The Savoy Hotel Week One - Jillian Valk

Main entrance on the Strand

       This week I started my internship at the Savoy Hotel in the Accounts Department. I am really excited about working here because of its history and because of the many diverse things its does. On Monday I got my Savoy ID card that I use to get in and out of the employee entrance. Right now all I have really seen of the hotel is the Accounts Department, which is in the weirdest place. You wonder around this concrete corridor underneath the hotel that has piping and wires all over the place and then there is a door tucked in an alcove that looks like it would lead to a boiler room but it’s the Accounts Department.

I have my own desk next to two people that I work with. I am on the Accounts Receivable side of the room. I am helping out Mary, who is also American. She is the income auditor on the team; however one of the accounts members is on paternity leave so she has been doing his job in accounts payable as well. On my other side is Cinnamon and she works with the credit card transactions. I don’t envy her job because she is on the phone all day with angry customers that don’t understand their payments or have something charged incorrectly.

For the first four days I worked on the Daily Operations packets for the company. Every day they compile transactions throughout the hotel such as void reports, zero rate room report,  not to mention they have been short staffed. I also did other small tasks such as a cash control check. The hotel had an outside cash control person come in and order a drink at the bar and they didn’t receive a receipt for the transaction therefore they wrote about the entire scene including what they ordered at what time and for how much.  I went through all the receipts of the day to make sure it had in fact been entered. They do this because money is really easy to slip into employees pockets.  Thursday I shadowed one of the accounts workers, Luchiana. She is Italian and is the most talkative lady in the whole place. She was extremely nice and showed me how to “chase” people that hadn’t paid yet and how to deal with them. Apparently travel agencies are the worst. Their system where they input all the invoices is extremely confusing even to the full time employees. We also had a department meeting where they discussed the yearly revenue and the committee progress. There are only nine people in the department so everyone is really social and helpful.

               On Friday the president of Fairmont came and spoke to the entire hotel staff, which is rare, so I’m really glad I got to be there for that. She showed us all the new hotels that were expected to be coming up around the world and more growth of the company. Not to mention the hotel was trying to be fancy for the president so they had gourmet finger foods for the entire staff. I have never had strawberry trifle in a champagne glass before but it was delicious. The rest of the afternoon I was looking into the charges for the House account. Each department can charge stuff to the house account so the hotel pays for it. For instance, when I came in for my interview we were served tea in the Thames Foyer and the lady I spoke with said she would handle to bill. Now I know that it just gets charged to the HR department on the House account. No money is actually exchanging hands but it decreases their budget. So I had to sort through receipts and determine if they get credit for the transaction, input it on an excel document that is linked to the system, then compile each department charges and send them up so they can approve them. We are preparing for an in-house audit next week and the other accounts member is coming back as well so things will be different.