My first internship experience: Harbour Grand Hong Kong

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Arkadiya

In this post I would like to share the most interesting points of my first internship, giving a brief overview of my responsibilities and trainings. To start with, here are some facts about the hotel I was working in:

General information:

Harbour Grand is a luxury 5 star hotel
Conveniently located just in the heart of Hong Kong Island
Each of its 828 rooms presents a spectacular view of the well-known Victoria Harbour

Some of the facilities:

Fitness center & 27-metres outdoor swimming pool
Spa & massage center
Business center
Harbour Club Lounge
Le 188’ Restaurant & Lounge – European cuisine
Kwan Cheuk Heen – Chinese cuisine
Nagomi – Japanese cuisine

So what about internship opportunities?

Like a lot of hotels do, Harbour Grand Hong Kong offers a wide range of internship opportunities in both Front Office and Food and Beverage Departments. But the most interesting possibility for interns is a cross training which gives them a unique chance of trying themselves in a lot of different positions. It is also an opportunity to gain broad experience of luxury hospitality.

Why did I decide to do cross-training?
I was applying for both departments in order to discover the whole picture of the hotel’s functioning and to get to understand better what direction to go in future. Below I presented all the positions I held along with description of my responsibilities:

Front Desk ambassador: assisted guests upon check-in and check-out, answered telephone calls, prepared registration cards for the following day, collected guests’ questionnaire;
Guest Services ambassador: met and assisted VIPs, made reports, was dealing with guests’ complains, checked if show-rooms and rooms for VIPs are upon the standard, analyzed guests’ questionnaire, was dealing with mails;
Concierge ambassador: assisted guests with their luggage; was dealing with parcels, post cards and letters sending, provided guests with all the requested information about the city and the hotel’s facilities, left messages to the guests;
Fitness center ambassador: assisted guests with the sport equipment, gave instructions about correct usage of sauna, swimming pool and steam bath;
Harbour Club ambassador: met guests of Harbour Club at the reception desk, balancing the needs of all customers in any situation, talked to guests and assisted them in the Harbour Club Lounge;
Kitchen cook: learnt the basics of fine dining kitchen while assisting cooks with ordinary tasks;
Pastry cook: learnt the basics of pastry while preparing simple recipes, participated in decorations of the desserts.

Finally, what did it bring to me?

From my point of view, cross training in Harbour Grand Hong Kong was an amazing opportunity for me to try a lot of positions in different departments and sections, so I obtained wide professional experience and understood which sections would be the most suitable for me in future career. Also the hotel was creating a perfect environment for gaining international and personal experience, as soon as there were a lot of people from all over the world coming to Harbour Grand Hong Kong as guests, employees and trainees.

For any additional information about this hotel, please visit its website:

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Internship in Shanghai

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Guest Author

Hi everyone! My name is Camila, I am 20 years old and just finished my third semester at Les Roches last December. I was born in Bogota, Colombia, but I have been travelling and moving around most of my life. I am currently in China, completing my third and final internship, and would love to take this opportunity to share with you my experiences in this foreign country.

This is my "shifu" (Master in Chinese) and I at work.

In September, I applied and was accepted as a Front Office intern at Grand Hyatt Shanghai. I remember how happy I was when I accepted the offer, as I had always wanted to live and work in Asia! I had been to Shanghai before and I thought I knew almost everything there was to know about China. Little did I know, there was a lot more to learn about the country, the people and their culture.

The first day I arrived, I was very confused and more than anything, jet lagged. After what seemed like an eternal 14-hour flight, I arrived to the Pudong International Airport and was received by a hotel ambassador who drove me to the hotel. I arrived at the hotel, was greeted and was checked-in by the Front Office manager, and then escorted to my room on the 58^th floor! I was amazed by everything I saw and

instantly knew that I had chosen the right place for my last internship.

During the first week, I spent most of my time with the training department, getting familiar with the hotel, the staff and the other interns. We are a total of six interns all coming from Swiss hospitality schools, with the exception of one from Australia. As foreigners in this strange country, we all instantly bonded and became close friends.

Working in the clouds

The view from one of the rooms on the 70th floor.

Due to my previous experience in Front Office, I am working at the Grand Club Lounge on the 83^rd floor. The Grand Club is almost like a mini hotel within the 555-room hotel I work in. Work is challenging, but this incredible city really makes up for any hard times that come along. There is so much to do either in Shanghai or in cities close by that it’s sometimes even challenging to choose what to do on my days off!

The view from "The Bund" on the other side of the river. (My hotel is the third tallest one on the right side!)

Now that I’m closer to finishing both my internship and my studies, I can happily say this has been the best experience yet. Soon I’ll be going back to school to finish my studies, but after that who knows where I’ll be next!

Here I am with my roommate and some friends we made on weekend trip to some rice terraces in the south of China.

Camila Ramirez Gonzalez
Les Roches Student Blog

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Craft based learning

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Tristan

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well! I’m great apart from I had a slight accident last weekend playing rugby and managed to dislocate my shoulder! On another topic, I am going to talk a little bit about the Craft Based Learning (CBL) side of my BBA course. CBL takes up half of the first two on-campus semesters, during which you have the service side and the kitchen side.

Service practice

Upon arrival at Les Roches you will be supplied with your service uniform so that you look the part. Depending on what rotation you are on you will start in one of four student-run restaurants based all around the campus. Two of these are fast service restaurants, the “Market Place” is larger and more popular and there is a small fine dining restaurant called the “A La Carte”.

During my first year I really enjoyed what each different restaurant had to throw at me. I walked into the CBL course with an open mind, which was good because my first week was on breakfast duty, which meant early starts and walking to class in the snow. I had only been on campus for a short time as I started in October 2011, but this was not a problem as my classmates were amazing! They welcomed me straight away and taught me everything that they had already learnt in their previous 3 months. The teachers were also just as supportive and they taught me the different service styles and standards that I needed to adhere too.

Here is a photo of my friend Katrina and I in our chef whites. We are sporting red noses for charity.

Experiencing the real world

During my time in London working at the prestigious Landmark Hotel, I found myself frequently looking back on my time in CBL at Les Roches and there were always major similarities between what I had been taught and what I had to do at the hotel. This is due to the fact that the teachers here have all come from the industry and know exactly what it is like to work in restaurants. The course is constantly changing as a result of internship feedback and previous teacher knowledge, which I think is one of the great assets that Les Roches has to offer!

Kitchen practice

The second semester on campus is all about the kitchen. This is, in my opinion, the best semester. I am currently just over half way through this course and have loved every minute of it! I have already completed a stint working in the pastry kitchen where we prepared everything from a chocolate mousse to a Paris Breast. I must admit, it was incredibly hard not to try everything as all the products looked amazing! I then moved on to working in the two fast service restaurants, which was totally different type of cooking and a completely new style of preparation. I am now in the main kitchen, preparing food for the Market Place, which is the largest and most popular restaurant on campus. I am really looking forward to working in the A La Carte restaurant next as I have heard a lot of good stories about it and that we prepare some incredible food.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Arkadiya

Are you too busy with your current work or studies? Do you live far away from Switzerland? If you answered yes to one of these questions, it might be quiet difficult for you to attend our Open Day so this post is for you!

Being a Student Ambassador of Les Roches for the past two semesters, I had a chance to answer plenty of students’ and parents’ questions about Les Roches and its campus life. In today’s post I would like to share some of the frequently asked questions and answer them, so that everyone gets a chance to discover a little bit more…

The list of questions below covers very different topics, including such once as: typical weather and necessary clothes, school main features, activities in and outside Les Roches, and others.

Is there anything special about the weather in Bluche? Do I need to take any special clothes?

When going to live for at least 6 months in the Swiss mountains, you need to take into consideration that the weather here is very changeable, especially during autumn and spring. Sometimes, it can happen that in the morning, when you are going to school, it is rather cold and windy, with no sun; however only 5-6 hours later it can become very sunny and quiet hot. So I would recommend having several layers of clothes, so you could easily regulate your dressing upon the weather changes.

In summer the weather generally is nicely hot and sunny and in winter it might be really freezing. Therefore, make sure you take all possible types of clothes coming to Bluche.

What is special about Les Roches study rhythm?

Generally speaking, the study rhythm in Les Roches in all the semesters is pretty balanced. Talking about academic classes, throughout every semester in each subject there are multiple tests, quizzes, and assignments which are worth parts of the final grade. Then, at the end there are final exams that differ, depending of which year you are in, from 35 % to 50 % of the overall result per subject. This way we have a good opportunity to understand the course bit by bit, moreover, putting the theory into practice by getting involved in different projects, group works and presentations.

Concerning the first semesters which include practical weeks at school, the courses are organized in a very good way as well. All semesters is built from interchange of 2 weeks academic studies (e.g. Languages, Mathematics, etc.) and 2 weeks practical studies (e.g. Craft-Based learning). Following this rhythm, we have enough time to digest all the received information and straight away apply it in our lives.

Do I need to take any additional literature with me?
All the necessary for your course books are going to be distributed to you at the start of studies. I would only recommend to get some electronic dictionaries on your laptop, at least English and French ones (if those are not your native languages), as all the lectures and textbooks in school are in English and all the life around campus is in French.

Which computer is better to take?
Mostly that depends on your own preferences (usually, choice is between Mac and Windows Operating Systems), however it might be much easier for you to use Windows, as all the subjects are explained on this system, as well as Informational Technology (IT) subject that gives you profound knowledge of using Word, Excel, etc.

What possibilities are there to learn foreign languages in Les Roches?

If you are not taking additional English course, you need to choose a foreign language since the very first semester. Moreover, the language you choose you will have to keep for at least two semesters and only after coming to your third academic semester you can change it. The variety of languages offered is quiet wide: French, Italian, Spanish, German and even Chinese. However, for Italian and Chinese languages, you can take them only after completing the first two academic semesters.

Moreover, there is an online system provided by the school, “Tell Me More”, that allows you to learn multiple languages on your own and make a significant progress, also practicing your skills with you multinational friends.

What about the surroundings? How can I spend my weekends?
For the spare time activities there are plenty of great opportunities around, such as exploring Swiss beautiful landscapes, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, bike riding, etc… Furthermore, from Switzerland you can easily reach all the famous destinations of Europe as those in France, Italy, Germany, England and Spain.

How shall I search for my internship? Can I go anywhere?
First of all, as soon as you decided to join Les Roches, start to think about your career plan. Where would you like to work in future? What kind of experience you need for achieving this goal? Are you interested by working in Asia, Europe or United States? Would you like to work only in boutique hotels or joining your favorite hotel brand? You need to answer for yourself to all those questions and then decide what your first destination will be. Faster you apply, better it is, as you will obviously have more interesting opportunities.

Also you should take into consideration possible visa issues, as an example, being Russian makes it more difficult for me to obtain a training visa to England. So, before applying anywhere, make sure that you are eligible to go for training to the destination of your choice.

Can I choose my room and a roommate?
As soon as you accepted in the school, you will be usually added to a closed Facebook group which exists only for the new students. This way you will have a great opportunity of meeting online your future classmates, getting some friends, helping each other, sharing information, etc… This is also a way of finding a roommate, if you become friends with someone and want to share a room together, you will just need to contact the school about it and get the further explanation on how to proceed with your request.

Also, even if you don’t know who particularly you would like to share your room with, I would still highly recommend to request to have a roommate of different nationality from yours. This way you will have a great chance of deep cultural exchange and understanding, as well as practicing English or maybe other languages.

Concerning the choice of room, you still may try to request in which particular building you would like to have your room, but this is not guaranteed, as it is decided upon availability.
Are there any sport and leisure activities in school?

Sure! There are a lot of team sport activities, such as basketball, volleyball, football and hand ball teams. You can also join zumba, yoga, tennis, badminton or swimming groups, as well as attending school gym.

Talking about leisure activities, there are a lot of events and trips organized by school and students, such as a shopping day in Milan, or a visit of car show in Geneva, etc…

Is there anything else you would like to know?

These were only some of the most popular questions that I was asked during the Open Days and Campus Visits. I am sure that there are lots of other ones, so please do not hesitate to contact me in the comments below or directly by my email address: arkadiya.tertychnaya@lesroches.ch

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Only 4 weeks left until Graduation!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Lisa

I am currently in my final semester 7 of the Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in Entrepreneurship. This has been the most challenging but also the most rewarding semester. It is great to look back at four years of Les Roches education. We came together as strangers in the beginning, progressed during the years by working together and now we are approaching the final stage of graduation. Time literally flies!

Eta Sigma Delta Ceremony 2013.1

Time to specialize

This semester is very challenging, as the projects are very diverse and depend on the stream chosen. As I am specializing in Entrepreneurship, I am working with three classmates who come from New Zealand, America and Brazil on realizing a business idea. We just submitted a self-produced video to convince potential investors of our business. The location is London Heathrow Airport and deals with a unique way of Car Sharing. We literally started with a blank piece of paper and after weeks of hard work we are now ready to submit the more than 10 000 word report about our business idea, which includes our concept, the marketing strategy, organizational aspects, potential risks, and most importantly the financial aspect and feasibility.

Honors Degree

Apart from the other subjects of Tourism, Revenue Management, Business Planning, Architecture and Managing buildings, the dissertation keeps me very busy as I am applying a unique research method in a field that has never been explored before. The topic of my dissertation is “The impact of Revenue Management on disabled hotel guests”. With the help of my supervisor I am aiming for an Honors degree upon my graduation.

Eta Sigma Delta Students 2013.1

The day of graduation is in four weeks and we all have mixed emotions about it. One eye smiling and ready to face the real working life, but also one eye crying as we leave our beloved friends who became like a family for each of us.

This video will give you an insight of graduation at Les Roches:

Our Career office is giving us lots of support and organizes a wide range of company presentations and interviews on campus. Event companies, cruise lines, several other hospitality industries, even Valentino and Louis Vuitton came to recruit on campus this semester.

I will keep you all updated on my project results and I am glad to inform you that I signed my job contract. Due to so many job offers it was a very hard decision where to start off, but I will work in London for the Hotel Opening of Rosewood as a Supervisor. I am extremely delighted about this opportunity.

Best wishes from Bluche!

Lisa

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The May Fair Hotel – Half way point!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Les Roches

It’s a pleasure to have Chris Astill-Smith as this week’s guest blogger. He recently finished the third semester of the Diploma in Hotel Management and is currently on his final internship in London.

The May Fair Hotel, London

The May Fair Hotel – Half way point!

I have just completed my first three months of internship at The May Fair Hotel, London. This internship role is in the Front Office department of a busy 410 room, five-star London hotel.

During my first week, I was put on Opera training, which is the computer reservation system that we use. When I started, I was shadowing my colleagues and supervisors. I was quick and keen to learn everything and within 2 weeks I was checking guests in and out of the hotel.

I am getting on with everyone at the hotel and the staff are great and are keen to keep teaching me new things. Not to mention the hotel is such a hot spot with British celebrities, I have seen and spoke with many athletes, famous footballers, and stars, including Tom Jones!

This is me on my first day of work wearing the May Fair Uniform

A very British looking mini bar fridge from one of our junior suites.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

Since it’s my first time working in a hotel, I have come across a couple of difficulties. The Opera system is quite easy to use, but it takes time to know your way around it inside and out. Not to mention I have made a few mistakes so far. In my first month, I accidently charged a guest’s American Express card for almost £20,000! I had to call up American Express and get them to release it right away. Luckily, the guest didn’t know so I got away lightly. That is one mistake I will most definitely learn from!

LONDON, SUCH A HOTSPOT

I am currently living in West Kensington, which is a very nice area, and only 6 stops away from the hotel on the underground. The underground makes it so easy to get around in the city because everything is close to most stations, you can also take the big red double decker bus, but I prefer the underground as it’s a bit quicker! I have made lots of friends at work and in my free time, it’s also a bonus that I can see some old school friends now and again when they come down to London. I am planning on going out for a big night with lots of my old friends and new friends from Les Roches who are currently in London for my 21^st Birthday, I will let you know how I get on!

In my free time I have learned lots about the city of London by going and seeing many of the London landmarks, going on tours, shopping in the famous Oxford Street, Selfridges and Harrods. Below is an image of the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race which happens every year in London. I was lucky enough to have this day off and got invited to a garden party right on the river Thames with a great view of the race!

Chris

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Young Hoteliers Summit 2013

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Lisa

“Be yourself – Make mistakes – Learn from it”
(Oliver Bonke, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, EAME – Starwood)

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) has welcomed 65 delegates from twenty different International Hospitality schools as well as 50 industry leaders and students from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. Coming into its fourth year, it was held from 18th to 20th March 2013. Three final year students represented Les Roches: Isabel Eisenach (Germany), Ayesha Ahmad (Brunei) and myself (from Germany as well). Mr. Remy, our Program Manager, accompanied us.

Les Roches delegates with Ted Teng, CEO Leading Hotels of the World

Spread over four days, the YHS featured a myriad of activities. One of the key features was the Challenge provided by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The teams were made up of five representatives from different universities developing actionable business solutions in regards to Employer Branding “How can the negative image of Hoteliers be changed?” Before working on the proposal we attended theoretical sessions where I really enjoyed the panel interviews with inspiring hoteliers who included the entire audience in their discussions.

3 M’s – Mix? Moving? Missing?
Ted Teng, CEO Leading Hotels of the World stated his 10 principles to become successful. Mr. Teng’s talk about the “Daily Elevator speech” was very motivating as he stated how important it is to think on your feet. Even though we are in the world of search engines, how valuable is memorization actually? Attitude and value cannot be Googled, and have to come from the heart of a person.

We are all young graduates looking for job opportunities, Mr. Teng gave the advice to base our decision on:

Content of the job offer
Who to deal with?
Place of life
Wealth created

Considering all these aspects and doing what you believe in will create person fulfillment according to Mr. Teng. We all define our future and the success of others shall not limit us.

The YHS 2013 was an amazing event and extremely well organized by the EHL students. It was a great success in every aspect. The best of the best hoteliers came together and the opportunities for networking were endless. It was not only great to exchange knowledge and ideas with so many other students and teachers. Moreover the YHS also enabled us to interview industry leaders and other participants for our dissertation, which we will submit in May to obtain our Honors degree.

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Welcome to Lisa, new Les Roches Blogger !

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Lisa

My name is Lisa Westrich and I am delighted to introduce myself as the new E-Ambassador for this winter semester 2013. I am currently in my final semester of the Bachelor of Business Administration and I have specialized in Entrepreneurship.

I am very excited about sharing my personal experience and the “Les Roches way of life” here on campus with both present and future students.

Firstly, I will tell you something about myself and then share my experience with you, looking back at four years of the Bachelor’s Program, which makes me realize how quickly time actually flies!

Welcome to Arkadiya, new Les Roches Blogger !

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Arkadiya

Greetings from Les Roches!

I am Arkadiya Tertychnaya from Moscow, Russia. Currently, I am on my 4th semester, working towards the Bachelor of Business Administration Degree. I have already been through a 6 month internship in a luxury 5 star hotel in Hong Kong and now I am looking forward to go for the next training for 12 months after completing my 3rd academic semester.

Welcome to Tristan, new Les Roches Blogger !

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Tristan

My name is Tristan, I am 20 years old and I am from England. I am currently studying Hotel Operations II (HO2) or semester three of the BBA program.

I was born in the sunny seaside town of Blackpool, in the North of the country, about an hour from Manchester and Liverpool. I have lived in the same area of the UK all my life, changing schools a few times along the way. When I was about ten years old I decided that I wanted to spread my wings, leave home and study away at a boarding school.

I looked round several schools that were about an hour or so away and fell in love with one in particular. This school, Malsis, just happened to be possibly one of the best things I have ever done. It opened so many doors for me, enabling me to learn a musical instrument, play an incredible amount of sport and above all giving me the education I needed in order to prepare myself for the next step in life.