What is Host?

Some of my friends say that I have a good job, a good management team, a perfect and beautiful workplace. Today, I decided to write briefly about my job. (And if you are my friends, I invite you to visit me at my workplace to see it in person ) 

In the tourism industry and service industry, work does not stop for any second. Work sometimes follows me on my mobile phone, occupying data on my laptop, and needs attention in the middle of my lunch/dinner meals. If I would like to visit my mother or travel somewhere, I need to arrange my tasks and allocate jobs to my teammates and manager accordingly. However, during my trips, sometimes, I still send a mountain of texts and follow peoples’ tasks - haha. This is a problem in my job and I am still dealing with it.  Even though I enjoy working hard and learning a lot of lessons from my work. Sometimes I actually have the same feeling as others do; I want to quit my job and find another opportunity. Working sometimes makes you feel happy, but in some situations, it makes you bored, tired, and conflicted with your own moral conduct. Knowing that I meet many different types of people and provide tourism services to meet their different needs, you can understand that not all situations are the same and not all make me happy. Because, working with humans is hard work. 

L, my foreign friend, shared that he saw many young Vietnamese change jobs frequently and complain about  a lot of things such as salary, working environment, benefits (insurance). I strongly agree with him. Although I only graduated two years ago, I also have observations like him. When I meet my friends in coffee shops, almost all of them complain about their job. To be honest, I just would love to hear about their relationship status, their happy stories rather than job complaints. Nowadays, some people get bored in their jobs quicker than in the past and are always chasing an ideal workplace. We run and run, so where will we stay?  

For 4 years, I worked at social enterprises, non-government organizations, start-up companies and garment manufacturers, which helps me understand that as humans, all of us have our own beliefs, individual biases, and hopes; this is the reason why many seek an ideal workplace beyond our current situation. However,  every workplace, community and relationship has its own problems and hidden issues. In my opinion, everything that happens in life is an opportunity to understand more within ourselves and help us mature day by day. We have choices, then we fall into the paradox of choice.... 

And the second post in “Chuyện đi làm", my point is to depict what I do in the workplace daily. 

As a Host, I take care of the apartments and rooms, the shared spaces and the overall quality of comfort within our accommodation as well as I would care for my own property (house). We welcome guests into our building, support them to have a good sleep after a long flight, and a comfortable accommodation experience. 

I also don’t hesitate to share with them my personal recommendations of what to see, eat, drink and do in Ha Noi to enable them to experience the city like an Hanoian, just as I do.

From my point of view, being an accommodation Host is such a human service and an experience that flexes and adapts with each guest interaction. It is never the same thing to apply to every situation I deal with.   Despite AI (Artificial/Machine Intelligence) systems being used more and more for human services and assistance, and the internet providing endless sources of information and advice for travel tips, recommendations and motivational reviews, and multi-language guidebooks available online, I still believe that real-life experience and insights from local people is the best information source for our guests.  A good host can help you get out of an overload of information and confusing options and suggest just what is appropriate for your mood and your mindset in the moment. 

It’s very common for our guests to immediately express how they feel the warm, open, kind energy and welcoming atmosphere in our space from the moment they arrive. 

Guests also notice and feel how perfectly prepared our rooms are, because we constantly check every detail with thought and care. We focus on little things. We care how guests feel comfortable when they touch the objects in the room, even the sensation they have when breathing air in the room. Because, we take care of our rooms like we take care of each other. Always paying attention, always observing, always minding how we can improve the feeling around us and the experience of being here such as monthly maintenance, cleaning schedule,... this is what we do to express how we love our house, our workplace. 

In reality, we hold a home dust-remover and walk around inspecting every inch of the rooms to remove all of the dust and hair on the floors and other surfaces. This is the reason why when guests stay with us almost all of them say: ‘It is sparkling clean.’ 

An awesome workplace where I learn how to be a good person rather than just learning and doing a job.

 I feel lucky that we have a “good team”. We create a good working environment where everyone respects each other and learns from other people, everyday, not in a written way. After any difficult or challenging situation with guests, any internal issues, I learn how to be a good person and how to act in a way that is logical and fair - a way that “makes sense” (Honesty, it is very hard). For example, I love how my teammate sits opposite me and says that he/she felt hurt/uncomfortable due to my action and decision. It is hard for everyone to hear something not praise. I love the moment I hear my teammate share his own idea to improve our workflow, and guest experience. Or, several days ago, my manager and I sat together and discussed how to solve our communication problem. He was honest to share his thoughts and his feelings, he would like to improve our communication to work efficiently in the future. (Actually that moment made me so emotional that I sobbed and wasn’t even able to reply).

From my point of view, the tourism industry is such a “human” job. It takes my energy to serve other people. At the end of a busy day, I often feel exhausted and just want to stay alone. One of my friends, Nam, said “I never would like to have a job like you”. Haha. However, after more than one year, I still enjoy my job. 

Every host is a travel lover and a Hanoian lover willing to share their own experiences with guests. Every teammate is encouraged to explore Hanoi and more of Vietnam.. Guests will receive many good recommendations to explore Hanoi in their own way. Some of the guests invite us to eat and drink with them as a friend. I love to share my recommendations; actually, I recommend fewer things compared to my teammates, haha. I love Ha Noi.

Offering a good staying experience.

I believe that I and my teammates can contribute just a few little things to make a memorable trip for someone who travels from another place on the Earth to Vietnam. They planned their trip several months in advance, have expectations and assumptions about the experience they will have, and hope their trip will be as awesome as they imagined when reading reviews online and watching a ton of videos of bloggers before.

My other teammate said that I care only about money (lol). That is true, but it stands second priority behind human care (teammates and guests). In my role, I think about what our guests need but I also think about what the business needs. I have some management responsibilities and being aware of finances is necessary.

 I and the team calculate monthly expenses, set room rates and think about revenue every day. I (and we) care about money because without it we cannot run a business, pay our team for the work they do, pay operating expenses and ultimately pay for the experience we deliver to customers of our business. 

I love how I can connect guests and welcome them into our house. I love how our team always creates HAPPY experiences for guests and they often come back to stay in our house whenever they return to Ha Noi. But I do not know if I can work this job for the next 3-5 years. I still prepare for upcoming things such as learning a new language, improving English, reading books… who knows what skills I will need in the future; sometimes I even feel(OR imagine) I will move back to a rural area to become a farmer haha. 

But until then, I know I still have a lot of lessons to learn through Hosting and the good people I work with.

I hope that everyone will find their feet on their own career path.