Highgate Hotels

Highgate is a leading real estate investment and hospitality management company widely recognized as an innovator in the industry. Highgate is the dominant player in major U.S. gateway cities including New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Honolulu, with a growing Caribbean and Latin America footprint. The hospitality forward company provides expert guidance through all stages of the property cycle, from planning and development through recapitalization or disposition. Highgate has a proven record of developing its diverse portfolio of bespoke lifestyle hotel brands, legacy brands, and independent hotels and resorts with contemporary programming and digital acumen. The company utilizes industry-leading revenue management tools that efficiently identify and predict evolving market dynamics to drive outperformance and maximize asset value. With an executive team consisting of some of the most experienced hotel management leaders, the company is a trusted partner for top ownership groups and major hotel brands. Highgate maintains corporate offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, London, Miami, and Seattle. www.highgate.com.

Location

This 645-room hotel is perfectly located on Honolulu's famous Kalakaua Avenue, where it is just steps to the beach and an arm's reach to the best dining, shopping, and entertainment in the area. Guests can borrow the hotel's own towels and beach chairs to spend the day by the sea, or choose to lay out by the hotel's pool with a tropical drink from nearby Tiki's Grill and Bar. And for the adventurous, the Aston Waikiki offers a on-site activities desk ready to curate a number of fun experiences.

Overview

The Guest Experience Manager is responsible for monitoring and assisting in the quality of overall guest experience, before, during and post stay. Maintain guest satisfaction by tracking and responding to guest emails and comments on social media and internal guest satisfaction index. Coordinate and execute cultural activities and other experiences to enhance the guest’s stay.

Responsibilities

• Respond to all guest concerns filtered through hotel departments, social media, and guest satisfaction index either in person, electronically or by phone. This includes all reviews that come from the Medallia and social media outlets, as well as guest emails and respective department inboxes.
• Monitor trends associated with service levels/guest complains. Chart out possible trends in the hotel through utilization of Medallia to work proactively with the department managers on resolutions for top problems and trends in the hotel.
• Serve as a lobby ambassador to greet guests and assist them with their needs. Be visible in the lobby whenever a line exists to assist guests during their wait. Be present in the lobby during VIP arrivals to meet, greet, and assist in any way to ensure a memorable stay. Manager will keep the hotel manager informed of the progress of lobby rotation duty.
• Perform front office administration duties as needed to include compiling reports for management, and distributing the mail for front office.
• Coordinate and execute cultural activities and other experiences that will enhance the guest’s experience.
• Management of VIP guests - pre, during and post stay.
• Creating and executing amenity program for guests.
• Working with the Sales and Catering departments to coordinate functions, coverage for events and/or breakfast etc.
• Assist with front office operations which include front desk and other operational departments.
• Work/communicate with managers or departments regarding guest issues or other areas of concern. This includes but is not limited to sharing TripAdvisor and Medallia comments at daily stand ups and weekly staff meetings. It also includes working with department heads on specific problems in their departments that are brought up in surveys for quick resolution to the guest and preventive measures for the future.
• Appropriately weigh all sides of a situation and fairly compensate guests in a consistent fashion, when necessary. Utilize full empowerment to ensure guests are happy pre-stay, during, and post stay.
• Attend departmental and morning meetings and take notes and distribute to the operational team.
• Evaluate and respond to social media, online service channels to enhance reputations and representation of the hotel. This includes but is not limited to posting local current events with pictures pre-event and post event to continue local interest, post all promotions in the restaurant or rooms, posting all public relation events such as charity events conducted by the hotel. Social media should be posted daily alternating with all of the subjects above so the followers obtain various information of interest.
• Give recommendations for improvement and enhancement where needed. This will entail analyzing the top three problems every month with the hotel manager and department heads to come up with root causes and action plans to improve. Most of this is compiled from Medallia will also be analyzed into this data.
• Perform other duties as requested by management.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of progressive experience in a hotel or a related field; or a 2-year college degree and 3 or more years of related experience; or a 4-year college degree and at least 1 year of related experience.
• Supervisory experience required.
• Must be proficient in Windows, Company approved spreadsheets and word processing.
• Previous guest service experience required.
• Able to read, write, and speak Japanese fluently is preferred, but not mandatory.
• Excellent verbal and communication skills required.
• Long hours sometimes required.
• Light work – Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.
• Maintain a warm and friendly demeanor and be an Ambassador of Aloha Spirit at all times.
• Must be able to effectively communicate both verbally and written with all levels of employees, guests and third party companies in an attentive, friendly, courteous and service oriented manner.
• Must be able to multitask and prioritize departmental functions to meet deadlines.
• Able to approach all encounters with guests and employees in an attentive, friendly, courteous and service-oriented manner.
• Attend all hotel required meetings and trainings.
• Assist with manager on duty coverage when needed and perform other duties as requested by management.
• Maintain regular attendance in compliance with Highgate Hotel Standards, as required by scheduling, which will vary according to the needs of the hotel.
• Maintain high standards of personal appearance and grooming, which include wearing nametags.
• Comply with Highgate Hotel Standards and regulations to encourage safe and efficient hotel operations.
• Maximize efforts towards productivity, identify problem areas and assist in implementing solutions.
• Must be effective in handling problems, including anticipating, preventing, identifying and solving problems as necessary.
• Must be able to understand and evaluate complex information, data, etc. from various sources to meet appropriate objectives.
• Must be able to maintain confidentiality of information.