Work Evaluation Report

by

Laureta Tatenda Nyamutswa

S1120859

Lucy Omwoha

HBA in Hotel Management In-

Company training module –
WP21

Block 2, November 2021

Apeldoorn

Wittenborg Apeldoorn Campus

Word count: 9370

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Contents

1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................... 2
2. COMPANY HISTORY AND BACKGROUND...................................................................................................................... 4
3. COMPANY ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 HOTEL DE ECHOPUT’S ANALYSIS USING SWOT..............................................................................................................................7
3.1.1 Strengths:.................................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1.2 Weaknesses:................................................................................................................................................................8
3.1.3 Opportunities:............................................................................................................................................................. 9
3.1.4 Threats:....................................................................................................................................................................... 9
3.2 ORGANISATIONAL CHART........................................................................................................................................................ 10
4. LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.1 WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN HOSPITALITY......................................................................................................................................12
4.2 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN HOSPITALITY.......................................................................................................................12
5. SELF-EVALUATION AT A PERSONAL LEVEL..................................................................................................... 13
5.1 INTERN’S OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................................. 13
5.2 THE WORK PLACEMENT POSITION..............................................................................................................................................13
5.3 IN-COMPANY TRAINING CHALLENGES........................................................................................................................................ 15
5.4 LESSONS LEARNED..................................................................................................................................................................17
6. WORKPLACE CULTURE EVALUATION............................................................................................................................. 18
7. MANAGEMENT STYLE AND COMMUNICATION REVIEW................................................................................................. 19
8. THE OVERALL IMPRESSION........................................................................................................................................... 21
9. CAREER REFLECTION..................................................................................................................................................... 22
10. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................... 23
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................................................... 24
11. APPENDIX.................................................................................................................................................................... 25
11.1 SUPERVISOR’S EVALUATION FORM...........................................................................................................................................25
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1. Introduction

In fulfillment of the HBA Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Hotel services

management, Phase 2 students at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences are required
to enroll for the In-Company training module. This module carries 20 ECs, for those that
would have successfully completed it. The In-Company training module allows students
the opportunity to be employed by a company that has operations related to their field of
study. With this training, the student will be supervised, and they will have the
opportunity to build their work experience and develop their skills. further, they will have
the opportunity to learn about how business organisations operate. The intern, for the
purposes of ths In-Company training chose Hotel de Echoput, located in Hoog Soeren,
Apeldoorn. The Intern’s choice was influenced by the fact that, this Hotel is a five-star
Hotel whose restaurant achieved a Michelin star in the year 2018. Since five-star hotels
are commended for their top-class service in the Hospitality industry, getting experience
from Hotel de Echoput, the intern believed they would benefit compared to when they
were to train in other hotels with four stars or below. Further, the Hotel is popular
because of its well that has an echo (where it derives its name ECHOPUT), a historic
monument which dates to the time of King Napoleon Loderwijkx. Adding on, the hotel’s
restaurant is also popular amongst the Dutch Nationals as the owner is none other than
Mr Peter Klosse, founder of the sector qualification Gastronomer-Sommelier in the
Hospitality Industry in Netherlands and founder of the Academy for Gastronomy.

Based on the intern’s training experience at Hotel de Echoput, this report will be divided
into eight parts. The first part will give an overview of the Hotel’s history, background
and why the intern opted to train with this hotel. This will be followed by the second part
which will analyse the hotel’s market competitiveness focusing on its marketing strategy.
The analysis will be done using the SWOT analysis marketing tool. Further, in part three
of the report, the intern will discuss and give more insight of the hotel’s orgnisational
culture. The fourth part of the report will focus on the management style of the company
and a review on communication. This will be followed by the intern’s self-evaluation
analysis where the intern gives more insight of the duties and responsibilities they had,
their position in the hotel, the challenges they encountered, what they benefited, etc.
moreover, this will be followed by the conclusion of the In-Company training and the
student’s views on working at Hotel de Echoput. To finalise the closing section will
provide some recommendations and suggestions, based on the interns views on how to
improve the In-Company training for both the employer and future trainees.
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2. Company history and background

Hotel Restaurant de Echoput, is a family business that was founded by Jaap Klosse in the year
1955. The hotel adapted its name from the well which was constructed by king Louis
Napoleon, the first king of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The well has till today an audible
echo which was caused by the bent found in the depths of the well. The well which is now a
historic monument located at the front entrance of the hotel, was back then constructed by the
king for the purposes of providing water to his army and their horses. Years later, in the year
1955, the Klosse family bought the piece of land where the echoing well was situated and
built a tea house. As with the well during the time of king Napoleon, the Klosse family built
the tea house for the purposes of serving food to passersby along the main road. 65 years later,
starting off as a tea house De Echoput is now a luxurious five-star hotel that features a top
class restaurant in the Veluwe region of Hoog Soeren, Gelderland province.

Further, the hotel has only a capacity of 42 rooms in total, which include, 32 standard rooms,
4 deluxe rooms, 4 suites, 1 presidential room and 1 presidential suite. The hotel also has a
Villa which is a separate building from the hotel. Added to this, are two conference rooms,
wine tasting room for guests who book the wine tasting culinary weekend package. The main
attraction of the hotel is their 2 restaurants, the fine dining restaurant and the Wildbar
restaurant. The fine dining restaurant has won Michelin stars over the years. In the year 1971
they received one star, 1985 another star which was taken back in 1990 and in 1998 the
second star was also taken back. However, 14 years later they won another Michelin star
which they lost again in 2015. The Wilbar restaurant is also popular amongst guests because it
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serves game meat and locally sourced organic food. Since the hotel is situated in the Veluwe
region, surrounded by nature and wild game, their Wildbar menu is befitting. Since there is a
new cluster of customers in the hospitality industry who are environmentally sustainable, the
fact that De Echoput’s restaurant serve locally sourced food makes the hotel popular amongst
this cluster of customers. Further, the fact that the hotel is now owned by Jaap’s son, Peter
Klosse, a popular figure in the Dutch hospitality industry, well known for being the founder of
the Taste Foundation in 2017, gives it a high selling point in the market. The Taste
Foundation promotes the consumption of healthy and sustainable food.

Hotel De Echoput, as mentioned earlier, is a family-owned business which was initially a tea
house turned restaurant started by Jaap Klosse and his wife Tineke Klosse. Jaap’s son Peter
and his wife Carla Klosse, later on succeeded him and worked hard towards turning the
restaurant into the luxurious five-star hotel it is today. Peter and his wife managed the hotel
until the year 2016, when Peter’s son Karel Klosse and his partner Diana Lodewijkx took over
management. However, Karel and Dian managed the Hotel until recently in July 2021 when,
Peter and Carla took over management of the hotel again. Although this Dutch gem is the only
hotel under the brand De Echoput in the Netherlands, it is however popular amongst European
international guests especially from France, Germany and Belgium who solely come for the
fine dining experience in it’s restaurant. Also, the hotel’s conference facilities are popular
with international companies such as Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, KLM, Delloitte & Touche etc.
Also attached to its brand is a wine and cook school that is run by Doctor Klosse. The school
is aimed at teaching aspiring culinary artists all there is to know about gastronomy, food &
wine pairing.

As mentioned earlier, Hotel De Echoput is a 5-Star luxurious hotel which means it aims at
providing 5-star services to its guests. The Echoput’s main message to its guests is ‘A
complete experience of nature’, thus, it aims at providing its guests with an experience that is
relaxing and gets them closer to nature. To ensure they live up to their promise, the hotel has a
a second restaurant, the Wildbar restaurant which serves game meat and food made from
ingredients found within the vicinities of the surrounding forest such as berries etc. Further,
the hotel is situated right in the Het loo’s Royal Estate’s Forest, in the middle of the Veluwe
region (the biggest national park in the Netherlands), surrounded by Nature and away from the
city of Apeldoorn. Adding on, the hotel’s exterior and interior design was made using natural
materials to aestheticize the concept of experiencing nature first hand.
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Hotel de Echoput, has a two conference rooms, a library and a villa allowing it to also
cater to business guests. These four serve the purpose for business meetings. The villa has
a capacity of 70 guests, the vinotorium a capacity of 30 guests and a smaak kamer a
capacity of 16 guests and finally the library a capacity of 10 guests. Through these, the
hotel is able to offer guests who are travelling for business purpose an opportunity to
work and relax at the same time.

Further, the hotel is located near some famous tourist attractions in the city of Apeldoorn
or the province of Gelderland. These attractions include the royal palace Het Loo, the
Apenheul Zoo, Het National Park Veluwe, Kroller Muller Museum, Julianna Toren
theme park for kids, just to mention a few. These have helped as a marketing point for the
hotel. Adding on the hotel also has its own facilities such as the fitness centre, swimming
pool and sauna which provide the guest with more relaxation options.
With no prior work experience in the hotel sector, the intern of this report, applied for an
In-company training opportunity at Hotel De Echoput. An opportunity that the intern
looked forward to since it was during the Covid pandemic, and most hotels were not
employing interns. Training at Hotel de Echoput was also a big opportunity in the career
of the intern since it was a 5-star hotel, which would later open opportunities for the
intern when applying for future jobs in the hotel industry. Further, since this was a Dutch
owned hotel, the intern chose to train at this hotel to learn more about the Dutch
hospitality culture.
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3. Company analysis

In this section of the report, the author carries out an extensive analysis of Hotel de Echoput’s
current market position. To achieve this, the SWOT analysis is applied as a tool for this
analysis. Using the SWOT analysis tool enables the author to give an in-depth analysis of the
external and internal factors that have helped or challenged the hotel’s competitive advantage.
Adding on, the author analyses the hotel’s mission statement and how it has influenced its
policies mainly focusing on customer satisfaction. Lastly, the section will discuss the
company’s hierarchical structure with reference to departments within the hotel and the
hotel’s organizational culture.
3.1 Hotel de Echoput’s analysis using SWOT
To deliver more details on hotel marketing, the author will examine SWOT as a primary
technique for this section. The analysis will cover the four factors includes the hotel’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats based on its products and services.

3.1.1 Strengths:
Location
Hotel de Echoput as it focuses on bringing its guests closer to nature and is more focused on
targeting nature lovers, it is therefore conveniently located in the Hoge Veluwe region of
Gelderland. It is in the midst of the Royal Estate forest thus giving views of the forest from all
corners of the hotel. Since one of the main goals of the hotel is to provide its guests with “a
complete experience of nature”, it’s location has been a competitive advantage for the hotel.
There are nature walking and biking trails as well as hiking routes that start right in the hotel’s
backyard. To add on, the hotel has a wild bar, brasserie restaurant which serves wild game to
compliment its location and most guests visit the hotel to have such an experience. Further,
Hotel de Echoput is easily accessible by public transport, private car, etc, as there is a main
road that runs right in front of it, the Amersfoortseweg main road.
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Environmentally Sustainable policies

With the current global fight against global warming, there is a new birth of a cluster of
customers who are sustainably conscious and have influenced how hotels should take
initiatives in helping to preserve natural resources (Chung & Parker, 2008). This growing
market of sustainably conscious customers has changed trends in consumer demands within
the hotel industry as they are demanding more sustainable products and services (Chung &
Parker, 2008). Thus, one of Hotel de Echoput’s marketing strategies lies in their focus on
implementing environmentally sustainable policies. This is evident from the design of the
rooms to their dining menu in their restaurant. The rooms are designed using natural materials
such as stone floors and they use energy saving bulbs for lighting. The water taps in the
common facilities such as toilets are sensor low pressure taps. The showers in the rooms are
installed with low pressure shower heads. Further, they have a towel reuse policy in place.
Moreover, the restaurant makes dishes using locally sourced ingredients and most of the
dishes on the menu are organic. Therefore, with the growing demand for hotels to be
sustainable Hotel de Echoput has done its fair share in this regard and this is one of their
strengths when compared with other competitors.

Restaurant de Echoput
Another strength of Hotel De Echoput is its restaurant. Restaurant de Echoput is famous in the
Veluwe region and most guests that book the hotel do so just so they can get a chance to dine
in Restaurant de Echoput (Echoput, 2021). With over 55 years expertise in wine pairing and
serving wild game and an owner who is one of Hollands professor’s in gastronomy, the
restaurant has aided the hotel in being competitive within the market. Further, as the hotel
focuses on being sustainable as a marketing strategy, the restaurant is well known for serving
natural cuisine made from herbs, plants, vegetables, berries, game, forest fruits, etc gathered
from the forest surrounding them.

3.1.2 Weaknesses:

Although Hotel de Echoput has some of the most significant strengths, it also has its own
weaknesses that the hotel can work on to improve.
Staff not knowledgeable about the Hotel’s main mission and history
In hospitality, for hotel staff to be able to provide guests with a memorable experience, they
first need to understand what type of experience the hotel stands for. Understanding the
hotel’s mission and goals will help employees to create an experience for the guests that is in
line with what the hotel wants to offer to the guests. However, most of the employees at Hotel
de Echoput have no knowledge of the history of the hotel and the hotel’s main mission. Lack
of this knowledge means they cannot market this brand to guests or help translate the hotel’s
main goal to guests.
Lack of independent marketing department
Hotel de Echoput has no independent or defined marketing department. Normally, the person
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responsible for meetings and events is the one who does marketing for the hotel. The most
common type of marketing that the hotel uses is affiliate marketing through platforms such as
Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Bongo etc. The lack of a dedicated marketing department has
hindered Hotel De Echoput to compete more with big brands although it has a lot to offer.

3.1.3 Opportunities:

Since Hotel de Echoput is located in the Veluwe region, they could partner with the De Hoge
Veluwe National park and other nearby historical and environmental attractions such as Paleis
Het Loo to come up with tailor made all in 1 packages for its guests. This could be providing
day trips to these attractions and guests will end the day with an overnight stay at Hotel de
Echoput. Further, since the hotel has the Echoput national monument (the historical well with
an echo) they can also make use of it as a marketing strategy for educational purposes to
attract educational institutions outside Gelderland.

3.1.4 Threats:

Some of the threats that Hotel de Echoput is faced with includes Competitors, and the covid
pandemic.
Competitors:
Hotel de Echoput is located in a geographical area where it is close to other prominent hotels
such as Bilderberg Keizerskroon, which is approximately 6km away, Hotel Het Loo which is
about 5km away. These hotels are bigger brands compared to Hotel de Echoput and have a
more significant market presence as they are not solo brands. Both these hotels are located
right next one of Holland’s tourist attractions, Paleis Het Loo, with Hotel Het Loo being right
across the Palace. Thus, guests who visit the region for the purposes of visiting the Palace,
will prefer these two hotels instead of Hotel de Echoput.
Covid Pandemic
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, the hotel industry suffered a huge blow and Hotel de
Echoput was not spared from this. With lockdowns and travel restrictions still in place during
the second quarter of 2021, Hotel de Echoput did not have as many reservations as compared
to when things were still normal. Thus, business was low and they lost out financially
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3.2 Organisational Chart

Director Director

Guest Meetings &

Front Office Housekeepin
Relations F&B Manager Events
Manager g Manager
Manager Manager

Guest Bar &

Front Office
Relations Head Chef Restaurant Housekeeping &
Supervisor Meetings and
Staff Supervisor maintenance staff
Events team

Front Bar &

Office/Reserv Kitchen Staff Restaurant
ations Staff Staff

Figure 1: Hotel de Echoput Management chart

The above illustration is the management chart or hierarchy of Hotel de Echoput. The
management chart gives a clear indication of the flow of communication within the hotel.
further, it helps shorten the command process within departments.
A close analysis of the above chart shows how small the hotel is as there are no departments
such as Human Resources department, Finance department or marketing department. the
directors are responsible for Human Resources and Financial matters. Moreover, the directors
also act as general managers, reason why the chain of command goes directly down from the
directors to department managers. In most cases, it would be directors, general manager then
department managers.
As mentioned above, below the directors are the department managers. First, in the Front
office (FO) department, there is the FO manager at the top, then below comes the Front office
supervisor who is responsible for supervising the FO and reservations staff. The FO
supervisor is responsible for making duty rosters, delegating tasks, ensuring all the
reservations are correct and processed in the system on time and monitoring the check-in
check-out processes. Further, the supervisor is also responsible for attending to guest queries
and complaints unless there is need to involve the FO manager. Since the hotel capacity is 46
rooms, the Front office department is sufficiently staffed with no future need to expand the
department.
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Moving on, the Guest relations (GR) department consists of the GR manager and directly
below is the GR staff which only consists of one person.
Further, the Food and Beverages (F&B) department at Hotel de Echoput consists of a
Manager who manages, the kitchen, bar and the restaurant. Below the F&B manager is the
Head Chef and the Bar & Restaurant Supervisor. The Head chef is responsible for supervising
the kitchen staff which consists of two chefs, three cooks, and a dish washer/cleaner. The Bar
and Restaurant supervisor is responsible for supervising six waiters and waitresses and 2
bartenders.
Further, in the housekeeping department, the manager is responsible for four cleaning staff
and one maintenance person. From the author’s observations, this department is not
sufficiently stuffed as they would face difficulties on days when the hotel was fully booked.
The department would not meet the check-in deadline of 14:30 and most times especially on
Sundays they would finish cleaning around 16:00 and if there were any arrivals, guests would
often complain since they would not be ready. This is one department that the hotel needs to
consider investing in.
The banqueting or meetings and events manager was responsible for the hotel’s sales and
marketing. The manager of this department only managed two persons and was also
responsible for managing group reservations especially business group reservations.
To conclude, the author got the chance to work with three departments at Hotel de Echoput.
These were, the housekeeping department, Front Office and Guest relations department.
During the training the author was able to learn the operations of these departments and how
they are interrelated. Further, although there is lack of other essential departments, the hotels
personnel have adapted to multi-tasking policies to maintain providing their guests with a
memorable experience.
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4, Literature review

4.1 Workplace diversity in hospitality

Globalization is not only a current trend in the hospitality industry but has impacted the
industry at greater lengths (Reisinger, 2009). Thus, in hotels these days there is a significant
presence of people from diverse backgrounds working together. Although, hotels are
embracing diversity within the workplace, conflicts are bound to rise if people are not
acceptable to other individuals. However, with remarkable dimensions, effectively managing
diversity can be considered as successful tool to achieve the goals of a hotel. further,
workplace diversity in the hospitality industry is important especially in hotels if they are to
succeed. This is because, hospitality businesses face the risk of ending up being monoculture
corporations that view things from a limited viewpoint (Devine, et al., 2007). Implementing
diversity in the workplace is accepting differences between individuals and taking into
consideration such differences and permitting them to function as much as possible for the
benefit of the employee and the hotel.
Moreover, managing workplace diversity in the hotel carries beneficial socio-cultural aspect
in the sense that it enables workers to be more knowledgeable of the hotel’s diverse
customers. Further, it broadens their views and how they tackle conflicts or problems and
have various solutions to any issues or problems that may arise specifically in customer
service (Devine, et al., 2007). Diverse employees can have a better understanding and
eventually assist guests a who share the same cultural background as them. Guests will then
feel a sense of identity with the worker and will willingly interact with the hotel workers who
are knowledgeable culturally.

4.2 Intercultural communication in hospitality

As mentioned earlier, globalization has led to a significant rise in multinational companies

even in the hospitality industry which has a long history of cultural diversity in the workplace
(Baum, 2007). Employees in hotels that have a diverse workforce should be able to
communicate cross-culturally. Thus, understanding and managing intercultural
communication in a diverse work environment is vital. To understand and implement effective
intercultural communication, most hotels refer to the theories of Edward Hall (1976), where
he distinguishes culture into two, high context and low context. The high context prefers
communication which is explicit thus, it has most of its information in the physical context
and less coded. The latter, however, prefers communication which is explicitly coded (Baum,
2007). Being able to effectively communicate interculturally will help manages prevent
differences and grey areas seen in diverse workplaces.
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5 Self-evaluation at a personal level

This section will provide an evaluation of the In-Company training period that the author
trained. The section follows a structure that is logically elaborated in four parts, the intern’s
objectives, work placement position, difficulties or challenges, and lessons learned .

5.1 Intern’s Objectives

 To learn about the standard operations procedures of the various departments in the hotel.
 To learn about the roles and duties of different department managers and how manage the hotel as
per five-star standards.
 To learn about the chain of command or managerial hierarchical structure within a hotel
 To improve my problem solving skills
 To develop and improve my soft skills in working in a diverse workplace environment
 To learn and develop my hard skills especially in using various software used in hotels.
 To boost my curriculum vitae profile from training with a five star hotel
 To successfully complete my In-Company training

5.2 The work placement position

The In-Company training was completed in a period of four months from the 16 th of June to
the 16 of October, working full time 38 hours a week in varied shifts. This was part
fulfillment requirement for any HBA Hospitality management student who is pursuing the
three-year Bachelor’s degree program. The training is a practical module that carries 20 ECs.
Since my internship search was during the Covid-19 pandemic it was not easy to find hotels
or hospitality businesses that were hiring interns. However, after a yearlong search, I finally
landed myself an internship training opportunity at Hotel de Echoput located in Hoge Soeren,
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. For me, this was a great opportunity as this hotel is a five-star
hotel, thus, I felt I will receive the best rated training that will open up opportunities for me
later in my career.

For the four months that I trained at Hotel de Echoput, I trained in three departments,
Housekeeping, Front Office, and Guest Relations. My duties and tasks varied as I did both
operations and some management tasks. The first month I started off in the housekeeping
department where I did both operations and management tasks. The operations tasks included
cleaning rooms and common areas and facilities. The management tasks included carrying out
room quality control checks when the housekeeping staff were done cleaning. Further,
supervising the housekeeping staff and making weekly duty rosters. I also got the opportunity
to be assigned with a task of coming up with a new Standard of Operations procedure for the
department which was implemented and is now being used at the hotel
The second and half of the third month, I moved to the front office department. here I did
mostly operations tasks. I learnt about the check-in and check-out systems, making room and
restaurant reservations, preparing all the necessary documents for guests’ check-in, processing
payments when guests were checking out. Lastly, I ended my training in the Guest relations
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department where I worked closely with the manager and also at the same time performing
daily operations tasks. Similar to the task in housekeeping, I came up with a few suggestions
for the Guest relations department on how the hotel could enhance guest experience especially
for those guests that would book luxury rooms or were celebrating special occasions.

Housekeeping Tasks
 Cleaning Rooms
 Cleaning Common facilities
 Room Quality Control before guests check in
 Making Duty Rosters
 Drawing up a Standard of Operations Procedures
 Supervising Housekeeping Staff
Front office Tasks
 Checking in and Checking out Guests
 Preparing Welcome letters for guests who will be checking in
 Making and preparing registration cards and door key cards using the mews software
before guest’s check-in
 Taking and processing reservations that come through the email, phone, hotel website,
booking.com, etc.
 Taking and processing reservations for the restaurant
 Taking and processing reservations for extra services such as wellness services or
bicycle hiring
 Processing payments when guest’s check-out
 Processing the cash and POS Payment report and closing off the cash register before
take over by the next shift.
 Answering calls and attending to enquiries
 Processing outgoing and incoming post
 Preparing the breakfast and dinner lists in advance for the F&B Department. This
involved checking if all reservations for dinner and breakfast were processed with the
right times and number of persons. Also if any dietary requirements or allergies were
processed in the system for reference by the kitchen staff.
 Carrying out turn down service whenever I worked the night shift

Guest Relations Tasks

 Carrying out the turn down service for luxury rooms
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 Profiling guests
 Preparing presents for guests who would be celebrating any special occasions or those
that book the luxury rooms
 Attending to customer queries and try work out a solution
 Writing welcome cards
 Double checking reservations for at least two days ahead, to ensure that all the pricing
and packages are correct. This task is normally done by the GR manager, and I got the
opportunity to be trained in this
 Making follow up on payments
 Ensuring that all guests personal information is captured in the system for future
references
 Carrying out the wellness control
 Monitoring guest reviews both online and through the survey form the guests receive
together with their welcome letters.
 Carrying out a second room quality control after the housekeeping manager for all
luxury rooms just to ensure everything is in place and up to standard.
 Coming up with new ways of decorating or setting up rooms depending on occasion
and created an SOP that has also been adapted

5.3 In-Company training Challenges

The intern began their In-Company training on the 16 th of June 2021 and completed the
training on the 16th of October 2021. Thus, the training was completed in a period of four
months. Although the intern gained a vast knowledge on hotel operations as they had no prior
experience in working in hotels or any business in the hospitality industry, the training also
came with its own challenges.

Covid-19 pandemic

First and foremost, the period that the intern started their training it was during the Covid-19
pandemic and this was a major challenge on its own. Since hotels were still recovering from
the lockdown that had been imposed by the Dutch government, the hotel was still skeptical
about hiring interns as it was an additional cost to their finances. Thus, it took a long process
and time for the hotel to finally accept to offer the intern the internship opportunity.

Lack of Communication

When the In-Company training started, the intern and the Hotel manager (company supervisor
had a prior agreement that the Intern will be trained both in operations and managerial tasks.
The agreement was based on the fact that the intern had no prior experience in working in
Hotels, thus, the need to learn about the operations side in order to be able to grasp and
understand the managerial tasks. Therefore, both parties agreed that the intern would be
trained in the four essential departments of the hotel. Since the internship was to be for four
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months, both parties agreed that the intern would spent a month in each department starting
off in housekeeping, then followed by front office, guest relations and banqueting. The
training in the different departments would start off with the first week being an orientation
week and also learning operations, second week would be operations training and the last two
weeks the intern would be carrying out managerial tasks. However, when the intern started the
training, the different department managers had not received this communication and were not
aware of the right tasks that the intern was to be doing. Third week into the training in the first
department (housekeeping), the intern was still receiving non-managerial tasks since the
department head was not aware of the contract agreement. However, the intern straight away
raised the issue with the Hotel manager who concurred that they had forgotten to
communicate with department heads. Further, the working hours for the intern had also not
been communicated to the department heads, and this also caused challenges for the intern.
The working hours agreement that had been made was that the intern would work from
Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm (38 hours/week). However, when the intern moved to the
front office department the working hours were changed were the intern would get shifts to
work from 15:00 to 23:00. These working hours were challenging for the intern as she used
public transport and the time they had to finish if they were to miss the last bus which is
normally scheduled at 23:05, that meant they had no way of getting home. Adding on, the
busstop was located in a forest dense road were there were no street lights. In terms of safety
for pedestrians, it was not ideal to be at such a place late at night. However, the intern
discussed and negotiated with the Front office head and working hours were changed back to
the initially agreed working hours.

Changes in Management

There was change in management at the Hotel when the intern was in their third month of
training. This change in management paused a challenge for the intern as the new Hotel
manager nullified some of the agreed clauses. For example, in the third month the intern was
now training in Guest relations before moving to meetings and events in the fourth month.
The new management, however, moved the intern back into housekeeping because 90% of the
housekeeping staff had been laid off and there were only 2 staff members left including the
department. This meant that the intern would not complete their training in guest relations that
third month and training in meetings and events in the fourth month. However, the intern had
to discuss the contract agreement with the new management and point out the importance of
completing their internships as per initial agreement. After the discussion the intern negotiated
that they help in housekeeping department from 09:00am until 12:00pm then end the shift in
the department they were training. The intern had to negotiate for a win-win solution so as not
to jeopardize their training or lose the training opportunity altogether.

Language

Adding on to the In-Company training challenges that the intern faced, was the issue of
language barrier. When the intern moved to train in the front office department, they had to
interact more with hotel guests, most of which were Dutch natives. Although most of the
Dutch native guests could speak English there were times when the hotel received elderly
Dutch natives who could not speak the English language. Thus, the intern would be faced with
problems in communicating with such guests. The challenge was most significant when the
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intern had to check-in these guests since they had to run through the full reservation with the
guest and this had to be done in the Dutch language. Adding on, when training in the Guest
Relations department, there was also interaction with guests which required knowledge in the
Dutch language. For example, there were times when welcome cars had to be handwritten for
Dutch guests and this had to be done in the Dutch language. This was most difficult and at
times I would end up asking my colleagues who were Dutch speakers to help with writing the
cards.

On the other hand, although I faced some of these challenges, the department heads I worked
under were very helpful and flexible. Notably was the Front office head, who personally took
time to teach me everything there is to know about the department. With the other
departments the heads would delegate senior colleagues on the days they were busy or were
working from home.

5.4 Lessons learned

Although I faced some challenges during my internship, it is fair however to say, I learnt more
compared to the challenges I faced. In order to give a fair valuation of the lessons I have
learned during my In-Company training, I have made a list below of the lessons that I carried
with me at the end of my training period.

 First and foremost, my Dutch proficiency improved from a 1/10 to at least 5/10
comparing to the time I started. Before my training my understanding of the Dutch
language was very low, reading, writing, listening or speaking. However, by the end of
my training, when someone speaks to me in Dutch I can now understand or
comprehend what they mean. My speaking although still lacks in good pronunciation,
I am able to speak the basic Dutch to get by.
 I was able to develop and improve my soft skills such as negotiating skills,
communicating skills.
 I improved my computer literacy skills through working with a new system software
used by hotels called MEWS. In my previous job, back in my country, I had worked
with systems such as Pastel Partner, Pastel Evolution and Sage x3. However, MEWS
software was a new system altogether that I was not familiar with. It took me only two
weeks to grasp how to use this new system.
 Also learnt about quality control systems that the guest relations department uses in
order to improve guest experiences
 Learnt about the reservation system
 I managed to have an extense experience of the operations of the hotel’s departments
which I had no prior experience whatsoever. At the end of my training I was able to
understand the interrelation between hotel departments.
 I also gained knowledge and experience of how different department heads manage
their departments
 I learnt about the different Standard Operations Procedures of the different
departments.
 Learnt and improved on my problem solving skills through working in the Guest
relations and Front office departments.
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6. Workplace culture evaluation

This section provides an evaluation of the workplace culture at Hotel de Echoput.

From my personal experience working at this hotel there is a noticeable culture that translates
to a family environment. Since this hotel is a family run business, the management of the
hotel have created and instilled a culture that brings all the employees together as one big
family. A very good example of how management has managed to bring a family-like feel
amongst the employees is how everyone’s birthday is celebrated regardless of their job
position. On the first of every month a list of names of people celebrating their birthdays that
month is placed in the common staff areas together with their birthdates. On the day of the
person’s birthday, they are given a gift as a way of helping them celebrate their birthday. I
was fortunate enough to have experienced this as my birthday is on the 9 th of July and it was
at a time when I had started my training at the hotel. Having everyone wishing you a happy
birthday and being showered with gifts gives one a sense of belonging and being part of team.

Further, the culture of being one is seen through how departments are willing to help each
other without looking at the fact that this task is not for this department. At a time when new
management came on-board and a lot of personnel left, some departments faced staff
shortage, in particular F&B and housekeeping. However, the other departments stepped in to
assist as much as possible so as to provide guests with the five star experience.

Moreover, the hotel focuses on providing an ideal and pleasant workplace for all its personnel.
Although the staff is comprised of different nationalities and with different beliefs, diversity is
given the utmost respect. Everyone is accepted as part of Hotel de Echoput’s family where
there is respect for the next person. Everyone is given the opportunity to express themselves
and given a chance to adapt to the Dutch culture. An example I can give with regards to this is
when I moved to the front office department. I am not a native Dutch speaker but the
department manager did not limit my tasks to only those that did not require interactions with
guests. Instead she trained me as though she was training a native Dutch speaker, and this
opened up an opportunity for me to learn and improve my Dutch.

Further, employees are given room to express their ideas and are given room to be creative.
When I was training in the housekeeping department, at the end of the month the department
head asked me to come up with an SOP that I thought would help improve the department.
Also, when I was training in guest relations department, I was given a chance to give any
suggestions for what can be improved when making or preparing different gifts for guests,
what can be done to improve guest experience. At some point, I had a conversation with the
hotel owner, Mr Klosse, where he was explaining to me the hotel’s history and its values. At
the end of the conversation he then asked for my opinion whether it was important to ensure
that the all the hotel staff were made knowledgeable about such information. To which I
responded saying, it was important that they had this knowledge because they cannot provide
the guest with an experience that they themselves did not understand its value.

In a nutshell, the workplace culture of Hotel de Echoput translates from the nature of the
business, which is family business. Thus, it provides employees with a workplace
environment that gives them a sense of belonging and being part of something.
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7. Management style and communication review

Reviewing the management and communication style at Hotel de Echoput, one will note that
it is less formal and not what one would expect to find in a five-star hotel. One may argue
however that, this may be due to the company’s culture and the fact that the hotel owners aim
at creating family-cultured environment.

When looking at the management style at Hotel de Echoput, one may conclude that it is more
of a consultative management style. According to E.Seppalla (2021), a consultative
management style is a democratic type of management where managers enquire about the
thoughts and opinions of their staff when making decisions. They make consultations for the
viewpoints of everyone on their team. Whilst training in housekeeping, I was requested by the
manager to come up with a new Standard Operations Procedure for the department. After I
did this, it was then presented to everyone in the department and everyone discussed and
reviewed it until they came up with a conclusive SOP which is now being used in the
department. Further, I had the same experience whilst training in the front office department.
Moreover, in the guest relations department, although I did not get tasked to work on an SOP,
I however made suggestions on how we could prepare gifts for guests for different occasions.
My suggestions were more of adding ideas onto what they already had in place but just
making it more unique based on video tutorials I had spent time watching of similar 5-star
hotels.

Although the managers make the final decision at the end, they take into consideration on the
information and details they were given by their team. Further, this style is often applied in
specialized fields where staff members are expects in their fields of operation. Whenever the
hotel restaurant received banqueting reservations or when the hotel restaurant wanted to
change their menu, management would consult with the head chef first on what was feasible
and what was not. Also they would consult on what would be the best menu to offer big group
reservations.
Implementing this type of management style has helped the management of Echoput to
develop a good relationship bond with staff members and trust has been built between the
parties. Also, management gets to learn from the experiences and opinions of their team thus
growing together with the team.
As I trained at Echoput, I noticed that this type of management style encouraged employees to
be innovative and improved their problem solving skills. Further, it helped and encouraged
employees to give in their best productivity.
Further, reviewing the communication style at Hotel de Echoput, the author concludes that the
communication style that is present at this hotel is an assertive style of communication. This
style of communication is defined as a style of communicating where the communicator
expresses their thoughts freely but in a more respectful and polite way putting into
consideration the opinions of others (Mckenzie, 201). This style of communication is highly
present at Echoput as seen from the fact that management always engage employees through
weekly meeting carried out every Thursday. Different department heads and at least one
representative personnel attends this meeting and they discuss about events of the upcoming
week. Employees are given the platform to make suggestions freely and all these ideas are put
together until there is one solid decision made. Further, employees are free to approach
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management if they are having any problems, be it personal or work related and management
is always willing to listen and help provide solutions. Adding on, there is use of a chain of
command when communicating with management. For menial issues employees usually
approach supervisors who if they can, solve the problem right away. If the issue is complex,
the supervisor then takes it up with higher management. The assertive style of communication
present within Echoput, has fostered a work environment that has the presence of a two way
conversation which encourages transparency and has helped build stronger relationships
between management and staff and in turn has helped to maintain the main goal of
management to provide a family –like work environment for employees.
Adding on, because the different departments are interrelated and work in shifts, to avoid
confusion, mistakes and understandings, for different tasks that affect all departments, emails
are sent to all the departments. A typical example that I remember very clearly is when there
was a guest who booked two nights for him and his wife to celebrate their tenth wedding
anniversary. The wife had a long list of dietary allergies that filled up three A4 pages, literally.
They booked the most expensive suite at the hotel and the husband had stressed in an email
that we should take serious precautions of the food that we will serve to them for breakfast
and dinner as one mistake could cost the life of his wife. In order to ensure there was a smooth
flow of communication and everyone was aware of the guests’ requirements, the reservations
team sent an email with the list of the dietary allergies to the restaurant team, the head chef
and the kitchen staff, the guest relations team, even to the housekeeping team. Everyone was
made aware a week before the guests checked-in and a reminder was sent again a day before
the guest checked in. further, when reservations were processed if there were any special tasks
that were to be done by other departments, the reservation team would make a note of these in
the main system under the responsible department with the date,time and details of what
needed to be done. This would make it easier to ensure that everything that needed to be done
to provide the guest with the experience they paid for was done accordingly.
Moreover, whenever there were queries the guests had related to any department and they
raised these with the front office team, Front office would refer the guest to guest relations or
in some cases they would solve the queries. Afterwards an email would be sent to the
responsible department and if necessary other departments were copied in the email
describing the query the guest had, how it was solved and what to do or avoid in future. When
I trained in the front office and guest relations department, I learnt that communication was
the most important. These departments work in shifts, the morning and evening shifts. Thus,
when one finished their shift they had to send an email to the next shift personnel with an
update for what took place during their shift, if there were any pending matters that the next
shift had to take care of, and they would copy the department head. The night porter whoc
took over the evening shift would do the same when the morning shift takes over. He would
send an email to both the front office and the guest relations department
Lastly, communication with the guests was mostly encouraged to be done through the email
especially for reservations. Taking or making reservations over the phone were highly
discouraged in case one may miss an important detail of the reservation. Thus, the reservation
team would encourage guests to make reservations via the hotel’s website or send an enquiry
through email. Email use made it easier for follow ups and reference purposes and to prevent
any form of miscommunication.
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8. The overall impression

For someone who had no prior experience in working in the Hotel industry, having my
In-Company training at Hotel De Echoput was a great opportunity to gain experience. I
consider this as an opportunity that I perceive will have a positive impact in my future
career because of various reasons, one being the fact that it is a five-star hotel that is
owned and run by one of the prominent individuals in the hospitality industry, Mr Peter
Klosse. Not only this, but also the fact that the experience one gains from a five star hotel
is based on five star standards which are more prominent compared to when training in
lesser-starred hotels.
When I applied for the internship position at Hotel De Echoput, I had higher
expectations of what I will learn from this hotel. As expected within a few weeks into my
training I had benefited a lot from learning about the software system that is used by the
housekeeping department. This system is linked to the main reservation system that is
used by the hotel and alerts and gives updates on room statuses such as if the room is a
check-out and needs cleaning or if a room is a stayover. Further to this, as I had the
opportunity to train in the three main departments of the hotel I achieved a lot and was
able to put into practice all the theories I had learnt in my courses. It was interesting to
get to experience first hand all the concepts of hotel operations.

Moreover, although I had worked in a big organization before for ten years back in my
country, this was the first time that I had worked in a workplace environment where there
was so much cultural diversity yet everyone was respected for they were and everyone
worked as one. At first, I thought I would have difficulties since I was an international
student and could not speak or understand Dutch. However, to my surprise, everyone was
very accommodative and most of my colleagues would even go to the extent of teaching
me basic Dutch phrases that are used regularly when communicating with guests. My
supervisors would look beyond my nationality and train me just as they would train any
other intern who speaks Nederlands. This experience alone, helped me improve my
Dutch listening, reading, speaking and writing knowledge.

Further, looking at the communication aspect, the communication within the different
departments was highly synchronized and flowed smoothly. Departments were very
coordinated which made it easier for the hotel to deliver the much expected five-star
service to its guests. I learnt so much from this and it helped me improve my
communication skills.

From my own perspective, Hotel de Echoput is a good hotel for someone to work as a
trainee to gain experience in working in hotels. They are really thorough in teaching
interns hotel operations and all the necessary skills and give room and opportunity to be
innovative and creative. However, for post graduated hospitality students who wish to
grow their career, I would not recommend as it is a lone brand that is geographically
located in a small city and is not an international brand.
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9. Career Reflection

Having the passion to be actively involved in the Hospitality industry, I decided to pursue
a career in Hospitality management starting from working towards gaining a bachelor’s
degree. As a person who had no prior experience whatsoever in working in the hospitality
industry, the In-Company training module was a necessity to boost my career. Since the
covid pandemic hit during the time of my studies, getting an internship at any hotel was
difficult. Although I had the choice to replace my In-Company training with modules, I
did not take this option as I felt that going through the training would add value to my
curriculum vitae when searching for jobs after my graduation. I believe an employer
would opt for a person who has practical experience over the one with theoretical
experience. Further, this training was an opportunity to measure my knowledge of all the
theoretical concepts I had learnt during the course of studies. It also helped me to gain an
extensive knowledge of the hospitality industry, in particular the hotel industry.

Since, the hospitality industry was the most negatively impacted industry globally, it is
difficult to pin point how my future career in hospitality will be like. My main goal is to
be an entrepreneur within the hospitality industry. I want to start my own events and
tourism company and this might be challenging since the industry is still in the recovery
stage and the economic crisis is still critical due to the pandemic. Thus, immediately after
my graduation my other option would be to apply for jobs here in the Netherlands.
However, this is also not clear how it will turn out as I am a non-European citizen and
most Dutch employees within the industry prefer candidates (EU/EEA citizens) whom
they do not have to meet the expense of sponsoring their work visa as they are still
financially recovering from the pandemic. Further, most employers within this industry in
the Netherlands prefer candidates who are fluent in Dutch which is not the case for me.

However, the In-Company training, has helped to understand the necessary steps I should
take to be competitive within the Dutch Hospitality job market, such as learning the
Dutch language. Since being employed is a short-term goal as I prepare myself for my
entrepreneurial journey, I will pursue other job markets such as Dubai where tourism is
growing at a faster rate and the hospitality job market is constantly looking for English
proficient candidates.
Lastly, in my future career or long-term goal is to become one of the top brands in the
events and tourism industry within my country first then grow within Southern Africa.
My Internship has helped me realise that there are a lot of opportunities in the
Zimbabwean hospitality industry. I have come to realise that Zimbabwean tourism has a
lot to offer to international tourists.
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10. Recommendations and Conclusions

To conclude, In-Company training is a necessity for any HBA student to gain practical
knowledge and experience of how the hospitality industry operates. Further, it prepares
students how they will adapt in functioning within workplace environments and prepare
them to be competitive within the job market.

On the other hand, there are a few recommendations that may help future trainees. In
terms of the company, Hotel De Echoput can improve in terms of task delegation. I am
studying HBA in Hospitality management, thus, I expected to get more tasks and duties
that were management related. Instead, most of the tasks that were assigned to me were
general operations tasks which forfeited the main goal of learning how to manage a hotel.

Further, a recommendation to students would be, for those that wish to stay and work in
the Netherlands post-graduation, it is essential that you learn the Dutch language if you
are to be competitive in the Dutch hospitality job market. Also, when searching for hotels
or companies to train with try and go for Dutch brands, that way you will get to learn
more of the Dutch culture in general and the Dutch working culture within the industry.
Lastly, whilst training as an intern, do not focus only on the tasks that are assigned to
you, show your enthusiasm to learn at a professional level. Always show your interest to
learn and be creative and innovative, that way you learn more than what you expected.
Always go the extra-mile and never be afraid to ask where you feel you do not
understand the tasks you are given.
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References

Baum, T., 2007. Place, People and Interpretaion:Issue of Migrant Labour and Tourism Imagery in
Ireland. Tourism Recreation Research, 32(3), pp. 39-48.

Chung, L. & Parker, L., 2008. Intergrating hotel environmental strategies with management control: a
structuration approach. Business strategy and the Environment, 17(4), pp. 272-286.

Devine, F., Baum, T., Heams, N. & Devine, A., 2007. Managing cultural diversity:opportunities and
challenges for Northen Ireland Hoteliers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,
19(2), pp. 120-132.

E.Seppalla, 2021. Valamis. [Online]

Available at: https://www.valamis.com/hub/management-styles

Echoput, 2021. Hotel de Echoput. [Online]

Available at: https://echoput.nl/

Mckenzie, M., 201. Communication in the workplace. International Journal of DS Psychology, 3(9), pp.
18-26.

Reisinger, Y., 2009. International Tourism Cultures and Behaviour. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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11. Appendix
11.1 Supervisor’s evaluation form
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