Stageverslag 2021 Hotelschool Maastricht Operationeel

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Stageverslag 2021 Hotelschool Maastricht operationeel
Stage (Zuyd Hogeschool)
Scannen om te openen op Studeersnel
Studeersnel wordt niet gesponsord of ondersteund door een hogeschool of universiteit

Gedownload door Jek Am (jakmsix@gmail.com)
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Table of contents
Inhoud
Table of contents....................................................................................................................................2
Preface...................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction............................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 1............................................................................................................................................6
Hotel analysis.........................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 2............................................................................................................................................7
2.1 hotel introduction.....................................................................................................................7
2.1.1 Business model......................................................................................................................7
2.1.2 Market Segment..................................................................................................................12
2.1.3 Market positioning...............................................................................................................13
2.1.4 My personal experience.......................................................................................................14
2.1.5 Influence of the coronavirus.................................................................................................14
2.2 Swot analyse...........................................................................................................................15
2.2.1 strenghts..............................................................................................................................15
2.2.2 Weaknesses.........................................................................................................................16
2.2.3 Opportunities.......................................................................................................................16
2.2.4 Threats.................................................................................................................................17
2.3 Company culture....................................................................................................................18
2.3.1 Edgar Shein model...............................................................................................................18
2.3.2 Recommendation................................................................................................................20
2.4 HRM Cycle..............................................................................................................................20
2.4.1 selection..............................................................................................................................21
2.4.2 Onboarding..........................................................................................................................21
2.4.3 Promotion............................................................................................................................21
2.4.4 Recommendation................................................................................................................22
2.4.5 Influence of the coronavirus................................................................................................22
Chapter 3 Department Analysis............................................................................................................22
3.1 Departmental processes.........................................................................................................23
3.1.1 Check in...............................................................................................................................23
3.1.2 Complaint handling..............................................................................................................24
3.1.3 Telephone reservations........................................................................................................24
3.1.4 Recommendation................................................................................................................25
3.2 Departmental Key Performance Indicators.............................................................................25

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3.2.1 Key performance Indicators.................................................................................................25

3.3 Leadership..............................................................................................................................27
3.3.1 Emiel Eising..........................................................................................................................27
3.3.2 Mildred Snackers.................................................................................................................28
3.3.3 My leadership experience....................................................................................................28
3.4 Intercultural communication..................................................................................................28
3.4.1 Vertical communication.......................................................................................................29
3.4.2 Horizontal communication...................................................................................................30
3.4.3 Influence of culture..............................................................................................................31
Chapter 4 Personal development.........................................................................................................31
4.1 Intercultural aspects and Global Mind Monitor......................................................................31
4.1.1 Multicultural personality.....................................................................................................32
4.1.2 Multicultural Intelligence.....................................................................................................32
4.1.4 Language skills.....................................................................................................................33
4.2 Learning goals and reflection over personal development.....................................................34
4.2.1 Swot analyse........................................................................................................................35

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Preface
I would like to start with a moment to thank some people that made my internship possible.
Later on in my report, I'm going to talk about the hotel where I did my internship and how I
experienced the past few months. Later on in my report I'm going to go into more detail
about the material, but first of all I would like to give my compliments. I think it is particularly
well organised that we have all been allocated an internship in these bizarre times. All
internship placements abroad had to be replaced by companies within the Netherlands and
that in a very short time, chapeau!
I would also like to thank my colleagues at my internship, first of all Mildred Snackers. I had
my job interview with her and she has always been my contact within the hotel about
matters relating to my internship. I would also like to thank Nicolle Willemsen, my general
manager, for the time and interest she has shown in me! The person I really have to thank
and who has been my "tutor" is Emiel Eising. He was my internship supervisor at the
Designhotel and took me under his wing and guided me intensively week in and week out.
He made sure that I was quickly accepted into the team, not only at the Front Office but also
within the other departments. He also gave me responsibilities that I learned a lot from, so
thank you very much Emiel!
The last person I want to thank is Mr Hoppener, he put a lot of time in me. I have had quite a
lot of contact with him, he kept me sharp when I lost my motivation and lost quality. He
showed me a lot of information, input and guidelines. He also managed to steer me in a
direction for the final report, which will hopefully enable me to produce the desired quality.
Mr Hoppener is a man who expects quality, commitment and motivation of the highest
order.
I wish you great pleasure and success reading my report, thank you for your time.

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Introduction
Chapter 1
I started my internship in February 2021, this was at Designhotel Maastricht, which falls
under the Eden Group. This is a reasonably large group within the Netherlands and owns 14
hotels spread across the country. I thought it would be nice to stay in Maastricht with my
internship since the COVID measures became worse and worse at the moment we had to
pass on our choice. In hindsight, the curfew, the completely closed hospitality industry and
less visitors at home, it was not a bad choice in my opinion.
My report is about my internship period, my developments and about the company where I
did my internship. In my first chapter, I am going to give an analysis of the Designhotel, I am
going to do this in the following step-by-step order. I start with an introduction of the hotel,
then I explain the business model, the market segment and market position. In the analysis
of the hotel, I used a SWOT analysis, the HRM cycle and the corporate culture. In this way, I
want to give a clear picture of my analysis. Of course, I will reflect on this with the Corona
virus included, why are things different than normal within the company and what would it
have been like without Corona.
In the second chapter, I will elaborate on my own department, the front office. Here, I would
like to highlight how my department works, who has which tasks and also discuss a number
of Key Performance Indicators. I would also like to explain in this chapter what the
management of Eden, the General Manager and my Front Office manager have done with
the whole Corona situation.
In Chapter 3 of my report, which is my last chapter. I want to talk mainly about my personal
development. I will go deeper into the cultural aspects during my internship, I also want to
reflect on my personal goals and to what extent I have achieved them. What goals have I
achieved and what can I do with them in the future? There have also been learning moments
that fell outside my learning goals, I also want to reflect on these. I've worked full-time
before in my life. After I went to hotel school, that never happened to me again. Until the
time of my internship, I want to look at how it has affected me as a person to work full time
in the dark corona months.
Of course, an appropriate conclusion to the report I have written cannot be missing at the
end. So I will end with this at the end of my report.

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Hotel analysis
Chapter 2
In this chapter, I will analyse the Designhotel Maastricht. In everything I discuss, I will also
mention the extent to which Corona has had an influence on this. I will give information
about the hotel, but I will also go deeper into the following points. The business model, the
market segment and also the market position will be discussed. I will do this by means of a
SWOT analysis and by means of an analysis of the corporate culture. A very important point
within an organisation is the HRM cycle, which I will also discuss.
2.1 hotel introduction
The Designhotel Maastricht is a hotel with 105 rooms and is situated in the centre of
Maastricht. It is located in the Wyck district and is a few hundred metres' walk from the
station. A real city hotel. The hotel is part of the Eden chain, this chain is well known in the
Netherlands and has hotels throughout the country. Eden is a Dutch chain that was founded
in 1947, they own 14 hotels in the Netherlands. The characteristic of the Eden hotels is that
all the hotels they have have their own character. For instance, in Amsterdam you have the
Hard Rock hotel, in Maastricht the Designhotel, but they also have the Crown hotel in
Eindhoven which is much more focused on business guests and has a very different look.
With so many hotels spread throughout the Netherlands, it sometimes seems difficult to
guarantee quality. That is why Leon Dijkstra, the director of the chain, finds the staff one of
the most important points within his hotels. He always says, with happy staff, you get happy
guests. I noticed that in our hotel, there are a lot of young and enthusiastic staff walking
around; I also noticed this when I stayed overnight at an Eden hotel in Amsterdam.
The Designhotel itself used to have a restaurant in the hotel, better known as Brasserie Flo.
This has always been a valued restaurant in Maastricht, and was therefore full of people who
did not stay overnight at the hotel including guests who did. Unfortunately, the restaurant
went out of business as this restaurant chain no longer wanted to operate in the
Netherlands. Currently, this is only used as a breakfast room and in the future they want to
move the lobby here. The hotel also has a gym in the hotel, which guests can really
appreciate when they are in the middle of the city. Furthermore, people can rent bikes and
enjoy a wine or beer in the lounge. This lounge is as well used when groups want to meet at
an external location or, for example, to give a training course.
2.1.1 Business model

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The Designhotel is part of a larger entity, namely the Eden Group. The hotel is managed by Eden, for
instance for renovations, strategic changes, the head office has to approve and make a budget
available. In general, the General Manager may decide what happens to and in the hotel, but this
must be approved. I would prefer to use the Business Model Canvas to get a good overview of the
hotel.
 Customer segment
 Value proposition
 Channels
 Customer relationships
 Revenu streams
 Key resources
 Key activities
 Key partners
 Cost structure
Customer Segment
This heading focuses on the guests. Within a company, it is of course very important to look
at the target group you want to appeal to and how you respond to this. The Designhotel
focuses on several segments. I noticed that this was different before COVID than during my
internship. Before my internship, there was a lot of focus on business guests who could stay
overnight in the city centre for an affordable price. During big conferences, the hotel was
always very well booked. During my internship, the focus was on a different target group,
namely leisure guests. It was not possible to travel abroad, meet with larger groups and
therefore there was no market for business guests in the hotel. The guests we had in our
hotel wanted a weekend away from home at an affordable price. However, the hotel offers
little for leisure guests, there is no spa, no restaurant, no bar. For business guests, there are
not many facilities either, there is one meeting room, a nice place to work in each room and
there is a gym. I will elaborate on this in another headline, under the market segment.
Value proposition
Why do guests choose your hotel, what do you excel in, what makes your hotel different?
The answers to these questions together provide the answer to what your value proposition
is. The Designhotel doesn't stand out because of its golden door handles, but by offering a
unique concept. The concept is to be a Designhotel on a great location in the city centre, by
having different rooms it remains a unique new experience to sleep in the hotel. This in
combination with the goal that people who come to stay at the hotel feel heard, but at ease
as at home. The staff play a very important role in this, which is reflected in the reviews
where the staff has an average of 8.8 on Booking.com. The location is also rated as fantastic
with a 9.3 on Booking.com.

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Channels
This heading focuses on the channels through which the hotel reaches its guests.
The Designhotel reaches its guests through various channels, starting with the advantage
that it is a hotel under the Eden Group. The Eden Group has hotels all over the Netherlands
and therefore has a good name recognition within the Netherlands. People can get to their
own hotel website through the main Eden website in a very easy way.
The Designhotel also makes a lot of use of OTAs (Online Travel Agencies). This is where most
guests book, think of Booking.com, Secretescapes, SocialDeal, Expedia and many more. You
see that many guests book through these OTAs, because they offer very low prices and it is
easy to compare the prices and reviews with other hotels. The disadvantage of the OTAs is
that you always have to pay commission to them, but if you do not use OTAs your hotel will
unfortunately not fill up. Especially during COVID they chose to include SocialDeal. SocialDeal
is not necessarily meant for high-class guests and the prices are very low. They did this to
keep the hotel alive in the period that very few rooms were sold.
The hotel also logically uses social media, they are mainly active on Instagram and Facebook.
This way of advertising is free and I used to do it quite often when I was a student. A short
post with a nice upcoming package or for example to make people enthusiastic during
valentine's day.
Customer relationship
The customer relationship is built in layers, it is also called the guest experience.
 Pre-arrival: The guests who book a room via the website, an OTA or directly with us.
As soon as the guests have done that, we put the reservation in manually and look
into the guest profile so we can make them a VIP if they come to the hotel more
often. Then the guests receive a confirmation e-mail, in which is also mentioned that
it is possible to upgrade for an x amount and of course the necessary information.
 Travel: Guests can always check in before they arrive, so all they have to do is sign,
pay and take the room key. You can also find an external parking location at a reduced
rate on the website.
 Check-in: At check-in, staff are always expected to welcome guests and not to sit
behind them when people enter. The guest then fills in information on the
registration form and signs for the no smoking policy in the hotel. We always ask for
proof of identity at check-in. The check-in is very free, what most employees try to do
at check-in is to feel what the guest likes. If it is a couple in love, they often want to
know where they can eat or have a romantic picnic. If it is a business guest, you can
often keep it short and formal. If two girlfriends are coming, you can give them a nice
party location if they want to. This is up to you and there are no mandatory
requirements at check-in.

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 Check-out: The check-out is often very quick, but you always want to get some brief
feedback from your guests. Besides, this is the last moment to convince them to
come back again. So we always ask how they liked their stay and listen very carefully
when there is positive feedback, but even better when there is critical feedback. This
is all recorded in the logbook and discussed. Next, the guests receive a bag of sweets
with a QR code, via which they can leave a review.
 Post experience: After the guests have checked out, they always receive a mail, to
thank them for their stay, to give them information about their stay and actually to
ask them to fill in a review/feedback form. In this way, we can focus more and more
on the needs of the guest.
Revenue streams
The Designhotel has a relatively limited number of revenue streams, because it has no
restaurant, bar or spa, for example. The hotel does have the following revenue streams:
 Rooms
- Overnight stays
- Extras (bath packages, rose petals, etc.)
 F&B
- Breakfast room
- Drinks for sale at reception
- Packed lunch to go
- Pies (Vlaaien)
 Banqueting & sales
- Conference room
 Shop
- Postcards
- Beauty products
- Towels and bothrobes
Key resources
The key resources are the most important items that the hotel needs in order to offer its
services/products. You can divide the key resources into the following groups.
 Physical resources
These resources are tangible things, for the resources in the room you can think of a
bed, towels, a bath, a shower or for example a closet. Of course you can't rent out
your room if it's dirty, so you also need cleaning materials, such as wipes, detergent
or a hoover. Reception rents out the rooms, they need, for example, computers,
telephones and printers.

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 Intellectuel resources
This includes patents, copyrights, partnerships and, for example, your customer
database. This includes, for instance, that no other hotels in the Netherlands are
allowed to sell under Eden or use our slogans. It also includes our partners and the
agreements we have with them. One of the most important points is the customer
database, which contains all the details of all the guests who have stayed the night at
your hotel. By linking this to an upcoming stay of this guest, you can greatly improve
the guest experience.
 Human resources
Human resources include your staff, marketing experts, or people who train your staff
and make them better at a particular expertise. Human resources are very important
in a hotel because they ensure that, in addition to a product, you also provide a
service. The quality of your service is largely determined by your employees
 Financial resources
This concerns your money, credit card data, but it also includes a mortgage, for
example. At the Designhotel, the General Manager is not allowed to decide what he
or she spends. This must first be approved by the head office and only then is a
budget made available for him or her.
Key activities
I would like to further explain the key activities using a model that we used earlier at school.
This is Kotler's model, he brings 4 layers into the product. (P. Kotler, 1960)
 Core product
The core product in the Designhotel is quite simple to explain, namely the sale of
rooms. Guests come from all over the world to sleep in the hotel and pay money for
it. There is another core product, but this is not the same as renting out rooms. We
have one meeting room that can be booked separately for groups.
 Facilitating product
At the Designhotel, the most visible of these are housekeeping and reception. They
ensure that the guests can book, check in, have clean rooms and much more.
Without these factors, the core product cannot be offered.
 Supporting product
This is the part that is not necessarily necessary to ensure that the core product can
be offered. However, this is what ensures that what you offer can increase in quality
enormously. Think of a restaurant, a bar or a spa in your hotel. I will now mention
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three examples that the Designhotel did not have when I did my internship with
them. As mentioned before in my report, they did have this before, but this chain is
no longer active in the Netherlands. A supporting product that was offered by the
hotel was a gym, but also room service for breakfast. These are things that are
offered that are not necessary, but make the stay more pleasant for people who need
them.
 Augmented product
This part is not approached as something tangible. It has more to do with the feeling
of the guest and the experience that goes with it. You can link a clear image to this at
the Designhotel, because it is a Designhotel. The hotel is decorated in a special way
that brings a certain atmosphere with it. It is a trendy/hip/stylish hotel. You can see
this in every area of the hotel and the young staff fits in well with this.
Key partners
The key partners of the Designhotel can be divided into a few different groups. There are the
various suppliers, for example for breakfast, but also for the cleaning equipment or the
equipment needed for the front office. Also very important are the partners in the form of
booking sites, such as Booking.com, Trivago or Expedia. Another partner is the flower shop
that provides us with flowers in the lobby every week.
2.1.2 Market Segment
The Designhotel has a very broad target group, but it focuses mainly on tourists. During my
internship, the focus was mainly on weekend tourism. This is because it was very difficult to
travel during COVID. So the target group during my internship was mainly young couples who
wanted to escape the dark COVID situation for a weekend. Because it is a hotel in the middle
of the city that has a trendy look, it also attracts these guests. So the guests come to enjoy
the beautiful city in the south of our country.
As far as I know from my colleagues who have been working there for a long time, there used
to be a lot of business guests as well. They mainly came to the Designhotel because it is very
centrally located in the city and the facilities are well suited to the needs of business guests.
No fuss but a good breakfast, quick check-in and a clean nice room with the possibility to
work at a desk. For business guests, there is also a possibility to rent a meeting room so that
they do not have to go to an external location.
A final target group that is very often addressed at the Designhotel is the target group that
comes to big events in Maastricht. Not only the Designhotel focuses on these events, but the
entire city is fully booked at that time. Think of André Rieu or the TEFAF, guests who come to
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these events are willing to pay a lot because of the scarcity of places to stay. The Designhotel
has close contacts with the organisers of the TEFAF and often has the TEFAF organisation in
house, as the hotel offers good rooms at a reasonable price and is therefore assured of filled
rooms.
2.1.3 Market positioning
The Designhotel has a number of competitors, which are closely watched by the general
manager and the front office staff. The biggest competitors are Beaumont and the Crowne.
These hotels have approximately the same location in Maastricht, location is of course very
important for a city hotel. The next data that I will use in my report regarding the occupation
concerns the last 1.5 months of my internship. This is the period from the end of May until
the beginning of July. In terms of the occupancy that we kept at the Front Office during
COVID, I can conclude the following. Hotel Beaumont was often between 40% and 60%
occupied during the week and in the weekends it goes up to 80%. The Crowne hotel had an
average utilisation of 50% to 70% during the week and around 40% during the weekends. It is
therefore important to see how we scored on this. We scored between 30% and 50% on
weekdays and between 75 and 95% on weekends.
Beaumont is a lot higher in terms of level than the Designhotel, they have beautifully
renovated rooms and a very well appreciated restaurant within Maastricht. They mainly
focus on guests who come to stay the night with a tourist approach. They also have business
guests, but because the room rates at Beaumont are a bit higher, they come to us more often
than them.
The Crowne hotel is further from the station, but a bit closer to the centre. I personally
wouldn't consider the Crowne a direct competitor as they mainly focus on groups and
business guests. The Crowne hotel is often quite full in terms of occupancy and this is
because they have the staff that work at the airport with them in the hotel.
As I mentioned above with the occupancy, the occupancy varied greatly between weekdays
and weekends. Where we sometimes had an occupancy of 30%, in the weekend this shot to
an almost full hotel. It occasionally happened that the hotel had peaks of 70% during the
week. This was because there was a rather large group in the hotel, such as golfers or
cyclists.
Going back to another very important point, I would like to mention the room rates. The
room rates vary from day to day, as is the case in many hotels. To give you an idea of the
prices, I am using the prices of 02-08-2021.
Average price for weekdays: Designhotel, Basic room is offered for €130 per night. Beaumont
offers this same kind of room for €145 and the Crowne hotel offers this room for €125. You
can see that hotel Beaumont is a lot more expensive than the Designhotel and the Crowne,
this is because hotel Beaumont is a bit more luxurious.
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2.1.4 My personal experience
The hotel is an easy city hotel, which is easy to reach, has good rooms and a nice
appearance. However, in my opinion it is not a real design hotel, because it has not been
renovated in a very long time. What was design 20 years ago, is not really design these days.
The hotel does not have a bar either, which is something that the guests who come to us
expect. It is a 4-star hotel, but then it does not have a restaurant and bar, which is something
you expect from a 4-star hotel. In my opinion, the hotel should better adopt a different name
or choose to renovate properly for once, make the hotel truly design again! I also talked
about this with the General Manager and she is actually thinking about changing the name
of the hotel. Not because I think so, but we both had the same opinion about it. Of course,
this brings other problems with it, the hotel has been known under this name for years and
has built up a fine reputation and name recognition. The question is whether giving up the
name outweighs the benefits of offering what you claim to be better. The hotel does not
claim to be what the name says it is, but that does not take away from the fact that it is a
very good hotel. Just don't look at it through the glasses of a design hotel.
2.1.5 Influence of the coronavirus
The coronation times have of course been too crazy for words and have turned the entire
hospitality industry upside down. The Designhotel has also had a hard time. At the very
beginning of the corona period, the hotel was closed for a while, when there were actually
no guests in the house and it was of course also very annoying for the staff, because there
was no work. I noticed that when I started my internship, the crowds were very moderate in
the beginning, up to almost no guests in the house. This meant that the staff did not know
what to do and the guests who were in the house were somewhat forgotten. This largely
turned around as soon as the rush began, when the staff became very enthusiastic! There
was a lot more work and in this way, the staff could actually do what they came to work for.
As a result, the mission, vision and values of the hotel were picked up again. I will come back
to this in a later section of the report.
2.2 Swot analyse
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I will explain what hot hotels do well, what they can improve on, what they need to watch
out for and what the opportunities are. This is very clearly and conveniently presented in the
well-known SWOT analysis.
strenghts opportunities
Location Expansion of technology
Arrangement offer Dutch tourists
Guest contact
weaknesses threats
Decrease of guest due to
View of the rooms COVID
Look of the rooms Upcomming offer of
Lack of a bar or Airbnb
restaurant
2.2.1 strenghts
The hotel has some very good and important strengths, as shown above. In my opinion, the
biggest strength is the location of the hotel. The hotel is 100 metres away from the station
and in the centre of the Wyck district. Even if you come from the highway, it is a very easy
and quick way to the hotel and the nearby parking garage. Wyck, by the way, is in my opinion
the nicest neighbourhood of Maastricht. It is the wealthy part of Maastricht and you have a
lot of nice restaurants, shops and terraces close by. The location of the hotel will always be
good, however, what could ruin it is if for example a disco would open very close to the hotel,
which could cause noise pollution. Another thing that could have happened was that during
the coronation times when the pubs were not open, student houses would throw many
home parties and this would cause noise pollution for the hotel guests. Fortunately, this did
not happen at the time.
Another strength of the hotel is its package deals; the hotel offers several packages and these
are selling very well. Guests can book these via our own website, which means we get more
direct bookings and do not have to pay any commissions. The bottle of wine you give away
for free in this package is a very small amount compared to the commissions. The packages
are also very useful when we want to persuade guests who are not yet sure whether they
want to book at the rate we offer them. Then of course it is a lot easier if you offer them a
bottle of wine and a free late check-out for the same price. The danger with this is that you
will have staff who cannot keep a tight rein on them and will give away a free bottle of wine
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with everything. Therefore, it is actually very important that you try to make your staff
understand when they can and cannot do this.
Another good quality of the hotel is the guest contact that is central to the staff. The guests
are always the highest priority and this is acted upon. As staff, you are always expected to be
at the front desk and there is one person behind the screen. As soon as several guests arrive,
the person behind also comes to the front and helps the guests. The staff is expected to greet
the guests and have a short conversation, also to see if there are any things you can help
with or give tips.
2.2.2 Weaknesses
Of course, every hotel also has its weaknesses, in the case of the Designhotel these are the
view of the rooms, the look of the rooms and the lack of a bar/restaurant in the hotel. The
hotel has rooms without daylight, these logically do not have a nice view. There is no
window, but the room is well lit, so they are fine rooms. We also have a number of rooms
that look out on the side street or the station street (main street). The view from these
rooms is quite nice, but most of them look at the courtyards of the hotel or at houses. This
view is really not nice and it is a shame that people sometimes prefer to have their curtains
closed instead of open. In the courtyards, they didn't do their best to make it nice, they could
have made 2 nice "Design gardens" out of it. In this way, an ugly view suddenly becomes a
residential experience.
The next weakness is again related to the rooms, namely how the rooms look. We have some
extremely beautiful rooms, but also some rooms that are not to your liking. The hotel
basically has 105 different rooms, which makes it very difficult to give the guests the room
they actually like. Also, a lot of rooms are outdated and should be renovated. Our
competitors have also done this, like Beaumont. They even divided the hotel and renovated
it completely, so if we don't renovate quickly, we will lag behind our competitors and if we
don't, we will actually be ahead of the competition who are waiting to renovate.
There is also no restaurant and bar in the hotel at the moment, which is a great shame!
Realistically, this is not entirely the fault of the hotel itself. The restaurant and bar was always
run by Brasserie Flo, this is a company that was in several places in the Netherlands.
Brasserie Flo is a franchise company that used to be spread throughout the Netherlands,
now they are no longer operating in the Netherlands. They moved out of the hotel just
before COVID and during the lockdowns it did not make sense to build a restaurant in it.
Besides, it is extremely difficult to find an entrepreneur who is currently liquid and tough
enough to open a restaurant. They are busy looking for an entrepreneur though.
2.2.3 Opportunities
There are many opportunities for expansion in the field of technological development. Of
course, this already happens a lot in the hotel business, but I think that at the Designhotel it
is not so bad. One possibility to reduce the burden on your staff would be to set up online
chatbots. As staff, you sometimes get tired of answering the same questions five times a day.
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You could use chatbots to have these questions answered automatically, so that your staff
don't have to type the same e-mail five times a day. You could also automate the check-in
and check-out process a lot more. Several hotels are already doing this and these systems
already exist. The danger here is that the quality of the hotel will deteriorate. One of the
most important strengths of the hotel is the close and good guest contact. If you let the
guests check in and out themselves or let chatbots answer questions, you lose the personal
contact somewhat if you don't handle this well.
Dutch tourists also make up a large proportion of the tourists in the hotel and the rest of
Maastricht. Maastricht is the foreign country of the Netherlands, the nature looks different,
the ambiance of the city is a bit like abroad and it is also a beautiful city. During COVID,
tourism by Dutch people in Maastricht increased, which caused the hotel to have an
increasingly better occupancy rate. By focusing on long weekends away among the Dutch, I
believe you have a very large target group that can ensure good occupancy during the
weekends. The danger is that your hotel will be full during the weekends, but not during the
week. You have no room for guests who want to stay a week, because the occupancy from
Thursdays onwards is too high to accept these guests.
2.2.4 Threats
A pandemic, for example, is likely to cause a drop in the number of guests, but another
danger is the expansion of providers such as Airbnb or possibly new platforms such as this
one. The best current example of a pandemic is of course the COVID virus, which has turned
the entire world upside down. This means that everything you have worked for falls by the
wayside and there is a lot of uncertainty. Of course, you can do your bit here too. You can
offer your hotel to doctors to stay overnight, you can offer it to people who need to be
quarantined while on holiday (a quarantine hotel), you can use it to shelter homeless people,
it can be used as a hospital if necessary. Of course, these are several options for a hotel, but
this shows that you don't have to leave your hotel empty during this time!
The emergence of platforms such as Airbnb also causes major problems within the hotel
industry. It is quite difficult for hotels to offer a better deal than Airbnb locations at a cheaper
price. I am also often guilty of staying in an Airbnb and I find that the price-quality ratio in
hotels often cannot keep up with what Airbnb offers. What can be an advantage for hotels
here is that you can excel in what they can't do at Airbnb. The quality has to go up and the
price has to be higher than that of alternative platforms such as Airbnb. 24/7 service,
breakfast, restaurant/bar, professional cleaning and staff contact are examples of what a
hotel can offer better than an Airbnb. Many of these points they cannot offer at Airbnb.
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2.3 Company culture

To assess the company culture, I will use the model of Edgar Shein. In this way, I hope to be
able to give a structural explanation of what the company culture within the Designhotel is.
Edgar Shein's model goes down 3 points to bring out the deeper layers of the company
culture. The first are the visible artefacts, the second are the proclaimed basic values and the
last are the assumed values.
2.3.1 Edgar Shein model

The first layer I am going to discuss of the Shein model are the visible artefacts. These
characteristics can be seen, heard or felt very easily. They are therefore clearly visible to
everyone and determine what a company or organisation radiates. These include, for
example, clothing style, furniture, staff behaviour or what music is playing in the lobby. For
convenience, I am going to explain these examples in relation to the Design Hotel. The dress
code requires that the staff looks neat and well dressed. At the Front Desk this is in the form
of a shirt, trousers, chinos or jeans and underneath neat trainers or other neat closed shoes.
This is quite broad, because the team you work with is very young and this gives an informal
and trendy look. The other departments have more clearly prescribed dress codes, as this is
the company's own workwear. The furniture of the hotel has been tried to make it stylish and
with the underlying idea of design. The staff is somewhat informal towards their guests,
depending on what kind of guests you have in front of you. This does not mean that there is
amicable communication with guests, but it does mean that it is not obligatory to vousvoy.
You can choose how you do this, which also gives a more informal feel to the guests. I
personally find it a lot nicer to vousvoy, unless it's people of my own age or younger. In the
lobby, there is often hipper music that you would expect to hear in a beach club in Ibiza.
Edgar Shein claims that you should not judge an organisation by what you see, feel or hear
alone, so I will now move on to the second layer. The second layer is the proclaimed basic
values, often laid down by the company. This is laid down in the company's mission and
vision, and the core values are also of great importance here.
I cannot leave out the vision and mission of Eden, for this is the thought and deed behind the
hotels. This is also very much reflected in the Designhotel.
The hotel's vision is as follows:
We want to be an integral part of our guests' experience. In doing so, we take into account all
stakeholders. From the guest's point of view, this means: no one wants to be a stranger in a
strange environment; everyone wants to belong and knows the emotion of belonging.
Every guest feels like one of the guys, one of us. And every guest is immersed in the local
customs and the environment. He feels completely at home with us.
The mission statement of the hotel reads as follows:
Nobody knows the area better than we do. No one knows our typical local customs better
than we do. And so no one knows better than us where the interesting places in the area are
and what the unexpected aspects are that give our guests a special experience.
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We contribute to our guest's experience. We make the guest feel completely at home and
thus give him the feeling to be himself with us. We are never intrusive and always treat
everyone with respect, regardless of their background. This way, every guest will eventually
say: "I was just a local, with the locals" and rate their stay with a 9.
What is highlighted above in the vision and mission statement is that the staff contributes to
the guest experience, not only inside the hotel but also outside the hotel. The whole stay,
not only the moments in the hotel, is the most important here. I notice that this is really
carried through to the staff at our hotel. For example, many of the hotel staff have been
given their own speciality; one is of the hiking routes, the other gives tips about the good
restaurants and I of course know everything about the cafés in Maastricht. We all have our
own little book and every guest can go through this booklet that lies at the front office. This
way it is prevented that people get stuck with the big mass of tourism in the big cities and
they also get to know the often nicer local, unknown, but very nice and good places. You can
see this at breakfast as well, where they try to show as much as possible that we know the
local area well and want to take the guests with us. We often serve flan with breakfast to go
with the coffee, and there is always the option of a nice glass of bubbly with breakfast or this
is included in the package. This bubbly comes from Maastricht itself and is also produced
there. The rooms also have cups with the text "teske kaffee", which is Limburg for "cup of
coffee". In this way, an attempt is made to bring the Limburg element into the guest's stay.
The most important values of the hotel are also part of this, as I described above, the vision
and mission are very much respected by the staff and they also find it very important that
the guests get this experience. The values are as follows: teamwork, hospitality and
profitability.
Teamwork
Teamwork is very important at the Designhotel, and it is generally well observed. This
does not only apply to the Front Office, but actually to all our departments. It so
happens that the Front Office often has the most time left over to help other
departments at times. The Front Office therefore often helps Housekeeping to ensure
that they do not run out of time on very busy days. The teamwork was also expressed
in the pleasant working atmosphere; I could always ask anyone for help and they
tried to help as much as possible. We always looked at the work beforehand and this
was then divided up, with main tasks such as checking in or other guest contact
outside of this. Then everyone helped each other and if someone finished his or her
work earlier, we continued to help each other so that not one person was doing
nothing. Teamwork is of course good for the working atmosphere, but also for the
bond with your colleagues and I can honestly say that I have made new friends.
Hospitality
The second important value I would like to highlight is hospitality, which is very high
within the company and the colleagues. Hospitality is not only meeting the guests'
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wishes, but even exceeding them. This is something that is very important at the
Designhotel; the hotel is not the most luxurious, does not have the most beautiful
rooms, but it does excel in something else. Namely, the hospitality of the staff. The
staff always goes the extra mile for the guests and this can be done in very easy small
ways, but also when there are bigger problems. For example, there were guests at
our hotel who wanted something to drink, but unfortunately we did not have what
they wanted in the hotel. I then went to the supermarket to get it for the guest,
because there was enough time. This is of course just a small example, but the staff
are always praised by the guests.
Profitability
The last value that is important I would like to highlight is profitability. It is important
to sell rooms in a creative way. It is also very important that you not only sell a room,
but also try to make a nice upsell. This is done by the Front Office staff, but also by
the packages we offer. There is a mutual competitive feeling to perform best that day
in terms of upselling or selling rooms. Often people call with questions and everyone
then tries to sell the room to the guest in a good way or sell a bottle of champagne,
for example. Of course, it is important that you sense what kind of guest you have in
front of you and what he or she would like to have or not.
2.3.2 Recommendation
Of course, I can only judge this by how it went during COVID, but I have something that I
think will improve the quality. The staff is already extremely committed, but in the Front
Office I noticed that there were also times when there simply wasn't much to do. There are
many ambitious young people among the staff in the hotel and it seems to me that it would
be better to involve them in the choices that are made by the management. For example,
when making an arrangement, they could ask the staff to think about it; it doesn't have to be
the arrangement, but it does involve the staff. Subsequently, let them make a good profit
calculation of this, so that they also become aware of what things cost. This can also be done
by involving the staff in the social media, the young members of the staff know very well how
this works and can excel in this. By getting the staff more involved, they will also be more
willing to commit to the hotel. Of course, there is also a big chance that if there is no COVID,
there is less time for this. Of course, this does not have to be done in one day, but can be
seen as a side task of the basic tasks.
2.4 HRM Cycle

I will explain the human resource cycle here, describing it based on my own experiences and
how I have seen it in others. I will also give a recommendation on how they can improve this
in the future.
2.4.1 selection
The selection is often led by the human resource department, which was also the case for
the Designhotel. However, there were also other parties involved. I came into contact with
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this very quickly through my job interview. I spoke on the phone with Mildred Snackers, the
FrontOffice manager, and was invited for an interview at the hotel. The hotel's HR manager
was also present during this interview. This interview actually went very well and smoothly,
this is because it was not an overly formal interview and that suits me personally very well.
I had prepared myself with background information about the hotel, by asking students who
had already done their internship what is generally expected of you and I had prepared
questions regarding what the job would entail exactly and what was expected of me. It is
important to me that I do something that I really want to do and find interesting. This was
actually understood very well during the interview and they gave me a clear picture of what
was expected of me and what I could expect from them. They also had my CV and motivation
letter during the interview. I noticed that this had also been read carefully and they also used
this to ask questions about it. This gave both parties a clear picture in a relatively short time.
As I had not worked at the Front Office before, I was afraid that I might not be hired.
However, they found my motivation very good and were not afraid that I would not be able
to cope.
Actually, at the end of the interview, it was already clear that they were looking for a trainee
who would fit in well with the company and I was in the opposite direction. I was called the
same week that everything was in order and that I could come and sign my contract.
2.4.2 Onboarding
I was very happy and excited when I heard that I could come and sign my contract, and I
wanted to come and sign the very same day. Unfortunately, silence came at the other end of
the line, which actually lasted a few weeks. After a week, I asked if everything was in order
and if I could come and sign the contract, so that I would know where I stood contractually
and that I would not be blown off at the last minute. The response to this was actually that
the contract was coming, but that the head office still had to draw up and send it. This took a
number of calls and quite some time until finally the moment was there that I could sign the
contract. I have experienced the irritation of having to wait for my contract twice at the
Designhotel, because I am still working for the company after my internship and I received
my contract on the day of my first official day as an employee.
Eventually I signed it and of course I was very happy with it! I also immediately received my
work clothes, name badge and login details. When I had received all this, I was given a tour
of the company and went straight to all the departments to say hello to everyone. This
immediately gave me a very welcome feeling.
2.4.3 Promotion
For many staff, promotion is a huge boost to their careers and the opportunity to be
promoted is very motivating. I think that the Designhotel has understood this very well and
they know how to keep young talent within the company. When I look around at my Front
Office colleagues, two of them have already been promoted during my internship! You notice
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in the other staff that they also see opportunities and want to prove themselves more and
more.
I have also been promoted in a way, I came in as a trainee and now have a contract as a
normal employee with a very nice salary compared to the €1.50 you earn as a trainee per
hour. Of course, they hint at the possibility of growth, but this is not standard. You actually
have to prove yourself, take responsibility and show that you are the right person for the
position. A win-win strategy in my opinion.
In my case, this is very much in line with what I described above, the waiting for contracts
and the lack of clarity during the onboarding process. What I would like to take into
consideration is making people wait for their contracts and the way this is handled. If it really
takes that long to draw up a contract, I would first look for a way to make it happen faster,
possibly with extra staff in the HR department. If this is not possible, at least make sure that
you keep the person concerned well informed. Communicate this clearly and also indicate
when the contract can be expected, so that you do not disappoint anyone every time. This
way, you will have the feeling that you are not being taken entirely seriously and that is a bad
start.
2.4.5 Influence of the coronavirus

The coronavirus obviously has an impact on the entire HRM cycle. The virus made it very
difficult to look to the future, because there were a lot of uncertainties that made it difficult
to assess what you want to achieve as a company in this day and age and what you can
afford.
First of all, you noticed in the selection process that it was important to look at what kind of
staff you are bringing in. Interns are of course very advantageous in this period of a
pandemic, they cost little, you are not tied to them for more than six months and they are
mainly there to learn things and therefore not difficult to become flexibly employed. People
who were aiming for permanent contracts were mostly not hired, because in this period staff
was also being laid off. You also noticed that suddenly a lot of people had to take a kind of
"mandatory" holiday, because it was far too expensive to pay out. The great danger is that
you will be faced with a shortage of personnel if it all reopens in a very short space of time,
and this is what you are seeing at the moment. There is a shortage of staff in the hospitality
industry and wages are suddenly a lot higher thanks to the improved negotiating position as
staff. All in all, HR has to take a lot of uncertainties into account and also become more
flexible when it comes to negotiating salaries and looking at who will be hired for which
position.
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Chapter 3 Department Analysis
This is a new chapter where I will explain my own department in more detail. As mentioned
in the report, I did my internship at the Front Office. I am going to give further explanations
about a number of important points on which I can measure my department. Think of the
Key Performance Indicators, leadership and communication on an intercultural level. I will
also try to include the Coronavirus in this.
3.1 Departmental processes
In every department, you have tasks and processes that need to be carried out in order for
the company to run as you would like it to. Each department has its own important tasks,
and I will go into the tasks that were important to me at the Front Office and reflect on how
this was organised.
3.1.1 Check in
Logically, the check in is perhaps the most important task of the Front Office, this is where
most of the payments are made and this is a big measuring point for the guests to judge the
staff. The system we worked with was IDPMS and I personally found it a very nice system. You
could do everything with it before check-in, but also view the current turnover, find the F&B
lists and all contact details. I could see in a clear manner via a room rack whether there were
possibilities to move rooms and which rooms could still be sold.
As soon as the guests arrived, the process actually started immediately, this is an important
moment! It was important to let guests know that you had seen them and that you were
there to help them, this can be done very easily by greeting these people and indicating that
they could come to me for help. Once the guests were at the desk, they were first asked
which name they had booked. While looking up the reservation, I always made a small talk
with the guests to get to know them better and to create a bond. In the meantime, I asked
for their ID and handed over the registration form that I took from the folder. On it, the guest
had to fill in his or her personal details and sign for the non-smoking policy in the hotel. In
the meantime, I had entered the details of the identification document.
Next, payment was required at check-in, as in the past, guests have left the hotel without
checking out and therefore without paying. Guests never find this a problem and pay without
further ado. When paying, I always go through the whole reservation with them, like room
type, number of nights, but also extras that have been booked. After the payment has been
made you continue with the check in and it is important that you try to sell the guests
breakfast if they do not have it already. If they haven't already, then you have to get the
breakfast vouchers, which were necessary because there were cluster times due to corona.
In the beginning, guests were not allowed to eat in the breakfast room, so they had to come
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downstairs to collect their breakfast. So, together with the guest, you look for a suitable
moment for them to come and collect their breakfast.
After this has been agreed, you can close the check in; it depends logically on how busy it is
how extensively you do this. Normally you will already have a good idea of the kind of guests
you will meet at the beginning of the conversation. If, for example, they are hikers, it is very
nice to explain and give them some walking routes. With younger people who come for a
nice terrace, restaurant or other entertainment, you can inform them about this and indicate
what you personally like about it. Again, think about the mission of the hotel! “Nobody
knows the area better than we do. No one knows our typical local customs better than we do.
And so no one knows better than us where the interesting places in the area are and what
the unexpected aspects are that give our guests a special experience.” Of course, there were
often times when you didn't have the time for this, so what I often did was indicate to the
guests that you were busy right now and that they could always drop by later on to find out
more about what they wanted to know. During this time, you also prepare the room key and
give it to the guest. For reasons of privacy, we were asked not to give the room number but
to clearly indicate where it was on the card holder. Then you give a short explanation on how
they can arrive at their floor and that the way is self-explanatory from there.
I think the process is not very different during Corona than it is without Corona, but there is a
difference in speed of check-in. Writing down the voucher times and informing guests about
what they can and cannot do takes more time than I expected. I must confess that I find this
somewhat unfortunate, because this is not something that makes the guest experience more
pleasant, although guests are often very happy when you explain this in a clear manner. They
then really respect us as a hotel and staff for how we get through these times as a hotel. As
staff, that of course gives us energy!
3.1.2 Complaint handling

It also happens occasionally that people have complaints and how do you deal with that? It is
difficult to make a script for this, because every complaint is different and requires a different
solution. As staff, we were given a lot of freedom in how we dealt with the complaints, and
we had a lot of confidence that the staff would find a suitable solution. Of course, there were
a number of steps that were considered important.
1. Let it be known that you are very unhappy with how the guest is feeling and try to
remain calm
2. What exactly is the reason fort he complaint and make sure that you empathise with
the guest and show understanding fort he situation at hand.
3. Try to see what you can do to make the guest happy again, this does not mean that
you have to give everything for free. Try to find out how you can solve the problem
and if it can be solved. If this is not possible, make sure that there is an appropriate
compensation in return.
4. Continue with what you have done to put things right and do not linger too long in
the negative situation.
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These are 4 steps that are not literally given, but in this way everyone is taught the basics of
complaint handling. Of course, every situation is different for everyone and so is the solution.
Then we say that unfortunately we cannot do more than what is offered and we indicate that
the management will take care of it. Then the complaint and the details of the guest are
forwarded to the General Manager, or if possible, we get the General Manager involved
directly.
This is done in a structured way, with which the guests are often very satisfied afterwards. Of
course, even the handling of complaints is not always perfect and therefore it is nice that
you, as an employee, can always fall back on the management. On the one hand, you might
say that this gives the staff the idea that they don't need to worry, but I see it more as a big
stick. The feeling of responsibility is there, but you always have someone to rely on.
3.1.3 Telephone reservations

Another common task is to take telephone reservations. Guests call the hotel and of course
this often happens because they want to make a reservation. There are two main ways of
doing this, one guest calls and already knows he wants to make a reservation and is simply
interested in the costs and availability. The other guest calls with the idea that there is a
possibility to make a reservation, but mainly wants information about the possibilities.
I always like the guest who already knows that he or she is going to book, because it is
somewhat easy. However, this is less challenging and therefore you do not want it too often.
These guests call and you immediately know that they want to book, I always give the prices
of the more expensive rooms and indicate that we also have cheaper rooms, but especially
the more expensive rooms are really super. This way I often sell a nicer room and this is of
course good for the hotel! Next, you ask for their details, enter them in the system and check
whether they are business or leisure guests. This is also entered into the IDPMS system.
If you have guests who don't know it all yet, you have to probe a lot. You always look first at
what the potential booker would like to book. Once you know this, you can start looking at
what you have available and whether this fits in with what the guest wants. If this is the case,
then I always go straight to quoting the prices I have for the rooms that I think are a good fit.
Sometimes guests find it too expensive and then I will see if I can give a discount, or if there
is a possibility to offer a nice package. We are very free in giving discounts and then we try to
look at the prices of, for example, Booking.com, to take away the commission that we would
normally have to give in discount. If guests agree with the price and the room, the next step
is to fill in the details and send the confirmation to the mail.
This is something that I think works very well, when guests call us for a room it is very rare
that we do not manage to sell the room through discounts or great offers. I am confident
that it is efficient because we keep the comparison of commissions that we would otherwise
have to give up.
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I think there is a little room for improvement in the area of check-in. What I still notice
sometimes is that there are colleagues who cannot distinguish between who does and who
does not want information about the city. You could, for example, agree to do this earlier
with leisure guests and to let business guests do this more often. What you could do is ask
the guest checking in whether they are at all interested in what you are going to tell them, or
whether they would prefer to find out for themselves. This can be done in a neat and
charming way that doesn't come across as crazy.
3.2 Departmental Key Performance Indicators

The Key Performance Indicators, actually the name says it all. They are the key points on
which you can measure how well your business is doing. Think of the occupancy, the Avarage
Daily Rate, and for example reviews. I'm going to further explain these Key Performance
Indicators in this chapter and link them to my own additions. I will also look at whether these
KPIs are good enough for the hotel and how this can be improved in the future.
3.2.1 Key performance Indicators

There are a number of hugely important KPIs, I would like to start by explaining occupancy.
The occupancy shows a lot about how your hotel is doing as it shows the rooms sold. As a
hotel you strive for a high occupancy and this has been very difficult in the time of COVID,
however this does not take away the importance of these figures. The occupancy rate can be
calculated with the following formula: occupied rooms / available rooms x 100% = occupancy
rate. This information is also very important for the Front Office department, because here
you can see how many rooms you can still sell. The more rooms sold, the higher the profit,
the happier the boss!
Of course, this is not at all comparable with the occupancy that was the standard before
COVID. The number of guests who came to stay in the hotel has decreased enormously,
business guests have all dropped out and leisure guests came almost exclusively for the
weekends. The fact that the entire hospitality industry was closed at the time made it even
more unattractive for leisure guests to come to Maastricht. Where normally there was an
occupation of 85-100%, in times of COVID there were decreases of 25-30%. At the end of my
internship, things started to pick up again in the weekends. We had days with 95%
occupancy, but during the week we did not get above 50%. I don't feel that I have had much
influence on the occupancy, because it has been a very difficult time to increase it. Of course,
selling rooms over the phone is something I have directly influenced and I have done my best
to achieve this. Since we had a lot of time on our hands, we could take the guest all the way
through the process of finding a room that suited them. For example, I created files with
photos of all the room types so that I could e-mail these to the guests and they could choose
their own room! This was often very well received by the guests and I certainly sold more
rooms as a result. The occupancy at the end of my internship was very good according to my
General Manager, the other Eden hotels were between 40 and 30% lower than us. So I think
that the goal of getting full again was definitely achieved as far as it was possible.
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I think there is very little improvement in occupancy at the moment, at the time of writing
this report the hotel is 95-100% occupied every day! The prices are good and the problem is
totally different than I was used to during my internship. From too few guests, to too few
staff.
The next thing I would like to mention is guest satisfaction. Another hugely important
measuring point for the hotel and thus also for the Front Office. If guests are staying at the
hotel, that is of course great fun, because that puts euros in the drawer. However, it's not
over yet if they have paid at check-in. Guests write reviews, come back and talk about your
hotel. Of course, as a hotel, you want this to be as positive as possible and you want your
guests to have a great stay. These scores can be found through reviews, but we also had a
Guestcompas. Through this Guestcompas, guests could leave a review and write feedback in
a relatively easy way. This information came to us in the mail and was kept up to date daily in
the logbook. The staff, the check in, the check out, the breakfast and possible points of
improvement could be filled in.
We are doing very well, the positive reactions were numerous, but of course there is
sometimes something not right. These people were then contacted to see what the
bottlenecks were and whether something could be done about them. The reviews are also
gone through piece by piece and are all answered, the Booking.com score I already
mentioned earlier in my report, but of course I am not too shy to put it in again. The average
rating is an 8.3, staff an 8.8, location, 9.3, facilities an 8.1, hygiene an 8.5, view of the room
scores less. This scores a 5.5 and I know immediately why. Unfortunately, guests also have
rooms that look out on a courtyard, which is not as nice as the beautiful buildings of
Maastricht. I think there is still progress to be made here, you profile yourself as a design
hotel. Make a nice Art Garden in the courtyard, put some students from the art academy to
work here and for a cheap price/free of charge you have a super nice creative courtyard! I
think I have contributed to these reviews myself, especially one of the bottlenecks. Changing
the view of the rooms was unfortunately beyond my control, but with lower occupancy it is
of course very easy to avoid these rooms. Guests have a nicer view and there are
automatically fewer setbacks!
3.3 Leadership
Leadership is a competence, a skill that is very important

for a leader within a company. As a leader, you make
sure that decisions are made, people are managed,
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everything is planned well, but you also motivate and stimulate people, and yes much more!
During COVID, it is very important for the staff to have a good leader, someone who helps
them through the hard times.
At the Designhotel, I noticed that on the one hand there was a lack, and on the other hand, a
huge emergence of a new leader. I want to map this out in a clear way and I use one model
for this and I go through and analyse a number of questions. The model is the Situational
Leadership Model of Hersey and Blanchard. This model maps the leadership between the
leader and his or her employee. The steps I am going to take are based on questions from
the book: 5 levels of leadership, written by John. C. Maxwell. In this way, I am going to reflect
on how I stand towards my leader.
3.3.1 Emiel Eising

I would like to start with my supervisor, he was the supervisor of the trainees and my main
contact and tutor. Emiel is a very young boy and has not finished his studies for a long time.
However, he had the responsibility for the entire Front Office, because the official Front
Office manager had been fired due to COVID. I noticed from Emiel's leadership style that I
found myself mostly in S2 in the beginning. I was very motivated to learn a lot, I actually
dared to tackle things but I still needed a lot of coaching and he gave me that. Because of the
quietness that reigned in the hotel, it was difficult to get out of S2, because I kept learning
new things that didn't happen very often. When things got busier, I went straight on to S4,
Emiel let me off pretty much. He indicated what my responsibilities were for the day and left
me free in this. I made a lot of my own decisions here and he didn't keep much of an eye on
me. Thanks to COVID it took longer to get out of leadership style S2, but we could switch to
S4 almost immediately. Personally I really liked this, because in the beginning I was too
insecure to do everything on my own and I had never done many things before. When Emiel
noticed that I had mastered it, he gave me self-confidence so that I performed better.
In the next part, I want to go through Maxwell's questions to paint a picture and look back on
what I thought of them. The answers can be found in the appendix at the back under
"leadership level Emiel Eising".
Simply put, there are 5 levels within this theory, level 1 is the least good and level 5 is
extremely good! However, not every leader can be level 5, but what was Emiel? Emiel goes
to level 2 with all answers yes at level 1, here too all questions are answered with yes, at
level 3 comes the first no. At level 3, the staff sees you as a leader because of what you have
done for the organisation. However, I felt that I also wanted to fill in the rest of the questions
and noticed that at level 4, again only 1 clear no, this would mean that the staff sees you as a
leader because of what you have done for them personally as a leader. At level 5, however,
everything is a no, so I conclude that Emiel's leadership level is between 3 and 4, which is
very clever for a boy of his age.
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3.3.2 Mildred Snackers

Mildred was actually a kind of keeper of the Front Office, she was actually responsible for the
group bookings and they did not really know what to do with the position of the fired Front
Office manager. She had a difficult role in my opinion, as she was not our real manager,
although she felt so herself, had to do her own work, but also had to work with us at the
Front Office. I noticed that with Mildred I was in the beginning at S2, I certainly wanted to
learn a lot from her and she tried to explain a lot to me. That was a good start and it felt
good. Then it didn't get better, it weakened towards S1, because she wasn't delegating or
helping. She was doing her own work and then all the work was left to me, the work itself I
understood and could do. However, it was so much that I could not do it on my own and this
made it very difficult. I don't think it's wise to appoint a manager who is responsible for
another department, because it's very difficult to work together with this person and also to
level with them.
I also assessed Mildred using the questions from Maxwell's model, these answers are in the
appendix. I have answered no to almost everything, so according to my findings, she is not
suitable as a leader for the Front Office, this starts with the fact that she does not work at the
Front Office herself. She is an employee of a totally different department and there she is a
very good leader. So I think it is very important that you are not a manager of something, just
to be. The staff in the Front Office have to explain to her how things should be done, instead
of the other way around. Maybe I am still too young to see that it is possible to be a leader
without having the knowledge, but so far I am convinced of this conclusion.
3.3.3 My leadership experience

I do not feel that I have been able to expand my own leadership experience very much, I feel
that I have never had a moment where I have been able to apply my leadership. Everyone I
worked with stood above me in the company and gave me leadership. It's logical that I don't
have to manage full-time employees, but I took this on myself in a different way. I had a
fellow trainee, she had gone from S1 to S2 in a relatively short time because of my
supervisor. I often stood with her at the front of the Front Office and I noticed that she very
often came to me with questions to ask for help. I tried to help her as much as possible and
look at the things she still had difficulty with. In the beginning S2 applied, I gave her
explanations and coached her in the things she was not yet able to control so well. At a
certain point, towards the end of the internship, this changed to S3. She actually knew very
well how things should be done and enjoyed it very much. However, she still found it difficult
to make decisions independently and I often helped her with this.
I really enjoyed helping my fellow trainee, it didn't feel like a leader per se, but as someone
who could teach her a lot. She had more trouble with the self-confidence to decide things
and I have much less trouble with that. Because I had explained to her better how everything
worked, she knew very well what she could and could not do. All she needed was someone
to motivate her to have guts and I did a good job of teaching her that.
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3.4 Intercultural communication

Communication is an enormously important aspect of the organisation, perhaps even one of
the most important. By communicating, you ensure that everyone is on the same page and
you achieve the best result, and with good communication, staff satisfaction also goes up. In
the next piece, I will write about the communication between the hotel and my department.
I will also take a closer look at how the cultural aspect affects this.
3.4.1 Vertical communication

There are different forms of communication possible within a company, at the Designhotel
this was vertical communication. The most important decisions are made by the General
Manager and she passes this information on to the managers of the departments. The
information given is then passed on to the staff below them, the staff of the departments.
The communication flow is as follows: General Manager Departmental managers Employees.
This is also called Top Down communication.
Once a month, the CEO sent a video message to all the hotels, which everyone could watch,
giving an update on how the company was doing, what the future held and how we could all
pull the company through the COVID period. He did this mostly in an informal way, with
important messages in between, but also fun quizzes in which we could all participate and
win a prize. In this way, everyone continued to feel involved with the company and learn
about it at the same time. I think this is a very good way of communication from a CEO,
because in this way you show that you are not losing your energy as a company, but that you
are busy preparing for the future and are creatively engaged in maintaining the company.
Besides, it is a very efficient way of communication! In this way, he reached an average of 20
staff members per hotel that falls under Eden. That's 240 staff members per session! I would
still like to recommend that the CEO visits the hotels more often, because he only visited us
once in six months and when we are talking about getting a message across efficiently, it is
also important that people get the message. By visiting more often in person, you make sure
that people listen to you better during one of the speeches/quizzes.
Now I would also like to talk a little bit more about small-scale communication within the
hotel. All the information that we needed to know within our department was
communicated through the managers. Think about, the important arrivals of that day, how
many check-ins we had, which groups are in the house and other important information for
our department. The most important information, for example, the new measures that were
often adapted were also communicated from the managers, think of safety measures, such
as wearing mouth masks, but also whether we were going to use breakfast vouchers instead
of free entry.
There is also a communication flow that goes from bottom to top, better known as bottom-
up communication. So the employees have information that needs to be passed on and this
also goes through the managers. If things happen in the hotel that the management is not
always aware of, the staff will pass this on to the manager of his or her department. Of
course, it can happen that the management says that something must be done, but that this
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is not feasible in practice. I have a good example of this myself and would like to explain it
further.
The intention was to write breakfast vouchers for the guests, so that we would not forget to
put the breakfast times on the breakfast list. It was important that the breakfast would take
place in different clusters because of the measures. However, writing these vouchers was so
much work that when the hotel filled up, there was no time for this. Then I noticed that a lot
of staff started to whine that this was impossible to do, and a bottleneck occurred at the
Front Office, which of course is not the intention! Together with another colleague, I thought
of a solution and that was actually quite easy. You can write the breakfast times on the folder
of the room key! I then communicated this to my manager and he changed it and passed it
on to the General Manager. This is a very good example of how bottom-up communication is
also very important. The efficiency of this is very good in my opinion, because you are
listened to as staff and there was a lot of room to make suggestions if something could be
improved or changed.
3.4.2 Horizontal communication

Horizontal communication is also a very important form of communication within the hotel.
However, in a different way and, in my opinion, a little less formal. Horizontal communication
is the communication within an organisation of different departments that have the same
hierarchical level. You can think here of an employee of the Front Office and an employee of
the breakfast or for example the housekeeping. A manager of housekeeping versus a
manager of the front office is also an example of this.
For me, this has been a common communication flow, because in the front office you are
also dependent on the other departments. When guests came to check out, but for some
reason could not yet do so systematically, I always called housekeeping to tell them they
could start cleaning there. If people still wanted coffee cups or other amanities in their
rooms, I called or spoke to housekeeping to let them know. The technical department was
also often involved in this, it can happen that lamps are broken or a shower does not work in
a room. Then we at the front office would pass this on to an employee of the technical
department.
I think this is quite an efficient way of working, but there is one major bottleneck. These
comments were not kept up to date anywhere and it happened very often that, for example,
showerheads were broken, but nobody from the technical department could be reached. I
once had a broken safe in a room and I couldn't reach anyone from the technical
department, so I wrote it down in the logbook and in principle it should be solved. However,
during the same week, a guest came to me saying that the safe was not working and that he
had important things that he needed to put in it. Fortunately, it could be put in a safe in the
back office of the reception and it was no real problem. Still, I found it annoying that I pass
something on the way it should be done, but nothing is done about it. Here I actually want to
give the hotel my reccomendation. It regularly happened that a shower head was broken and
nobody from the technical service was present, so this was not reported. The intention was
to put this in the nap log and it would then be read back by an employee of the technical
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service. Unfortunately, this happens very rarely because it is not clear to them, especially
with what has and has not been done. Now I know that there are several sites for this kind of
problems, on which you can place a remark to which department something has to be done
and they can put a check mark behind the remark when the task is completed. Everyone on
the staff can add comments for other departments here so that no tasks are forgotten
anymore!
3.4.3 Influence of culture

I would have liked to write a good piece about the difference in cultures and where things
would go wrong within the company. However, this is very difficult, because there are hardly
any cultural differences within the company. The entire team is young, Dutch, of the same
origin and has the same ideas, such as religious beliefs. Now I am lucky that I am still working
there and a girl has joined the housekeeping team who is not originally Dutch. This girl was
originally from Curacao and she felt no pressure at all to come to work, be on time, meet her
targets or anything like that. I watched all this from the sidelines as it was not my
department and I was not involved in their discussions. She has been spoken to several times
about her behaviour and they have tried to motivate her, she didn't realise at all that she was
doing something that was weird. She was raised in a different culture where our norms and
values are different from hers. In the end, she was dismissed after her trial period because
there was no progress. I understand that she was fired and I agree with that, but it is difficult
to know how to handle this as a manager. Isn't there a way to get someone like that to adapt
to the system that works within the hotel? Unfortunately, I don't know. I personally think
that you have to keep a girl like this very short when she comes late and doesn't work, if she
comes late she works an hour longer, if the work isn't finished she works until the work is
finished. In this way, she feels if she doesn't follow the rules that are presented and hopefully
she will think twice before being late again the next day.
Chapter 4 Personal development

In this chapter, I will continue to write about my personal development, this is of course in
the area of intercultural aspects and by looking back on how I have completed my Global
Mind Monitor. I will go through my learning goals and see to what extent I have achieved
them and developed myself.
4.1 Intercultural aspects and Global Mind Monitor

In the next piece, I will look back on my Global Mind Monitor and in what capacity I could
have developed it during my internship and the extent to which I did. I would like to mention
that I found this a very difficult piece to write. The fact is that in six months' time, we have
had a few Belgian guests, but no more than 10 and maybe 10 German guests. Also, all my
colleagues are Dutch and this makes it extremely difficult to measure myself against other
cultures and how I react to this. I go through the points of the Global Mind Monitor and
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here are the points of the deardorff model. The main points of the deardorff model are
attitudes, knowledge and comprehension. These topics are automatically reflected in the
Global Mind Monitor and i will therefore highlight them. We had to fill in the Global Mind
Monitor 3 times, once at the beginning of the hotel school, once in the first year and once
before we went on an internship.
4.1.1 Multicultural personality
Openness
This piece is divided into several parts, namely,
culturual empathy and openmindedness. I
score fairly high on openness, namely a 5. For
cultural empathy and openmindedness, I also
score about a 5. I personally think that I
already score very high on these, I notice that I
am actually very open to other cultures.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a chance
to test my openness during my internship. I
think that if I had been abroad for my
internship, or if there were many different
cultures. I would be very open and see if I
could ask some questions to find out more
about these cultures. In my case, this is also
possible during a check-in, for example. So with openness, I would experience few
problems with regard to wanting to learn about new cultures.
Adaptability
This dimension is also divided into flexibility and emetional stability. I scored a lot
lower on this dimension, and I recognised this in myself very quickly. When I look at
my flexibility, I often find it difficult to go along with something that is still unknown
to me. If I do something my way, I first want to get to know the unknown before I go
along with it. I find it difficult to say whether I have experienced a development,
because I was not tested for this at all during my internship. I also score lower on
emotional stability; I think I got a better grip on this during my internship. This is not
so much in the intercultural area, but I noticed before my internship that I can
normally be highly inflammable. I tried to avoid this during my internship and I
succeeded very well. Instead of getting angry to solve problems, I kept my temper
and listened calmly to the other party and looked for a joint solution.
Social Initiative
I personally score very high here and I think I could have learned a lot from this
during my internship. Without cultural differences, I have proven myself here, not
necessarily developed. I have very often received feedback from guests that I am very
approachable and I often get guests out of situations where they feel uncomfortable
straight away. I do take the lead in the conversation and during my internship I could
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have put more emphasis on letting people lead the conversation. I must say, however,
that I find that leading the conversation myself towards guests is a working concept.
4.1.2 Multicultural Intelligence

Knowledge
This section is divided into a number of other categories, cultural specific knowledge
and cultural meta knowledge. I score a 4 for specific knowledge and a 5.4 for meta
knowledge. The specific knowledge is mainly about the extent to which you know
about the norms and values, the rules and the etiquette of other cultures. The
cultural meta knowledge is mainly about the knowledge you need to have, so that
you know what is going on in the head of the person from the other culture. I actually
score quite high on this and I think that this is something that is very positive. I think
that if I had had several cultures, the results would not have changed very much. This
is because I filled in the Global Mind Monitor thinking about the cultures I know and
not the ones I don't know yet. My knowledge of this would have gone up a lot, I
think, because of the practical experience you would have gained. I think that I can
still learn a lot from many cultures. Think of Asian or Arabic cultures. I know very little
about these and it would have been great to get to know these cultures abroad.
Behavior
I scored very high on this, namely 6 out of 7. This could have been very nice with
foreign guests. This mainly indicates that I don't get uncomfortable or don't know
how to behave with other cultures. Of course, it could well be that I react very
differently to certain cultures and am, for example, shocked by their way of working
and communicating. I am therefore very curious to see how I would react to certain
cultures and whether I would still score so high.
Attitude
Here, I scored quite high, namely a 5.9 average. I think that, as with behaviour, I need
to experience what it is like to be confronted with cultures I have never met before.
Only then can I really see how I would react.
4.1.3 Ethnocentrism
This means above all that you judge a culture by the norms and values that you are
used to in your own culture. You are very ethnocentric if you only focus on your own
culture. I scored a 4.3 and that is slightly above average, which means that I judge
other cultures reasonably well by my own standards and values. I think that this could
have decreased during my internship, because when you get to know other people's
norms and values, it is easier to gain respect for them and take this into account
when judging the culture in question.
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4.1.4 Language skills

Dutch
Dutch is of course my mother tongue and I speak it fluently and write it without any
problems. I did a lot of work in Dutch during my internship, but this was not
necessarily a development, because I was already used to it.
English
I did learn to speak and write English a lot better during my internship, I think. I
already scored very high on English, but I think I overestimated myself a bit in this. I
have had a few English phone calls and e-mails from foreigners who wanted to know
if there was a possibility to visit. I feel that I have mainly learned to write better in
English, the internship report has also had a huge influence on this.
French
I scored very low on this and I don't think I have been able to improve myself in
French, which is of course a great pity. I did my final exams in French, I passed my oral
exams of the first year except for one. So I have some command of French, but I am
still extremely insecure about it. This is because I have the feeling that I don't master
it at all and unfortunately, during my internship, I didn't have a chance to practise
French with guests or colleagues.
German
I score about average on German, this is because I worked in Switzerland for almost a
year. During this year I only spoke German and learned it this way, I never had any
lessons. I have noticed that my German has deteriorated, because I have not kept up
with the language and never speak it anymore, I have the feeling that I am losing it.
Normally there are a lot of German guests in Maastricht, but they stayed away during
the whole COVID period and I had expected them now after my internship. Still the
Germans stay away from Maastricht and I haven't had the opportunity to practise this
with Germans. A few times I received and sent an e-mail.
4.2 Learning goals and reflection over personal development

In the next section, I am going to write about my learning goals and reflect on my personal
development in the past six months. I am also going to look at the extent to which I can still
develop myself and how I will do this in the future.
1.
I want to know why they use a particular price strategy within two months, as well why they
will change the strategy.
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I drew up this learning objective because I thought it was important to find out why and
what pricing strategies are used. I think the idea behind pricing is very important if you want
to sell rooms and to give an idea of the theory for my personal development. I gave myself 2
months to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, I did not achieve this goal within 2 months; I
noticed that my General Manager herself was still very busy at the beginning with figuring
out which strategy she wanted to use. In the first two months, I was also very busy finding
out. When I came in, I still had very little insight into pricing and at the end of my internship, I
looked at pricing together with my General Manager. I have grown a lot in this, because now
I can make a day rate based on an analysis.
2.
I want to be able to do check ins and outs all by myself withn two weeks
I set up this learning goal because I thought it was important to have the basics under control
right away. Now I have achieved this after two weeks. This was not very exciting and I found
it quite easy. I notice that at the end of my traineeship, I have grown into the fact that I can
train people to check in, so not only do I master it myself but I can also teach it to others.
This is very important when breaking in new staff!
3.
At the end of my internship I want to be able to handle guests from a different culture when
they have complaints.
I chose this learning objective because I found it important to master complaint handling and
this is easier with Dutch guests than with someone from another culture. I have experienced
this once in my period after my internship in my normal working hours at the hotel. This was
a British woman with a complaint and I handled this very well according to this lady. I just
don't feel that I was really tested in this, because this was 1 person from another culture with
a complaint. I feel that I cannot say that I have achieved this learning objective. And I haven't
made any progress with this in terms of someone from another culture.
4.
I want to see at the end of my internship that I became a more detailed person, I want to see
this in my reflection from my supervisor.
I achieved this learning goal in my opinion, I'm still not very precise. I did learn a lot from
being more detailed, which is reflected in simple things. I enter the reservations without
making mistakes and I get compliments from my colleagues that they think I work in a much
more structured way and therefore automatically make fewer careless mistakes. This is also
reflected in my final evaluation, where I score better than in my interim evaluation.
5.
I want to be able to negotiate about the roomprice with the guest, this means giving
discounts, upselling without having to ask my supervisor within two months.
I certainly achieved this objective in my opinion, as I took my first reservations after the first
week and I immediately had to look at giving discounts together with the guest. This was still
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under the supervision of my manager, but we did this together about 5 times, also with
upselling. Then he thought I had mastered it well and I was allowed to do this independently.
In the beginning, he sometimes listened in, because he liked to hear it. After 1.5 months, 2
months he let it go completely. I am very happy with my development in this, because I was
able to actively participate in improving the profits of the hotel!
4.2.1 Swot analyse

In the following piece of text, I will compare my two swots with each other, the swot I made
at the beginning of my internship and what is different about it now.
Strengths Weaknesses
- I am people-oriented - I can be unrealistic
- I am persistent - I am not a good listener
- I dare to take on difficult tasks - I don’t look at details enough
- I bring fresh ideas - I often act before thinking
- I am focused on results
Opportunities Threats
- Covid will be more under - Corona gets worse and I will
control, the hospitality industry have to end my internship
will open again - The company gets bankrupt and
- I get in touch with really has te close the hotel
interesting people where I can - I will not meet people from new
learn from cultures
I am going to analyse the SWOT above with a view to what has changed and what may have
remained the same. I will look at a strength and a weakness to see what I have had and
developed as a result. With the opportunities and the threats, I am going to look at the
extent to which I can trace this back to whether or not it was applicable.
Strengths
I have one point in the strengths that I would like to highlight, namely the point that I
am people-oriented. I noticed that my fellow intern found it a bit difficult to always go
along with the vibe of the team. I felt this quite quickly and because of this, I was able
to empathise with her. I tried to involve her in the team as much as possible and that
made things go a lot better. I think that by being able to empathise with others, I can
bring the team together, which is very important. During my internship, this has been
important for my fellow intern, but I think that in the future this is much more
important as a manager, because here you have to make a team or sometimes even a
whole company work together. So I also see this as an important competence for me
in the future when I will hold a management position.
Weaknesses
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The main weakness that I would like to compare with how I started my internship and
how I feel about it now is the fact that I was/am not detailed enough. I have learned a
lot from this. The moment I started my internship, I overlooked many details and I
notice that I don't have that anymore in this way, because this was one of my learning
goals as well. By becoming better at working in detail, I am also better at teamwork,
because they don't have to chase after my sloppy mistakes anymore, so this is
automatically very important for my communication! Because I communicate in a
more detailed way now, my colleagues understand a lot better what I mean. I think
that this is still an important point for me in the future that I will have to work on a
lot, because I still find it difficult to stay focused and work in detail.
Opportunities
The opportunity I would like to pursue is the one where I get to know someone who
is very interesting and from whom I can learn a lot. Unfortunately, I have not seen this
person, but I have learned a lot from my General Manager, so I would consider her to
be the person I have learned the most from. In the future, I think I can open myself
up a lot more to different people, because you can learn things from a lot of people. I
don't think I opened up enough during my internship to learn from other people.
Threats
The threat that I will not get to know new cultures has unfortunately become the
biggest truth and I am afraid that because of COVID I have not had this opportunity
for a long time and it will be some time before this can happen again. Getting to know
different cultures is one of the most important points for me in the future, because I
would like to continue my future abroad in the business field.
Chapter 5 Conclusion
In this final chapter, I would like to write a summary of my report. I will incorporate each chapter, and
for explanations and more clarity I refer to the chapter itself.
5.1 Hotel analyse

The Designhotel is a hotel that belongs to a chain, this chain is called the Eden Group. The hotel is
very centrally located in the city and has 105 rooms, including Basic rooms, Superior rooms and
Deluxe rooms.
The mission of the hotel and the Eden Group is to make guests feel at home and reads as follows:
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Nobody knows the area better than we do. No one knows our typical local customs better than we do.
And so no one knows better than us where the interesting places in the area are and what the
unexpected aspects are that give our guests a special experience.
This is reflected in the service and extra attention provided by the staff. Because the staff tries to
anticipate the needs of the guest, his or her wishes can always be realised. There is a lot of effort to
let guests mix in with the customs that are normal in Maastricht.
The hotel mainly has leisure guests in the weekend and during the week usually also business guests.
A meeting room can also be used and this is especially nice for business guests staying in the hotel or
for meetings. The hotel does not have a restaurant, which is experienced as less nice by the guests,
the hotel is looking hard for a new manager to start his restaurant in the hotel. The Designhotel is
easy to find through OTAs, social media, but also through its own website. Because Eden has a good
name recognition in the Netherlands, you often have guests who are already familiar with the chain
and therefore know how to find the hotel easily online. The hotel earns money by selling rooms,
breakfast, bicycle rental and drinks. Furthermore, profits have not been high, especially during COVID,
because room sales, the biggest source of income, have been extremely low. Room sales are the core
product and the hotel has an atmosphere that is perceived as trendy and hip.
Going further into the SWOT analysis, we can assume that there are a number of very strong
components within the hotel, but of course also a number that are less good. The strengths are
important to retain as a hotel and the weaknesses must be transformed into strengths. It is also
important to look at the threats and to be cautious of them.
The culture of the company is very people-oriented, which is reflected among the staff, but definitely
also towards the guests. I used Quinn's Competing Values Model to map this out. The most important
thing of the company is that you help each other when there is a possibility to do so and the
company offers career opportunities. This way, you have a very pleasant relationship among your
colleagues and you can work well together.
The HRM cycle consists of different phases, all of which I have gone through based on my own
experience. Because I have described this on the basis of my own experience, it is easy to see where
the obstacles lie. This was mainly the point that the contracts took a very long time to conclude and I
therefore think that they should work on this in the future.
5.2 Departmental Analysis

As an employee, I was able to experience the entire Front Office and process all the processes very
well. Think of the check-in, complaint handling and entering reservations. The idea of the processes is
that they take place in such a structured and efficient manner that the best results are achieved.
To give an actual measurement of how your department is performing, you use Key Performance
Indicators. At the Front Office, these were occupancy and guest satisfaction, which I have explained in
more detail. The occupancy was very bad in the beginning, but got better as my internship
progressed. The guest satisfaction is also very good at the hotel and here the staff and the location
stand out.
The managers were both very different in how they did this and what their purpose was. One of my
managers was a very nice and for me a good leader, the other one that I assessed was in another way
less positive from the test. I used the questionnaire and theory of John C Maxwell, levels of
leadership.
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The communication within the hotel is very important, different departments need to communicate
with each other, but also different hierarchies. At the hotel, vertical communication was
predominant. This was then both top-down and bottom-up. There was also horizontal
communication between the staff and between different departments.
5.3 Personal development

When I look at my personal development, I looked at the Global Mind Monitor. I mainly looked at the
extent to which I have developed myself; I saw that I am very open to other cultures. My flexibility, on
the other hand, is not as high and I find it hard to make actual adjustments. I did experience some
growth in this during my internship and I still need to work on this in the future.
I have also looked at my languages and here I see that my level of French is very low. I have not
experienced any development in this during my internship and my German level has declined in my
opinion. This is actually very unfortunate, but this is because I did my internship in the Netherlands.
I went through all my learning objectives and gave a short analysis of them, looking at the extent to
which I actually learned something from them and whether I managed to do so within the period that
I had set for myself. I also looked at a number of points from my SWOT analysis that I made at the
beginning of my internship period and looked at what has changed. You can see that I have grown in
the area of working in more detail. I am very happy that I managed to grow in this, because this could
remain a pain point for the rest of my life, or at least something that I have to be alert for.
Bibliography
Deardorff model. (2006). Researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Deardorffs-

2006-Process-model-of-Intercultural-competence-source-Dr-Darla-K_fig1_322680901
Global Mind Monitor. (2021). Monitor GMM. https://monitor.gmm.international/personal-

report-en/overview-scores/?cohort=HH1920S&measurement=3&reference=cohort
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John C Maxwell levels of leadership. (2011). Center Street.
Expert Programme Management. (n.d.) Five Product Levels Kotler. Retrieved March 11, 2020,
from https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/10/five-product-levels/
Eden Nederland. (z.d.). Eden hotels. Geraadpleegd op 2021, van

https://www.edenhotels.nl/nl/ons-verhaal/visie/
Hotel me a tale. (n.d.) Key Performance Indicator. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from
https://www.hotellmeatale.be/wat-is-een-kpi
Van der Linde, M. (2019) Business Model Canvas. Retrieved June 14, 2020, from
https://www.marketingbright.nl/business-model-canvas/
Wikipedia. (n.d.) . Business Model Canvas. Retrieved March 11 ,2020, from
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas
Leiderschapsstijlen. (z.d.). Vavia. Geraadpleegd op 2021, van
https://www.vavia.nl/leidinggeven/leiderschapsstijlen/
Appendix
Leadershipslevel Emiel Eising
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Leadershipslevel Mildred Snackers
Global mind monitor
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Stageverslag 2021 Hotelschool Maastricht operationeel

Stage (Zuyd Hogeschool)

Scannen om te openen op Studeersnel

Studeersnel wordt niet gesponsord of ondersteund door een hogeschool of universiteit

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3.2.1 Key performance Indicators.................................................................................................25

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2.1 hotel introduction

2.1.1 Business model

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2.1.2 Market Segment

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2.1.3 Market positioning

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2.1.4 My personal experience

2.1.5 Influence of the coronavirus

2.2 Swot analyse

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2.3 Company culture

2.3.1 Edgar Shein model

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2.4 HRM Cycle

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2.4.5 Influence of the coronavirus

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Chapter 3 Department Analysis

3.1 Departmental processes

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3.1.2 Complaint handling

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3.1.3 Telephone reservations

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3.2 Departmental Key Performance Indicators

3.2.1 Key performance Indicators

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Leadership is a competence, a skill that is very important

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3.3.1 Emiel Eising

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3.3.2 Mildred Snackers

3.3.3 My leadership experience

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3.4 Intercultural communication

3.4.1 Vertical communication

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3.4.2 Horizontal communication

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3.4.3 Influence of culture

Chapter 4 Personal development

4.1 Intercultural aspects and Global Mind Monitor

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