PAUL HISKETT – Reception Manager
In the summer of 2015, after four years as a receptionist at Eastbourne’s popular AA four-star Langham Hotel on Eastbourne seafront, Paul Hiskett was promoted to Reception Manager. It is a role that he has grown in to and has seen him increase in confidence. He is the first to admit that he now feels more professional and he is certainly relishing his new role.
It is not Paul’s first experience of life in a four-star hotel, however. After a couple of years working at Brentford Football Club on leaving school, in 2006 he moved on to the four-star Runnymede Hotel on the banks of the River Thames near Windsor, just minutes from Heathrow Airport. Beginning initially as a porter, he soon transferred to working on reception and then on to Guest Relations, acquiring skills that would stand him in good stead for his current role at the Langham.
Due to a change in his wife’s job in 2010, the family relocated to Sussex, eventually settling at the harbour in Eastbourne, although Paul continued to be employed at the Runnymede for a while, working four days on and four days off. Spotting an advertisement in the Eastbourne Herald for a receptionist at the Langham Hotel in April 2011, he applied and was interviewed by proprietor Neil Kirby. To Paul’s surprise, he was offered the post at the interview. Fearing he had misunderstood, he asked, “Does this mean I’ve got the job?”
“When can you start?” replied Neil Kirby.
Within days Paul began working behind the reception desk at the Langham.
There were just three receptionists employed at the hotel at that time. One was on holiday, another was heavily pregnant, and so Paul had the advantage of spending his first week under the guidance of the hotel’s joint owner, Wendy Kirby, and soon felt part of the team.
Working at the Langham in the coastal resort of Eastbourne was a complete contrast to the Runnymede in Windsor. The 180 bedroom Runnymede had very little local trade, other than Sunday lunches, with a clientele consisting largely of rich Arabs and Americans for whom the hotel was just a stopover.
“You could go days without seeing anyone,” says Paul, “and you certainly couldn’t put names to faces.”
Conversely, the Langham has only 80 bedrooms, is on the seafront with continual passing trade, and is at the heart of the local community with a thriving Ladies’ Lunch Club, Pudding and Wine Club, has Musical Cabaret Dinners and many functions throughout the year.
“Here, you not only see the same faces regularly, you know their Christian names, their dietary requirements, you meet their families, sometimes you know their life story, and it has a much more friendly, homely feel. So many of our guests are return bookings too, so you continually see people that you know. And as it is a family-run hotel, rather than just one of a chain, you feel part of a team and genuinely valued.”
One thing that the Langham and Runnymede both have in common, says Paul, is that refurbishments and improvements are ongoing. There are always builders or decorators somewhere in the building!
Having also taken on the additional role of Duty Manager, when Head Receptionist Faye Chillingworth left in the summer of 2015 to fulfil her dream of travelling the world, Paul Hiskett seemed the obvious replacement. He was interviewed, offered the job, and accepted without hesitation. As the Langham had gained a fourth AA star two years earlier, it was considered more appropriate that Paul should be called Reception Manager, rather than Head Receptionist.
Promotion meant that Paul’s day to day life quickly changed.
“It’s much more pressurised now as I have to take care of everyone else on the reception team. A year before Faye left it had become extremely busy, with the hotel becoming four-star, and I had taken on extra responsibilities to help share the work load and had become her second in command. But as Manager now, the buck stops with me. If someone on reception has made a mistake, and inevitably mistakes do occasionally happen, or a guest has a complaint, then ultimately I have to ensure that it has been satisfactorily resolved. It can be simple things, such as if staff plans change and they want to alter the rota, it’s me that now has to sort it out. If a guest complains, it is up to me to decide if it is justifiable and if we should offer a discount or make an upgrade and whether this is financially viable.
“Fortunately I am generally very calm. I think I am good at dealing with problems. Some people panic in a crisis or under pressure, but I don’t. Every mistake can be rectified in one way or another, so there’s no point in worrying.”
So, what is an average day in the life of the Langham Hotel Reception Manager?
“The honest answer is that there is no such thing as an average day! The only guarantee is that the telephone will ring. I always begin by preparing the Daily Sheets that list all that day’s arrivals, departures, bookings for lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and so on, which I then circulate to every department. There’s also a Weekly Sheet to prepare, which lists all the functions, and that is issued every Monday.
“Some days there will be big arrivals or departures, which all hotel receptionists are used to, but at the Langham the receptionists also have to deal with the big functions, such as weddings, Masonic Dinners or a Ladies’ Lunch Club, and we are drawing up seating plans, printing place cards, and designing promotional material or a display board for reception.
“A lot of my working day is spent preparing for the next day. We always have to look ahead. So on Friday, for example, we will be doing the Menu Card for Sunday lunch. Some days you have two people in for lunch and the next 122, so no two days are ever really alike.
“Another part of the day is preparing bills and accounts for rooms, functions, coach companies, and often chasing people who haven’t paid. Many hotels have a Sales Department, but at the Langham we do this at reception, so that was something new to me when I first came here.
“Each guest also now gets a welcome letter in their room on arrival and we try to tailor every one to make them personal. Maybe we know from our records that the guest is staying for a particular anniversary or birthday, so then we can mention it in the letter and perhaps make it special by leaving them a bottle of champagne or a basket of fruit in their room.
“Troubleshooting is a major part of any receptionist’s job, and I find that the best way to deal with this is to try and pre-empt complaints. So if, for example, we have a major function in the restaurant that has a band or is going to go on late, we can warn the guests in the room above in advance and give them the option of changing rooms. This stops people complaining, because they know the situation in advance and so are much more amenable about it.
“Of course there are lighter moments too. In 2014 some of the staff were asked to take part in a variety show for some Christmas lunches and so I unexpectedly found myself wearing sequins, doing comedy and songs. Recently a guest’s mobility scooter broke down and I had to push him into town on it to catch a taxi and then wheel the scooter back. On another occasion I opened a bag that a guest had unintentionally left behind and inside was an artificial leg! So you never know what each day will bring.
“As a family run hotel and, therefore, a very close knit community, we all help one another out. So if the housekeeping staff are under-pressure, we go up and make some of the beds or maybe change a light-bulb. If a coach party arrives, we all help with the suitcases. It was not something that I was expecting when I first came to work here, but I enjoy it. It makes the hotel feel homely and all the staff feel as if they are part of a team. Really I think this is what makes it a unique environment at the Langham and I wouldn’t want to leave to work anywhere else in Eastbourne. With over 60 staff, very occasionally people come to work here who don’t fit into the team; they want to just do their own particular job and that’s it, but you find that they don’t last very long and are soon off to pastures new.”
Since becoming Reception Manager, Paul Hiskett has already begun to make significant changes. One is in better use of modern technology for greater efficiency. All regular attendees of functions and recurring guests staying at the hotel are being put on a database, which will speed up the booking process. With the addition of ticket sourcing it will soon become much easier for people to book for events, either directly at the hotel or from home, and the Langham database will show who people like to sit with, and even any allergies or dietary requirements.
“It will take a little while for people to get used to, but once done, everything will be much faster and more efficient.”
So, has taking on the more demanding day to day role as Reception Manager changed Paul as a person?
“I feel that it has made me knuckle down and I now understand my limits. One of the most difficult parts of the job is keeping everyone happy and I’ve learned that, either way, whatever you do, someone is going to be upset. So you have to find your level. But I feel confident, I hope that I have a good rapport with people and I enjoy my work.
“One of the biggest changes is the weight of responsibility that the job inevitably brings. If there is a problem, for example people can’t get a table for dinner because the restaurant is fully booked, I now find myself thinking: if only I’d asked them when they checked in if they wanted dinner….why didn’t I say at the time that we only had four tables left? So I do feel responsible for guests. And I suppose now I find that I can never fully switch off. I can’t have a day off and forget about the Langham. 90% of the time there will be a phone call. Only recently one of the boilers wasn’t working, but I rang the hotel on my day off just to see if it had been fixed. I now do the staff rotas at home, where it’s quieter, but with the current apps on mobile phones I still receive notifications throughout the day of all that is happening at the Langham, so I can never get away from it completely.
“Fortunately my sons Bradley and Joey keep me grounded and some security camera footage from the hotel keeps us amused. Film of Hotel Manager Simon Brown falling backwards over a chair behind reception never fails to make me laugh!”
Langham Hotel, 43-49 Royal Parade, Eastbourne BN22 7AH
Tel: 01323 731451 email: frontdesk@langhamhotel.co.uk
website: www.langhamhotel.co.uk
