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CHAPTER III

EXPERIENCES AND OBSTACLES

A. Lorin Solo Hotel

1. Brief Description of Lorin Solo Hotel

Lorin Solo hotel is a five-star hotel in Solo. It was built and designed by a

famous architect Bill Bensley. The Lorin landscape was also designed by him.

The top leader of the hotel is handled by Tommy Soeharto. The owner of the hotel

is PT. Hotel Anomsolo Saranatam (PT. HAS) and managed by PT. Lor

International Hotel (PT. LIH). The hotel was inaugurated by former President

Soeharto on December 21th, 1996 with name Sheraton Solo hotel where a link of

this hotel is International Hotel chain. Then on January 30th, 1999 the hotel was

taken over by Lorin Hotel (Labuhan Oriental Resort International) management

Indonesia and changed the name into Lorin Business Resort & Spa hotel. Then on

January 26th, 2013 it changed the name into Lorin Solo hotel.

Along the time and period, Lorin Solo hotel becomes operational center of

PT. LIH. The company has had 13 hotels under the management. The hotels that

are managed by PT. Lorin Indonesia are:

1. Lorin Solo hotel

2. Lorin Belitung hotel

3. Lorin New Kuta hotel

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4. Lorin Sentul hotel

5. D’Wangsa Maluku Jakarta hotel

6. Lodging Kartasura hotel

7. Syariah Solo hotel

8. D’Wangsa Louis hotel

9. The Brother hotel

10. Anugrah Palace Solo hotel

11. Loji hotel

12. D’wangsa Noormans Semarang hotel

13. Amantis hotel

Lorin Solo hotel comes to offer culture and agricultural nature of Javanese

atmosphere mixed with friendly service and modern facilities with a five-star

class resort hotel. This is the only one five-star resort hotel in Solo equipped with

complete and modern facilities, supported by vehicles that cannot be found in

other hotels in Solo and it was built the area of five hectares surrounded by green

fields. Lorin Solo hotel is a resort concept. It consists of 356 rooms which are

equipped with LCD TV, satellite channels, conditioning, and showers. Even

though the hotel is the five-star hotel, the customers will get the optional services

with affordable price in its class, only at Lorin Solo Hotel.

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2. Vision and Mission

• Vision

To create a professional chain of international business management with

the main focus on improving customer service quality of both products and

services, to increase the quality of life of employee, and to give the investors

high level of profit.

• Mission

The missions of Lorin Solo hotel are:

A. Lorin Solo hotel will unite the natural Indonesian friendliness and

experience in the hotel industry to give quality service consistently

to all customers.

B. Lorin Solo hotel will be known by customers both local and

international as a world class exclusive hotel in Indonesia. It will be

reached by keeping the quality of product and standard of services

for all services.

C. Sales and marketing team will maximize revenue and compete for

the high respect from the competitor and the community.

D. Our staff will feel proud in successful, efficiency,and the

conduciveenvironment for career advancement in Lorin Solo hotel.

E. Shareholder will get profit from our confidence in increasing

investment return value to them.

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F. Management will set procedure to guarantee friendly environment

for keeping the natural environment of Solo.

3. The Location of Lorin Solo hotel

Lorin Solo hotel is located at Jl. Adi Sucipto no. 47 Solo. Its location is

very strategic where it connects Adi Sumarmo International Airport and Central

of Solo. Central business and shops are located about 10 km from the hotel and

from the International Airport is about 5 km. Lorin Solo hotel prepares shuttle

service from Airport and also prepares bus for guests.

4. The facilities of Lorin Solo hotel

Lorin Solo hotel as the five-star resort hotel in Solo has several facilities

making the guest enjoy and feel at home during their stay such as Kampoeng Ikan

Resto, Sasono Bujono Restaurant, Jolotundo Poolbar, Sasono Kridango Health

Club, LC Lounge, Lorin Spa. Besides, this five-star hotel has also many facilities.

Lorin Solo hotel has 356 guest rooms. There are one Sultan room, one Raja room,

one Pangeran room, six Deluxe Suite rooms, eight Moderate Suite rooms, 46

Executive rooms, 54 Deluxe rooms, 239 Moderate rooms (D’wangsa rooms).

Lorin Solo hotel has also three bungalows that have a private swimming pool in

this hotel; they are Bungalow 1 (Bagaskoro), Bungalow 2 (Kirana), and Bungalow

3 (Kartika). Each of the bungalows has a private swimming pool.There are many

facilities inside the rooms such as magnetic card system’s key, TV satellite, mini

bar, individual air conditioner system, tea and coffee maker, bathtub, shower,

hairdryer, iron, and free internet access. The hotel has a perfect space for any

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functions; those are business center, meeting rooms, and ballroom. The guests can

also enjoy many hotel facilities such as Sasono Bujono Restaurant, meeting

rooms, ballroom, Kampoeng Ikan, Sasono Kridanggo health club, swimming pool

area, Lorin Spa, Lorin Coffee Lounge (LC LOUNGE), Logo Shop, and business

center.

5. The structure of organization of Lorin Solo hotel

Lorin Solo hotel also has an international standard organization to manage

the hotel well. A hotel will get a good achievement depending on the team work

well suitable with the planning. Lorin Solo hotel has eight departments, they are:

1. Housekeeping department (HK)

Housekeeping is a one of the departments of a hotel which handles

things related to beauty, tidiness, cleanliness, and completeness of the

entire room, as well as other common areas. So, both the guests and the

employees can feel comfortable and safe in the hotel. HK is led by a

manager, and the manager is helped by supervisor.

2. Human resources department (HRD)

HRD consists of HRD manager and HRD secretary. The main task

of HRD is to make the employees do the tasks and help the employees to

solve the problems during the work. This department requires people who

are able to motivate and to organize the employees effectively and

efficiently.

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3. Food and beverages service department (F&B services)

F&B service is a department which task is to give the best food and

drink to the guest. The department consists of kitchen and banquet. The

kitchen is handled by an executive chef who has much experience about

food and drink. All systems and operational in F&B service department are

managed by manager of F&B service who is helped by a secretary in

doing the activities.

4. Engineering department (ENG)

The responsibility of this department is to maintain the hotel

building and its facilities. Maintaining the building and facilities make the

guests feel comfortable.The function of engineering in a hotel is to repair

and to check the electricity in order not to disturb the hotel activity. This

department consists of manager of engineering, secretary, technician and

helper.

5. Front office (F.O)

Front office can be called as front liner because this department is

the first department that will be met by guests. Besides, F.O is a centre of

information in a hotel, if there is a problem or mistake the guest will

complain it to F.O. F.O department consists of receptionist, bellboy,

reservation, operator, and driver. The responsibilities of this department

are to receive reservation, to give information and account to the guest,

and to receive the guest’s payment.

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6. Accounting (ACC)

Accounting is the department which manages the money

circulation of the hotel.This department is handled by a financial manager

controller that is supported by supervisor, general cashier, purchasing and

money controller.This department requires persons with high accuracy in

arithmetic.

7. Sales and marketing division (S&M)

Sales and marketing (S&M) is a department which main task is to

look for and invite the guest to stay in the hotel. In Lorin Solo hotel, S&M

department is led by director of sales (DOS). DOS makes a budget and

target then it is given to the sales executive.

8. Security department

To keep the safety of the guests and the employees of the hotel,

Lorin Solo hotel also has executive security department. The security

leader in Lorin Solo hotel is usually called captain. This department is very

important in the hotel.

The top leader of Lorin Solo hotel is General Manager (GM). The main

task of a GM is to lead a weekly meeting and monthly meeting, to manage and to

control all activities of each department, and to make a regulation develop the

hotel. In the activity, GM is helped by a secretary who prepares the document that

is needed by GM and makes a meeting schedule. Employee in Lorin Solo Hotel is

classified into three parts: staff, casual, and trainee (intern).

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B. The Activities during the Job Training

This report is written based on my experience during the internship. I did it

as an intern in the housekeeping department at Lorin Solo hotel for three months

starting from March 2nd 2015 until June 2nd 2015. I worked in two housekeeping

main sections: houseman section as a public area attendant and room section as a

room attendant (room boy). In those sections, I did various activities and in order

to improve the quality of the services, I should be responsible for my jobs on my

work areas of each section.

1. Houseman Section

In the houseman section, I did as a public area attendant for 45 days. I had

the same activities with other daily workers and staff. I worked not only in every

shift but also in the same ways with other daily workers and staffs. I worked five

days with one day off. As a public area attendant, I should look clean, tidy and

well-dressed in order to give a good image to guests whom I met directly.

My job as a public area attendant was to keep the cleanness and tidiness of

Lorin Solo hotel’s public areas such as corridors, restaurants, meeting rooms,

lobby, ballroom, office space, fitness room, terrace, elevators, restrooms, and

locker room. Being a public area attendant made me have to do many activities

based on arranged schedules. The public area job was divided into three shifts i.e.

morning shift: 07.00 am - 03.00 pm, evening shift: 03.00 pm - 11.00 pm, and

night shift: 11.00 pm - 07.00 am.

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On the first day, I did as a public area attendant at morning shift. The

morning shift started at 07.00am and ended at 03.00pm. Firstly, I took the

attendance in security room which was located in the back of the hotel. After

taking attendance, I entered to housekeeping office to do a briefing. The briefing

was handled by a housekeeping supervisor. The supervisor allotted job description

and partner to each public area attendant. The briefing was always started by

praying. The duration of the briefing was usually 45 minutes.

After giving a briefing, my senior asked me to prepare the guest supplies

into caddy tool such as tissue and soap. I also prepared the public area attendant’s

equipment such as dust pan, plastic broom, lobby duster, windows squeeze, and

stick mops set. I was actually very confused with the hotel’s terms because it was

the first time for me to work in a hotel.

Furthermore, as the first job, I was assigned to memorize the hotel areas,

the names of chemical liquid used to mop the floors and other job descriptions I

was assigned on. Lorin Solo hotel is a resort concept hotel that is why the hotel

has large area. I was tired and confused to memorize the public areas and what I

had to do. The morning shift was usually more crowded than other shifts. Every

day, the hotel was always crowded by many guests staying at this hotel. I met not

only the local guests but also the foreign guests.

On the first day of my job training, I did not know what I was going to do,

but my senior taught me what I should do. I was assigned to do many tasks. My

daily activities were maintaining all the public areas. The public areas that should

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be cleaned were lobby, restaurants, corridors, restrooms, meeting rooms and

ballroom. The public area I hated the most which I should clean was Sasono

Kridango pool restroom because I should clean the restroom by using chemical

liquid. Then, I was asked to clean the guest restrooms like mopping the floor and

dusting the furniture. After finishing those tasks, I cleaned Sasono Bujono

restaurant and Kampoeng Ikan restaurant after the guests finished having

breakfast. I should sweep the floor, clean the mirrors and put the garbage.

When the break time began, all of the employees should take a break and

have a meal in the canteen. It was the time for all employees to do their personal

business such as having lunch and praying. It was fun because I could have many

new friends and shared experiences to each other. When the break time ended, I

should have been ready working again.

After having lunch, I started working by checking all the restrooms in my

work areas. I was taught by my senior the procedure of cleaning restroom. Before

entering the restroom, I should knock the door three times and say housekeeping.

I should make sure the restroom keep drying such as the floor, the toilet bowls,

and wastafles. At the women's restrooms, I should be careful when entering the

restroom because I should make sure that the woman's restroom was not used by

the guests so that the guests would not complain to me.

The important areas that had to be cleaned were lobby and corridors. I had

to maintain the areas keep clean and tidy because they were very vital and

crowded. Many guests whether they are local or foreign guests were passing by in

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this areas. Accordingly, I had to be responsible for the cleanness of the areas. I

was asked by my senior to do several things in these areas such as to sweep the

floor, to dust the furniture, and to put the garbage. I got some interesting

experiences in this area such as getting tips from the foreign guest when I was just

asked about the tourist areas in Solo. Living in Sragen near Solo made me know a

little bit more about Solo so that I could give them the recommendation of several

tourist attractions in Solo such as Sangiran museum, Mangkunegaran Palace and

Kasunanan Palace.

When the hotel was in high season, I had to work overtime. When the my

work time was over, my supervisor assigned me to clean other areas and I did not

have any choice but to do it even though it violated my right as an intern. It

disappointed me because if I came late, the supervisor rebuked me, but they

arbitrarily took my right to come home on time.

After finishing my works, I did the briefing at the housekeeping office. I

had to fill in the list of what I did on my worksheet and also reported it to the

supervisor. Then, the supervisor allotted job description and partner to next shift.

Before I was going home, I took the attendance again at the security room.

Furthermore, I ever worked in the evening shift. Evening shift started at

03.00 pm until 11.00 pm. The main tasks of the public area’s evening shift were to

finish the tasks that had not been finished by the public area’s morning shift. The

task was such as being in charge of the area used to hold an event that was still

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going on. Actually, the evening’s tasks were not much different from the morning

shift.

I also ever worked in the night shift. Night shift started at 11.00pm until

07.00am. From the three shifts that I have done, the night shift was the most

different. I did not only do my job as a public area attendant which was keeping

the cleanness and tidiness of Lorin Solo Hotel’s public areas but also served the

guest as a substitute for the bell boy section, because the bell boy section had no

night shift schedule. I got an experience in night shift when there were guests

staying awake until late at night in the hotel and they asked me to show several

facilities the hotel had.

Overall, there were a lot of experiences I got from the houseman section.

One of them is the experiences as a public area attendant in the morning shift. In

that shift, I could know and meet many people, including the guests and the

employees. The morning shift was the most crowded shift. I had ever had

conversations with foreign guests when UMS and Lund University of Sweden

held an event that was followed by 12 countries for ten days starting from March

2nd until April 2nd 2015 at the Lorin Solo Hotel. When I was in charge of

maintaining cleanliness at the ballroom, I was often asked by the guests in

English. Many of them asked me to tell the hotel facilities. I was having

difficulties when I had a conversation with the guests from Africa. I had had

misunderstanding with them because I did not really understand with their accent.

After listening carefully, I understood what they said.

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2. Room Section

After the houseman section, I was placed in the room section. I did the job

as room attendant or room boy for 45 days. Similarly as public area attendant, I

worked not only in every shift but also in the same ways with other daily workers

and staffs. I worked five days with one day off. As a room attendant, I should look

clean, and tidy.

My main job as room attendant was to keep the cleanness and tidiness of

Lorin Solo hotel’s guest rooms. The room section was divided into two shifts:

morning shift 08.00 am – 04.00 pm and night shift 02.00 pm – 10.00 pm. In this

section, I had several difficulties adapting to the situation of this section because it

was the first time for me to work in this section.

On the first day, I did as room attendant at morning shift. Similarly in the

houseman section, firstly, I must take the attendance in security room which was

located in the back of the hotel. Then, I entered the housekeeping office to attend

briefing. The briefing was handled by the manager housekeeping and

housekeeping supervisor. The briefing was important to do before carrying out

room attendant’s duties. There were many topics that were discussed during the

briefing such as dividing the job allocation and a partner, the review of work

results, and suggestions from the supervisor.

After doing briefing, I got extra briefing from supervisor since I was new

in room section. The supervisor explained to me the SOP of room attendant so I

would not make any mistake as well as remembering them. I then went to the

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pantry with my senior and I was taught about many things such as filling out the

worksheet and preparing the amenities.

Furthermore, as the first job, I had to know room status, whether it was

occupied or not, how many rooms that had to be handled. This was the first time

for me, so I just followed my senior and did what my senior asked. I was given a

direction by my senior how to make beds, clean rooms, and set up the linen in the

room attendant’s trolley. The room attendant’s trolley consists of three spaces.

The first spaces contained a king bed sheets, twin bed sheets, pillow cases, and

bath towels. The second space contained a king size blankets, twin bed blankets,

bath towels, and bath mats. The upper space contained the guest needs such as tea

coffee, sugar sweetener, pens, scrap paper and bathing equipments such as soaps,

shampoos, combs, and others. At the back of the trolley there was a basket to put

the dirty linens and in front of the trolley there was a basket for the garbage.

On the first day, I felt nervous because the first room that I made up was a

room with OD (Occupied Dirty) room status I had to be careful when I cleaned

the room since there were many guest’s luggages. From what my senior taught, I

got some new experiences how to clean the OD room.

After that, I made up a VD room (Vacant Dirty). I was taught the step by

step of how to clean the room such as making up bed, dusting all of parts in the

room such as tables, chairs, cupboards, refrigerators, TV. Besides, I also had to be

responsible for checking the room’s amenities and room supplies, as well as

vacuuming the floor. It was very useful for me and from that experience I got

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some left foods and tips under the pillow, but the room was very mess and dirty. I

needed extra time to clean the room totally.

Then I cleaned to VC room (Vacant Clean). It was the easiest job among

other rooms because it had been already clean. I just needed to take care of it.

Even though it was easy, the experience was very useful to me. In this room, I

must also recheck the room’s condition. It was necessary to do because it was to

make sure that the room was to be used by the guests ready to be offered for

customers. When rechecking room conditions, the most important thing to do was

to recheck room supplies whether it was all accomplished or not.

Sometimes, I got something broken in the OD room such as a licking from

wash basin. As a room attendant, I had to make sure the guest experience when

entering the room is perfect. I then made a call to the housekeeping office about

this problem, and then the housekeeping office would forward it to the

engineering department so that the problem could be followed up.

When I entered and cleaned a guest room, I had to make a report to the

housekeeping office so that they could know my current position. If something

happened, the housekeeping office would call me, for example if there were any

special request from the guests. I also had ever found a cell phone when I cleaned

a room. I immediately made a report to the housekeeping office that I found a

guest’s stuff, and then housekeeping office would forward the information to the

front office.

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I got bad experience when I was in the corridor, when there was a guest

walked toward me. He was very angry with me and mocked the hotel. He asked

me to follow him to his room. When I entered his room, the TV quality was bad

and he complained to me that the price he paid was not worth it. This was one of

the risk of my job and I could only listen to him and asked for apologize. I then

said to him that I would try to fix the problem as soon as possible. I came out

from the room and told my senior about the problem. In this moment, the guest

did not care even though I was only a trainee. I had to handle the complaint well

as the guest was a king.

One day, I had ever met a foreign guest which I met at the corridor. He

was a pilot and asked me about the facilities of the hotel and asked me to clean his

room. Even though his room was not my section, I did not reject his request but

accept his request. He gave me a tip Rp.50 000. I was happy and I asked my

friend who had the section to clean the room.

Every day, at least I cleaned 25 rooms. This working load made me tired.

Even though I was a trainee, I was regarded as a staff and had the same

responsibility. Sometimes, I had overtime since there were several unclean rooms.

I understood that this was the risk of my job.

After finishing doing the entire job, I went back to the pantry and clean it.

I had to fill in the list of what I did on my worksheet. I also had to tidy up the

room attendant trolley before going to the housekeeping office. I handed the

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guest’s lost stuff, and wrote the hand over. After that, I attended a short briefing

and report all the problems faced during the work. Then I went back home.

Moreover, I had ever got an evening shift. The evening shift started 02.00

pm until 10.00 pm. The first thing I did was taking an attendance. The job was to

assist the cleaning untidy rooms of room attendant’s morning shift. After that, I

noted the handover left by the morning shift room attendant and filled in the water

stock in the pantry. I completed the left handover and stood by while waiting to be

called by the housekeeping office if there were special requests from the guests.

There were so many special requests and I had to handle them with my senior.

The guests would not care if I was a room attendant or bell boy. They only knew

that they wanted to be served well and I had to be able to handle them. This

evening shift was the most complicated shift for me. I was very tired because I

delivered the requests from the back side of the hotel to the front side and the area

was very wide.

In the evening shift, I had to bring my cell phone in silent mode. Every

time there was a request, the housekeeping office would call me to explain the

special request and the room number. I had to make sure that I did the request as

fast as possible so the guests did not have to wait too long and I would not get any

complain.

I had a very interesting experience when I was in the evening shift. I got a

call from the housekeeping office and I was asked to go to the room number 7202.

After I got there and knocked the door, it was a foreign person. I talked to him

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with English but surprisingly he did not understand what I said at all. He did not

understand Indonesian language as well. I was very confused and my senior was

away from my area. I ended up using a body language to him. I finally understood

that he wanted a towel and then I delivered it to him. I got one euro from him, I

was very happy and entertained with his funny way of communicating.

Sometimes, there were three persons who stayed in a room with double

bed. They asked me to give one more bed. I had to walk along the corridor, picked

two heavy beds, and brought them again to the room. I did not only deliver the

bed, but I also set up the sheet and duvet. I used to get a tip every time I did the

extra bed at least Rp 10.000 but that was just luck.

C. The Importance of English for the Staff of Housekeeping Department in

Improving the Services Quality at Lorin Solo Hotel.

In the tourism industry, giving the best services to tourists is considered as

the essential thing that should be done. One of those best services can be done

through creating good communication with tourists. Creating good

communication can be very important because it can make the tourists know and

understand everything they want to know. It can certainly make them feel

satisfied.

In building good communication, one of the things that should be

emphasized is language and the language that should be mastered well especially

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in the case of tourism industry is English. English is the international language

that a lot of people use it to communicate with foreign people from foreign

countries. This is really closely related to tourism industry which is also related to

many people all around the world.

As the part of tourism industry, hotels also try to serve their guests well by

giving good English communication. Therefore, they will make a good English

ability as one of the requirements all their staffs should have, whether the staff are

front office department, F&B service department, engineering department,

security department and also housekeeping department.

As the one who did the internship in the hotel, in the housekeeping

department exactly, it is also a must for me to have an English ability. There were

many experiences I had ever got about communicating with foreign tourists in

English. One of them is when I met a foreign guest in the lobby. He asked me

“Hey, could you please tell me the attraction of this city?” Then I replied “You

can see antique collections at Mangkunegaran palace and ancient man fossil at

Sangiran museum”. Then the guest replied “Can you tell me more about them?” I

replied “You can find some carriages and gamelan music instrument at

Mangkunegaran palace and Sangiran museum is the largest ancient man museum

in the world. That is what I know sir”. The guest said thanks to me then. From this

experience, I had no problem during the conversation with him because his voice

was clear for me.

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Furthermore, when I did my job in the public area of the hotel, the Lund

University of Sweden held an event at Lorin Solo hotel. I had some conversations

with the guests and one of them was an African. He asked me “Where is the

swimming pool?” I answered “Follow me, sir”. While we walked to the

swimming pool, he said something to me with his African accent. I felt that the

words he spoke became one and it was very difficult to understand. Then I tried to

ask him to repeat what he said. In the end of the sentence, I heard he spoke “I like

it very much and this is the first thing I want to try”. From that sentence, I

concluded that the unclear words he spoke were about his love about swimming

and I thought that I have misunderstood with him because I did not really

understand with his accent. After listening carefully, I understood what he said

and tried to figure him out.

Another experience I got was when I was a room attendant. I met a foreign

guest whom I met at the corridor. He asked me “Hey, can you tell me the facilities

in this hotel?” Then I answered “Of course sir. You can swim at the pool barright

over there. There are also Nalendra meeting rooms at the fifth floor.” The guest

then replied “Where is the lunch?”, and then I replied “You can have the lunch at

Bale Raos restaurant near the lobby sir”.“Ok, thank you very much, here is a tip

for you. And please make up my room.” I replied “Okay sir”. I wanted to give

more replies but I lacked of hotel vocabulary, so that I only gave short answers.

From those experiences, I could conclude that English was very important in

the hotel industry, especially in housekeeping department. The guests did not care

that I was an intern because they just knew that I was the hotel staff. Although I

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worked as a housekeeping staff, English was also important for me in order to

improve the service quality at Lorin Solo hotel because I served not only the local

guests but also the foreign guests who spoke English. Its duty was not only

cleaning the public area and room, but also serving the guests well. I did not only

serve a domestic guest, but also international guest since Lorin Solo hotel often

had foreign guests. I did not have to master English language very well, but at

least I had to be able to communicate with foreign guests, understand what they

wanted and able to serve them well. If I could not serve the guest well, then my

job as a housekeeping attendant would be failed. If I could serve the guest

especially the foreign guests well, it meant that I successfully improved the

services quality at Lorin Solo hotel.

D. Problems and Solutions Encountered in Lorin Solo Hotel.

During the job training at housekeeping department in Lorin Solo hotel, I had

to adapt to a new atmosphere and different responsibility from student life to

working life. I encountered several problems. The problems are:

1. Hotel’s terms

In my college, there were any English for Tourism classes. In that

class, I was only taught about hotel in general such as front office

department, housekeeping department, food and beverages department as

well as their meaning. In this case, I did the job training as housekeeping

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attendant (public area attendant and room attendant) in the housekeeping

department which of the terms was not taught in the tourism class. The

tourism class only taught me that housekeeping was a person who kept the

cleanliness and tidiness of public areas and guest rooms whereas, when I

did in housekeeping department, there were many tools, amenities, and

room status which I could not find in the lecture but all of the terms was in

English. I learnt English but I had never deal with hotel world. It was the

first time for me to work in the hotel. In the lecture, I did not get the terms

about hotel in detail so I did not really understand about hotel’s terms. The

solution was to read more and to ask more about the hotel’s terms that I

have not known. As the time went, I learnt more about hotel terms because

I was pushed to understand all terms in English in order to do my job as a

housekeeping attendant well and I asked my senior more about the terms I

have not understood yet.

2. Misunderstanding

In the lecture, most of the lecturers were local persons. They spoke

clearly and I could understand them because I was familiar with their

accent. In the hotel, I had to deal with foreign guest. It was not only

foreign guests from England, but also guests from different countries

which used English with different accent according to their own country. I

did not have a choice but to serve them well. I had ever encountered a

problem when I had a conversation with foreign guests from Africa. I had

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some misunderstandings with them because I did not really understand

their accent. I felt the words that they pronounced were not familiar.

Accordingly, I tried to ask them to repeat what they said and then I had to

listen carefully and tried to figure their words.