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Sofia Batres 

Mrs. Ava Gritzuk 

May 5th, 2016 

 
Behind the Scenes at the DoubleTree Hotel 
 
During a couple weeks of my Front Office Procedures class we shadowed various 

DoubleTree Hotel employees. The following are my findings.  

The general manager for quite some time now has been the inspirational Joanie Kastl. 

You do not get to see many female managers at properties for as long as she’s been there and I 

believe it is something worth mentioning. The way the Doubletree Hotel measures guest 

satisfaction is with the quality scores received on the SALT surveys sent to guests post 

checkout. The SALT scores are created by the company Medallia. Guests are emailed the 

surveys; they can answer twelve questions on their smart phones or twenty-five questions on a 

computer. It used to be a seventy-five question survey but this appeared to be too long. The guest 

has seventy-two hours to submit. The Doubletree has a goal of reviewing seventy-five surveys 

per month but do not always receive these many. When it comes to client complains, Corie 

Blocker says, any team member is trusted to deal with it. If employee feels he/she cannot they 

are to call their supervisor. Corie also shared with us something I found very interesting. He told 

us they no longer have a mission statement; they felt it was not needed and dated. Instead they 

base themselves on fair market share, Market share is calculated by taking the company's sales 

over the period and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period. This metric 

is used to give a general idea of the size of a company to its market and its competitors. At the 

Doubletree Hotel there are no guarantees, unless request is payed for beforehand. The reason 
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they don't guarantee anything is because reservations can be made weeks before and unexpected 

mishaps could happen on check in day.  

The Doubletree Hotel has a great engineering staff composed by one engineer per fifty 

rooms. Full time employees work forty hours a weekEach engineer has the Quore app on their 

phone. With Quore in the palm of their hand employees have the ability to perform vital hotel 

operations from anywhere. The engineers can open and close work orders, open and close tasks, 

complete preventative maintenance, daily pool, boiler and utility tracking with the app. Quore 

also allows their supervisors to know where in the hotel they are at all times. The most common 

maintenance request is changing light bulbs followed by outlets, ac units and TVs. While 

interviewing Mr. Alain Cabrera, department manager, shared the worst maintenance request to 

deal with are ac units. At certain times of years engineering deals with the boiler room, ac and 

pool. They were getting the pool ready for the season at the time of our visit; cleaning it, 

changing chemicals etc.Every three months they conduct PM, preventive maintenance inspection 

and report. In the PM they inspect wall paper, paint, doors, chipped paint, vents, mold, furniture, 

windows, and window stoppers. They are reviewed with a quality insurance inspection like every 

other hotel every six months. After every checkout engineers check the room as well, post 

cleanup from housekeeping. The engineering department is responsible for maintenance of the 

entire hotel. If the kitchen or gym for instance has a problem its them who get called in, however 

if the issue needs a new piece of equipment for instance, they contact outside vendors. We got to 

speak to Ernesto Soria as well who said something I found interesting, he called the engineers 

the “firefighters of the hotel” and the “most loved and most hated”. Engineers are also a part of 

remodeling the hotel, they get to work with the owners during the process. Remodeling 
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companies lean on engineering, for blueprints for example. The reason is the engineering team 

knows the inside and out of the hotel better than anyone.  

Front office procedures are a big part of hotel’s daily routine.The department manager, 

Corie Blocker, has great relationships with all his employees. Front office employees have AM 

and PM checklists.The AM and PM checklist includes GSA (Guest Service Agent), date, brand 

promise, arrivals, departures, occupancy, out of order rooms, available rooms and todays 

rate/level, nor1 report, print downtime reports which are printed every two hours, print CRM 

report, review daily events sheet and group resumes for arrival info, display the view totals 

screen and review all information, print guest requests, verify registration packets for romance, 

dream deal, and shopping packages are completed with necessary amenities included, print high 

balance report to verify all necessary payment authorization has been received, contact guests 

with outstanding balances to receive any form of payment that is necessary. In the AM they also 

have to: review overnight shift with night auditor, notify HSKP on any E-Check in guest, print 

the hotel specific report packets for AM shift to review, date, and initial, login to quore, fill out 

the cookie requisition form for today’s arrivals, check for duplicate reservations, print trace 

report for department follow-ups, note all late check outs, notify HSKP of early delta rooms, put 

in departure times for Delta crews, fax hotels the employee verification form for employee rates 

arriving in the next seven days, note any specific housekeeping requests, block VIPs, Hilton 

Honors and room requests, along with other tasks, make breakfast coupons, print the room 

discrepancy report between 800a and 100p to check out any vacant rooms or extended stay 

overs, check echeckins for the day to make sure all rooms are ready by 2;30 pm, at 2:00p call 

HSKP to check the status on any NQ3T and ADA rooms not VR in system, at 230p close all 
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accounts under your user ID and print closing reports, balance cash drawer and deposit drop 

amount, and review any shift info with PM shift. For the PM checklist employees have to: 

review morning shift with front desk, check for duplicate reservations, Sunday afternoon empty 

the party/pet policy bucket, verify all due outs are checked out and inventory is balanced, print 

trace report for department follow-ups, at 4:00pm cancel any reservations for guest with declined 

credit cards, check airline departures, verify all NQ1KH accessible rooms reservations are 

pre-assigned with key packets printed and ADA cards inside, verify registration packets and 

breakfast coupons for the following companies are completed, pre-authorize all arrivals credit 

card to guarantee payment, pre-assign all remaining arrivals before night audit arrives, print all 

vouchers report and have MOD sign-off for each transaction, review any shift information with 

night audit shift. The Doubletree Hotel expects their employees to never assume clients who 

approach the front desk are checking in; they are to greet with the time of day. When answering 

the phone employees are supposed to answer with, “ *time of day* this is the Doubletree Hotel, 

this is the front desk care-line”. When dealing with group checkins the hotel talk to the contact to 

ask how they prefer to be checked in. They offer checking guests in individually, in the bus, 

rechecked keys, or registration tables. Shifts at the front office vary with occupancy but the 

standard shifts are 7am-3pm or 3pm-11pm, eight hours. When talking to the front office 

employees I asked about the PBX system, they described it as easy to use. The PBX system has 

eight function keys, it includes wake up calls, do not disturb calls, restrict calls and guest needs.  

The Sales Department manager of the Doubletree Hotel, Gloria Mella runs a tight ship, 

she is very passionate about her work. The way she and her team solicit business for the hotel is 

by going out and asking people, such as past clients. They also go to their competitors and read 
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their reader boards. They also attend trade shows and age companies to tour their facilities. 

When it comes to events at the hotel first the sales manager books the event, then the BEO is 

created and then the banquet team does the event. The catering manager, Eleanor Schmidt or 

Morgan DeVita, handle group resumes and BEOs. BEOs or Banquet Event Orders detail date, 

time, menu, setup, description, quantity, unit, price, contact, phone, fax, email, and function. The 

BEO is written by the sales and catering and forwarded to Chef, banquet team and captain, the 

food and beverage department. Once a week to be specific, every Tuesday. On a daily basis 

however, daily reports, group resume reports and banquet event reports are ran. The Revenue 

Department team determines the daily room rates. First, they determine a budget according to 

historical data, current market conditions, statistics and market research. This budget tells how 

many rooms the hotel should sell everyday. Then they do inventory (how many rooms available) 

fewer rooms higher rates a lot of rooms lower rates.   

The Food and Beverage Department is composed my a team of. Led by the Director of 

Food and Beverage, Michelle Miller. Followed by the Executive Chef, Jorge Vasquez, helped by 

three Banquet Captains. On the floor a Kitchen Supervisor responsible for four Cooks, four 

Stewards who setup banquets, five Restaurant Servers, two Restaurants Hosts, two Bartenders, 

three Room Service Servers, two FT Banquet Servers, fifteen On-Call Banquet Servers, four 

On-Call Banquet Bartenders, and the latest employee position one Full-Time Coffee Attendant 

on the Starbucks Cart. The hotel is a full service hotel; with various food outlets. Offering an 

all-day restaurant serves classic American meals, a lounge bar and a recently added Starbucks 

Cart. The Banker’s Club Lounge perfect for having food and drinks while catching up with 

news, sporting events on flat screen TVs. The Banker’s Club Lounge is available from 
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4:30pm-11:00pm Sunday-Thursday and 4:30pm-12:00am on Friday and Saturday. The all day 

menu is offered Sunday-Thursday 4:30pm-10:00pm, Friday and Saturday from 4:30-11:00pm. 

The Market Cafe offers a Breakfast buffet including cooked to order items and premium 

handcrafted burgers. Located in the Lobby level, also seating on the Courtyard Patio, serving 

American Cuisine in a casual dinning environment. The hours of operations for breakfast 

Monday through Friday 6:30am to 10:30am, Saturday and Sunday 7:00am to 11:30am. All day 

dinning is served daily from 10:30am to 11:00pm. The Doubletree hotel also offers their guests 

In-Room dinning breakfast Monday through Friday from 6:30am to 10:30am, and 6:30am to 

11:30am on weekends. All day dining can be brought to your room daily from 10:30am through 

11:00pm. The only available food for guests 24/7 is at the gift shop, however these are all ready 

to eat or microwavable food. Michelle claims weddings are the most difficult events for the Food 

and Beverage department in the hotel. She said it is the most challenging because of the great 

amount of revenue it brings. They have to make sure they constantly review with the staff the 

time frame, banquet menu and setup. The hotel hosts up to thirty-five weddings a year. Mrs. 

Miller, Chef Vasquez and the event captain are with the clients from the wedding tasting until 

the cake cutting on that special day to provide the best service for the bride and groom.The 

Doubletree has a fairly proactive incentive granting a $25 visa gift card to employees which 

name is mentioned in a positive trip advisor comment. During our time with Mrs. Miller she 

shared with us the story of the DoubleTree by Hilton Cookie story which, giving to the guest is 

the first thing a front office employee is to due after greeting a guest. “For more than 25 years, 

the DoubleTree by Hilton chocolate and walnut cookie has welcomed our guests. Warm, fresh 
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and delicious, this tradition is on of the most recognizable parts of our brand. ​The Cookie​ is a 

very real ambassador that delivers the first of the Traveler’s Rewards that we promise our guest”.  

Many would agree, the Housekeeping Department of a hotel is its backbone. The 

Housekeeping team at the DoubleTree is composed by thirty-two employees lead by department 

manager Corey Jackson, aka CJ. Staff includes Housemen, Housekeepers, and seven temps from 

Victor’s Staffing. The Housekeepers and Housemen obtain all their tools needed for work to 

carry in their carts from a storage room in the fifth floor referred to as the “fifth floor closet” 

where their carts remain after shifts. Only the two Housemen and Managers have access to the 

closest. Every morning Housekeepers must complete their vacant dirty list, which are rooms 

which guests have checked out of, usually fifteen rooms per Housekeeper and the do out -list, 

rooms that are to be checked out at noon. After rooms have been cleaned they are inspected. 

Samantha Flores inspects rooms in floor one,two and three while Glenn is responsible for floors 

four, five and six. Housekeepers start cleaning at 8:00am and inspection begins at 10:00am. The 

Housekeepers leave all the lights on in the room and the drapes open. The inspector then closes 

the drapes and makes sure room is set up properly (chairs in place for example). Once inspected, 

a code is entered on the phones to let the front desk know the room is guest ready. Rooms are 

cleaned and inspected from top to bottom and clockwise, after all dust falls. The inspection 

checklist included “anything you can see”, dust, knobs, lightbulbs, vents, if the sofa beds has 

been made (most common step forgotten), hospital fold on beds, if drawers work, is TV stilled 

glued on, headboards, mirrors, towels, temp in fridge and more. The shower always seems to 

create problems with stains. “Want it to look like your house” -Jason (Houseman). The busiest 

days for Housekeeping are Saturday and Sundays due to checkouts. Comforters are changed 
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every month and mattresses are flipped every two months. Pillows are changed when needed, 

they have no set schedule. Guest room amenities are collected as needed on a daily basis. For 

instance, if the Housekeeper has nineteen rooms she where to pick up nineteen shampoos, soaps 

etc and placed on her cart. The list also specifies if room needs linens (Y), if room is checked out 

(X), and (N) no linen change.  The schedule goes according to how many rooms are sold that 

day. Every six months Housekeepers conduct a deep clean, a day where all furniture is move and 

the room is thoroughly cleaned which takes a while longer. On a daily basis however stay overs 

on average take eighteen minutes to clean, checkouts thirty minutes. On the qoure app 

Housekeepers can open and close guest requests, view and update room statuses, manage lost & 

found, room inspection reports, vacant dirty (VD) or occupant dirty (OD) rooms. Occupant dirty 

rooms checkout at noon, this is when Housekeeping starts to knock on doors unless a late 

checkout has been requested and granted. Checkin time is at 3:00pm and rooms are expected to 

have been cleaned and inspected. Housekeepers have assigned floors, Mrs. Flores mentioned 

there is a specific employee assigned to the Hilton Honors floor. Hilton Honor guests receive two 

bottled waters, chocolates, and mints. Also almost anything upon request such as snacks and 

toothpaste or having cream. When it comes to “do not disturb” rooms policy mandates 

Housekeepers to come by three times during their shift in attempt to clean the room, she is to 

leave amenities at the door and call to inform guest she has done so.  

My overall impression of the DoubleTree Hotel property is of discipline. I could tell they 

are a company who knows who they are, who they want to be and how they want to become this. 

They stand by tradition of the brand but also in sync with the times. Examples of such 

philosophy are the pods and cart recently installed complementing their timeless wooden lobby. 
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The department that impressed me the most was Housekeeping because of their discipline and 

schedules. The department that impressed me the least was the food and beverage because Ive 

studied so much about it already, however getting to talk to the employees really got me more 

inspired and excited to work in the particular area of business. As the general manager I would 

change some of the furniture, specifically the pool area and lighting of the rooms to make them 

more appealing, chic and modern. I would definitely keep the lobby because of the classic look 

and tradition it gives away.