as Executive Chairman. The public offering is a result of the breakup of the Pritzker family empire. Accused of looting family trusts, Thomas and cousins Penny and Nicholas were forced to wrest control of the family businesses when she and other family members were sued by cousin Liesel Pritzker claiming fraud and seeking damages in excess of $6 billion. On August 31, 2009 three Hyatt hotels in Boston laid off their entire housekeeping staffs, outsourcing the work to a Georgia-based company creating strong public backlash. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick threatened a boycott of the hotels by state employees traveling on official business. The housekeepers, who were fired without previous notice although some of them had worked for the Hyatt for over 20 years, became collectively known as the Hyatt 100. Hyatt offered a Job Assurance Program, which arranged for a new job with another employer for any employee who wanted one or job retraining at their previous Hyatt rate of pay, as well as extended healthcare benefits. In December 2009, Hyatt was named the "Massachusetts Scrooge of the Year" by Jobs with Justice. As of March 31, 2012, Hyatt Corporation's worldwide portfolio consisted of 488 properties.[18] On September 1, 2011, Hyatt acquired Hotel Sierra which has 18 properties in 10 states. Along with Hyatt Summerfield Suites hotels, several of these properties were rebranded as HYATT house in January 2012. Hyatt Hotels Corporation operations several chains, and the company and its people have been recognized from publications including Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Latina Style and DiversityInc Magazine. The Human Rights Campaign has awarded the company 100% in the HRC Equality Index for eight consecutive years. The Hyatt Regency brand is the oldest brand in the company, with the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands being introduced in 1980. Of these properties, some are styled as "resort" properties, and may feature spas or other recreational facilities. Other 4|Page

brands include Hyatt Place, designed as a limited service offering targeted to the business traveler. An extended stay chain, Summerfield Suites, was acquired by Hyatt in 2005, and was renamed Hyatt House in January 2012. Hyatt also launched a new brand, Andaz, in April 2007. The first hotel to bear this brand was The Great Eastern Hotel in London, with additional properties now open in San Diego, West Hollywood, Shanghai and New York City (Andaz Wall Street & Andaz 5th Avenue). Hyatt recently announced a large expansion of the Andaz brand, with properties expected to open Maui, Papagayo (Costa Rica), Turks and Caicos, Amsterdam, and Delhi.

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Task and Responsibilities 1ST WEEK On my first week task I was put under the concierge department, but somehow it’s still not fixed as they are quite busy with the wedding event of the ex-general manager of the hotel. So I were doing job like pushing the luggage trolley to take guest luggage to their room and to the lobby for check out. I also learn how to answer an internal call when there’s a request for bellboy as the communication centre will call directly to the concierge front desk. Under the concierge department I was put under Mr Zulkiflee or Mr Joe his nickname. And the head in charge is Mr Cheng as he is the director of rooms and the concierge department is under the rooms division. And on the second day I was lost as I still not sure I am under which department as I were told I just with the concierge for yesterday only as they haven’t made a decision yet. And I’m waiting for Mr Cheng to allocate me to a fixed department, but somehow he still said he doesn’t know where he could put me but he insist me to stay with the concierge for another day, I do the same job I done yesterday plus giving information to the tourist regarding the hot spot in Kuantan. This is quite tough as I’m not original from here. But during this second day I was busy handling luggage for the VIP, and was assigned to go to the regency club. The special part in the hotel which are more exclusive compare to the other part of the hotel. After that I and the other selected employee and trainee, were assigned to go for orientation program conducted by the human resource department as part of the internal training provided by the company. The orientation last for 3 days until Friday 8th of June 2012. After the orientation I was assigned by Mr Cheng to the regency club, as he said I was doing a good job there during my second day doing my task as concierge or bellboy in the regency club.

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2nd week On the second week I was officially jointed the RC team until the end of my operation tenure, I was welcomed by the team leader Mr Hasry and were acknowledged to work under his supervision and miss Faiza the assistant manager. On this second week alos I were assigned to do a multi tasking job, thanks to the hectic schedule and a very high pax of guest check in the hotel especially in the RC. On 12th I’m helping the house keeping to make up room, as they have a lack of staff at the moment. Plus during this time around I were also learn on how to approach guest on a different level amongs them some of them are Dato, Tan Sri and the Europeans are also different between their countries so I must be aware of that.then on the next day I experience my first departmental briefing which is conducted by Mr Cheng. On this day also I learned about the basic food and beverages appliances like the cutleries and the glass as there is different type of glass for different type of drink. And on 14 th utill 16 of june I were absent and unable to attend to work as I got problem with my ankle and cant barely move my feet or even to stand. And on the last day of the week I do the same work but there’s an incident happened as the guest is furious as all his luggage were brought down to the lounge without his acknowledgement, even actually he made a mistake by swapping rooms without letting the us know.

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3rd week In the 3rd week the hotel are organizing lot of activities in conjunction with the COP (Celebrating Our People) program. This program includes the blood donation program, beach cleaning program, BBQ party and some inter department game like futsal galah panjang and beach volleyball. I as part of the hotel employee registered in the inter department game. I also registered for blood donation program but somehow my team leader wont allowed me to go for the donation as during that time RC is quite busy. For this week briefing I acknowledged Mr Joe from concierge department on the deficiencies of the board games available in the RC. And during this time I also learn on how to swipe the credit card and not to swipe more than twice as it will affect the auditing. And during this week I also make an additional task ordered by my team leader due to my additional comment in my log book regarding the, weaknesses and lacklustre I found in the regency club, he also ordered me to do some simple analysis regarding the guest consume on food and beverages offered in regency club as the customer get a non-limit complimentary food and beverages in the regency club lounge. Here I compile the additional task done by me regarding the 3rd week experience and my simple analysis in financial terms. My report: 3rd week additional report I start my first week with the involvement in Celebration Our People, this is an annual celebration from the Hyatt worldwide. Which were organised in the appreciation of their employees, as this is to build the camaraderie and working spirit between peers. In Hyatt Regency Kuantan there’s tons of activities organised by the management like futsal, galah panjang and beach volleyball. And there’s also a blood donation programme. I’ve registered myself and my mate for the sports program but unfortunately due to several problems we were unable to participate. same goes to blood donation programme as I’m stuck with the pack schedule of working in the regency club. In this 3rd week I also learn something related to operation generally and finance specially. Where during this week briefing we were told not to swipe credit card more than two times as this could lead to a problem in the auditing process as the guest will reluctantly pay for more but somehow the banks will easily terminate the transaction as they afraid of fraud, and this will surely contribute to more serious losses as the payment couldn’t be made. Plus I were explain briefly about the rooms offered here in Hyatt. In the briefing I were also throw out my opinion and acknowledge them abut the defect and the lack of board games offered in the regency club. As this is important as regency club is one of the flagship product of Hyatt regency Kuantan and if this is happen it will easily effect the reputation and less guest going to stay again (as guest in regency club is mostly a repeating guest) and some of them bring kids along so when there’s no board games the status of the hotel as 5 star could easily be questionable. As my 3rd week mostly involving me in the cocktail session, I noticed things that maybe regency club need to overcome. Guests were allowed to bring two additional guests. 8|Page

Let say that there’s a husband and wife their maximum additional guest that they could bring for a cocktail of breakfast would be two. Somehow they come up with more than that thus the cost is may exceeding the allocation budget for every room. And same goes to cocktail as some guests were goes miles too much when having their drink in the two hour period as this would cost the hotel maybe in financial term. But somehow not all of the guest are like that just a bunch of them.

To make thing easier and to show the effect of a guest who are going beyond the rules and having an excessive drinks during cocktail, I’ll explain it simply just like this. Let say a guest name Mr Albuceto, he came with his girlfriend. And they are having a wild day that day, drinking nearly 2 bottle of chardonnay the white wine from Australia. And they have plates of bacon and etc, as I can simply summarised this as below A bottle of chardonnay RM30x2=RM60 Plates of Bacons(estimated) RM20x2=RM40 ETC(estimated) RM10x2=RM20 Total=RM120

As the normal room rate the lowest I could say in the range of RM560, we subtract the rate with the cost of the cocktail we get RM440. And I could estimate for breakfast it’s not cost that much but RM50 for both of them, another subtraction from the breakfast will left us with RM390. Somehow this is not the main revenue there’s still a cost need to be considered. The electrical and water bills. As hotel were in a business and hospitality its considered as industrial and were charged under the industrial rate which is RM0.43 per kw/h for more than 200kw/h. and I could say with the air conditioning and lights the electricity might be high. We can sum it up for RM 60 for a day. And same goes to the water bill I summed it up as RM30 per day. Now we left with RM300 and cost of labour for a room I can simply summarised as RM10 per day, then we left with RM290. After all the hotel I think manage to get a break even and a profit even when customer are having their breakfast of cocktail like there’s no tomorrow. Plus in the long term it will benefit the hotel as the word of mouth spread by the guest will attract more visitor to stay here and they will come here again to have another stay and maybe another shot of unlimited wine, where they cant get in othe place like the Hyatt motto. YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME

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4th week As the time goes by I now enter my first month of internship in this company. The things doesn’t changes much as I do the same work after all as this is only the operation and luckily I was positioned in the Regency club as there’s more multi-tasking task in this department compare to the others. But somehow all I can say is I do the same thing like what I done in my previous week the only thing different is the number of guest staying during this week. But on 27th June I attend the Zakat talk regarding the zakat deduction straight from the employee monthly pay especially for Muslims. This program was held by pusat kutipan zakat Pahang. And this program is to build the hotel employee knowledge’s regarding the zakat payment in many ways, as to make zakat payment are lot easier for those who are working here as they don’t have a normal shift like the others does. From this talk, they are encouraging the employee to make a petition to the Human resources department to imposing this new zakat deduction from their salary only for Muslim. And what can I say, sadly only some of them agree while the others are looking like they had to come and took this opportunity to pull the weight off form their shoulders for a moment.

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5th week In my 5th week, I still in the operation nothing much I can explain as I do the same job depending on my shift but I don’t have anything to complain as I learn many thing not related to my field in this type of work. Especially the soft skills like the curtsy, being patient and handle the guest with the best ever manner and try to satisfy their need in the best possible ways. But in this week I have something to be highlighted about, on 3rd June I and the other UNITEN internees have a short meeting with Mr Gerard the director of human resources to discussing about our next internship part which is the administration. As for me I don’t find this as a problem as for me I will start my administration work on 11th June based on the contract. But somehow we were told to go for our administration part on the 16th June compare to 4th for the others and 11th for me. And for me this delay does not affect me much, but somehow it affecting my other university mates as they will finish their internship on 20th so if they start on 16th, what will they get for only 4 days? And from here they already clearly breach the contract and totally not professional at all.

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6th week This week is supposed to be my last week in the operational department, but somehow due to the arrangement made by the director of human resources Mr Gerard I need to stay for another 5 more days. I can say I’m not happy about it as this is already a breach of contract plus as in the operation my work base on 6 days and 8 hours of work basis, but somehow due to the change in schedule I need to work until Sunday. Which I’m supposed to start my administration part on Wednesday, plus due to this matter I don’t have enough rest as I need to work 8 straight days. As I change my off day with one of my Nepalese colleague, and working with improper shift which is I have work for 3 consecutive part of day where I work from the evening shift which ends at 10pm and goes to work tomorrow in the morning shifts starts at 6am. I don’t get enough sleep and rest for this whole week its tiring and I start feeling that I’m being used as the cheap labour for this company as they don’t need to pay any other allowances for me except just for rm600 in total they paid me. And on this week also my lecturer from UNITEN came to evaluate me, they said my supervisor come up with a good response and he said I’m doing very well. But somehow for me that what they should do as I never complain for an extra work they gave me, they ask me to do something beyond my will like serving alcoholic drinks, and pick up goods from store and taking goods or anything to guest which need me to walk from blocks to blocks I don’t have time to sit down like the other girls in the RC. And in this week also I pick up some points as this is my last week in the operation and in the RC, I have a debate with the executive chef Pari and chef Azman, as he said the RC kitchen is a mess and untidy. The fact is the kitchen were like that because of the management wants it to be like that, first the kitchen is tiny second the kitchen is full with all the make-up and unnecessary thing from the RC staff especially the girls including the bags, and shoes. For me this is the time to change the lounge has been in that state since it was established in the 80’s, they need to make it more lively and more to like modern county style. And separating the kitchen into 2 the beverages part (something like mini bar or baristas in Starbucks) this is because the RC having two type of session the breakfast and the cocktail session. And for the cocktail there’s no need of usage of the kitchen so there’s no priority in making a big unnecessary kitchen and for breakfast we mostly focus on the continental breakfast so since the first day I in the RC the order are mostly fried egg sunny side up, omelette, fried egg over easy just fried eggs nothings complicated thus I believe a separate kitchen will really help the hotel to operate better.

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7th week Now start my first week in the administration, I start my work in the finance department by coming to work at 9 and end at 5. Finance department is diverse and separated to several parts, like the account receivable (handling all the sales and money coming in to the hotels ledger), the account payable (handling all the invoices and payment to the supplier), payroll (handling the payment of salary and wages working closely with the human resources), information system (handling the IT and all the matter regarding the software and computer appliances, somehow I don’t have any idea why they ended up here). I start my first day in finance with the purchasing department. Here I were thought about the direct contact with the supplier and how to manages goods when it arrives or send by the supplier, everything need to be check to make sure everything is in a good order and what they gave is accurate with the items the hotels ordered. I was also thought on how to make a PO (purchase order) and PR (purchase request). From here I were also thought on how to choose from a best supplier which offer the best price and other consideration that need to make into accounts. Then on the next day I still stick with the purchasing department but were ask to stay with the store to learn about the handling on the stocks of supply which is related with the purchasing. Then I move to cost auditing with Miss Zahrah, here I learn on how to curtail expenses in the best possible way without hampering the hotel performances and efficiency. There’s so many thing can be control to manages cost, and under the cost auditing I learn on the others sets of accounts under the cost auditing department like the petty cash , discount account(the complimentary given to hotel special guest or superior). On 19th July I moved into the account payable department as I have learned in the purchasing department it’s still the same in the account payable department the different is instead of ordering I need to issue a payments to the suppliers. Based on the PO submit by the purchasing department to the account payable department, and after all that were settled I need to do a filing for each months for each supplier. I do learn extra knowledge on what happen in the finance department which is never offered in the formal courses like using the franking machine, how to control cheque control sheet and aging system for continuous supply from the supplier.

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8th week This is my last week in the hotel and in the finance department as well. This week is far more challenging as in the last week I learn on doing things conventional ways now I’m doing it in more sophisticated manner, I started learning on using the system offered in Hyatt for their daily operation. They are using I-scala and the opera, where it’s the system which connects between department and it’s a one solution system, and the data published in the I-scala must tele or balanced with the data in one of those systems. On 25th I continued my administration operation in the account receivable department by studying about 3 types of ledger the city ledger, the credit card ledger and the ambank & alam venture promo ledger (more like a discount ledger about the compliment gave to the special guest and hotels superior. And on the 26th of July comes the most hectic part in the finance department after the monthly auditing (which I miss as I end my internship on 28th July). This process is about maintaining and calculating the number of stocks the inventory do have at the current period of time. The inventory that we monitor is the general store (all the general items like stationery and etc.), the food and beverages store, the engineering store and also chukka bar (the bar- mostly count on the stocks of wine and others cocktail left in the chukka storage compartment). The inventory process took the whole day to complete and for this process alone it makes me going back at 7 pm nearly to break my fast for that day. And on 27th my last day on the administration, I proceed with yesterday’s inventory by checking whether the yesterday details is tele or appropriate with the previous month details as this is to monitor whether there are shortage, which may cause by improper handling of stocks, or inefficiency in terms of auditing or may also cause by misuse or theft among the staff. This is very important to track misconduct or cost management.

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Benefits The things i learn during this internship programs were: Operation     

Learn about the basic communication skills The curtousy Being patient Problems handling Multi- tasking

Administration(Finance)     

the various finance department in the basic hotels operation the importance of finance department in any organisation cost management buyer seller interaction inventory maintanence

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Obstacle The obstacle i face during this internship programs were: Operation         

its not my field i have problems in doing the hotel job(get cocky sometimes) i struggle to understand the different types of wines i struggle to memorize the cocktail recipe i struggle the basic F&B service the check in and check out service to understand guest need which is sometimes beyond my power doing job thats is not mine to do going extra mile but not being appreciated

Administration(Finance)  

i dont have enough time to learn more about the finance department everyhting i learn is just a basic and in a rush

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Conclusion The conclusion for my internship is I can say I don’t learn much and I just doing this for the sake of my university that is the University Tenaga Nasional. I’m very grateful for the helps that being offered by YTN(Yayasan Tenaga Nasional) to me during my time as a students here by offering convertible loans, and for your information THIS IS THE MAIN REASON I ACCEPTED THE OFFER EVENTHOUGH I KNOW I DO NOT LEARN MUCH FROM 75% OPERATION AND 25% ADMINISTRATION ON 52 WORK DAYS BASIS. I don’t have much to say as I already stated in the previous part regarding my weekly activities. Thank you so much but in the future make a really good deal or else you just jeopardizing the students future as when they go for an interview in the future and the interviewer ask him/her what him or her learn during the course of training, all they can say is nothing. Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to learn something that are not and never available in the textbook and shaping me for what I am today. THANK YOU.

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