Duncan Alger completed a summer internship at the Holiday Inn Express in Springdale, Utah located near Zion National Park. During the internship, he gained experience in multiple hotel departments including front desk, housekeeping, and laundry. While the internship was not focused on his long term career goals of becoming a tour guide or working in youth hostels, he felt it provided valuable skills and insight into different aspects of the hospitality industry.

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Duncan Alger
MANG 499
Summer Internship
8/05/2015
Prof. Mayer
This summer I worked as an intern at the Holiday Inn Express in Springdale Utah which
is on the western entrance of Zion National Park. This specific property is a very touristy
destination with over two million visitors a year from all around the world coming to see the
national park. Our particular property is one of the larger hotels in town with 117 rooms
including a number of suites and handicap accessible rooms which are located in one of our two
main buildings. We have a large property with a pool, spa, and children’s wading pool, as well as
a number of outdoor patios and fire places for our guests. To add to that we provide activities
such as basketball, horse shoe, volleyball and a walking trail for all our visitors. We also cater
largely to groups and tours, so we provide many amenities aiming towards large groups, such as
meeting space, gym, laundry facilities and a continental breakfast. This gives us a leg up on most
of the hotels in town do to the fact that we provide a number of services that other properties do
not.
During this internship I worked in a number of different positions such as the front desk
both the morning and night shift, night audit, portage, laundry and guest services. This gave me a
broad level of duties and responsibilities as well as a chance to grow my knowledge of all the
aspects within the hospitality industry. I did not have a specific job description, nevertheless I
had a number of responsibilities and tasks that I would have to complete on a day to day basis.
For example in the front desk position the daily tasks I would engage in would include checking
guests in and out, billing, guest requests, daily upkeep on our computer system and answering

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guest calls and requests. During the night audit shift I would close the day, complete the audit of
the property as well as prepare for the upcoming day. I would also be the only staff on property
so any guest request or guest situation would have to be handled by me. When I was in the guest
service position I would handle guest requests and run anything the guest needed to their room. I
also worked as a porter this summer, meaning I would unload baggage from an incoming tour
group and take the bags to their individual rooms. The next day I would then collect the bags
from each guest room and deliver them to the tour bus and help load them. Lastly I worked in the
laundry position, in this position I had common laundry duties and responsibilities meaning
loading and unloading laundry machines, folding and proper storing of laundry.
The employee staff at the Holiday Inn express is not a very large staff, so you become
very familiar with the employees. It also helped that I worked in a number of areas, so I only
interviewed two main employees, those being Andrea Wenzel our sales manager and Rob Bishop
our general manager. They provided the most knowledge of this property and the tasks that were
involved to run the business on a day to day basis in addition to the long-term goals and
aspirations of the property.
At a property of this size it is very important that every employee do their job and do it
correctly to ensure that the daily activities run smoothly. This is the case because many
departments have to collaborate with other departments to make certain that everything is
properly taken care of. For example when I worked as a front desk agent I would cooperate with
the housekeeping department to make sure all the rooms were properly cleaned and ready for our
customers in time. At the same time I also had to properly communicate with the housekeepers
so they knew which rooms to clean first and where they should be spending their time. Each
department communicates with one another, they fit together like puzzle pieces so it is very

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important that each department converse with one another in order for all the hotels operations
do be done correctly. Each position is very important and cannot function without all the other
positions, so I made sure that every time I was working in a different position or department that
I communicated with the different divisions and I did my job properly so the other employees
could do their job.
I interviewed Andrea Wenzel our Sales Manager. She is very knowledgeable about the
property, front desk operations and does most of our marketing. Because of the size of our
property we only have one person involved in sales and that is Andrea, that is why she does such
a wide range of duties. Her title is Sales Manager but Andrea also has responsibilities such as
promotions and marketing for the property and handles most of our large groups that stay at the
hotel. She speaks with our tour guides and other groups that require meeting space for events or
any other occasions to bring in extra income for the property. So technically speaking she covers
many different departments but has one title. Mrs. Wenzel is also a year round, full time
employee while many other women in this business are often just seasonal, especially with hotels
that are located by areas that conduct business during a specific time of year. For instance as I
stated before our lodge is located by Zion National Park which mainly has visitors come in the
summer months while the park is virtually closed during the winter months. Many employees are
let go while Andrea remains on staff all year long.
When it comes to women or minorities employed within the sales department,
specifically in supervisory and management positions there are many women in high positions
not only at this property but within all Holiday Inn Expresses. Specifically at our hotel we have a
number of women in management positions. As I stated before Andrea is the sales manager and
indicated that the career opportunities are the same for women as men. There are many more

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women interested in the hospitality industry than men so it is almost easier to find women to fill
these certain positions rather than men.
Mrs. Wenzel did not have a definitive answer on what fringe benefits were exactly
available in her position due to the fact that she just moved to this property from our sister
property which had different forms of benefits. However she did state that she received benefits
such as discounted rooms, paid holidays and vacation time. She also stated that traveling
involving work or for training was paid for by the company. Andrea also said she definitely has
incentive to sell large blocks of rooms because an employee in her position receives commission
for sales of rooms from groups, tour busses, events and conventions. Typically in a position such
as this there is a fixed salary, depending on the property or location of the hotel the typical salary
would be between 40,000 to 70,000 a year.
When it comes to intangible benefits Mrs. Wenzel believed the assets and benefits that
brought her the most joy were meeting the customers and guests that she created long-term
relationships with, this not only helped her with receiving commission but helped our hotel gain
a positive image, the company brand name and most importantly the guest. This job, Sales
specifically is a lot about networking and creating good guest relations with customers that are
long lasting, thus creating loyal customers and good clientele that bring in continuous revenue.
Which helps us progress as a company and as an individual property. Within this job you can
also create good connections that can help you outside the business place in your personal life.
In terms of special assistance for employees when it comes to their personal life, meaning
stress management, drug or alcohol counseling, marriage counseling or any others. Our company
does not specifically offer any of those options directly from the corporation, however they do
offer support when it comes to those issues, meaning help from a local counseling or therapy

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company, depending on the cost and resources. Many of our employees have been working
together for years and are very familiar with one another so the corporate culture was very well
established at the property and the relationship between most employees was very good. I didn’t
personally know of any employee having issues such as those and none of the managers did
either. If any special assistance was required from any employees at our hotel I am positive any
of our managers would be more than happy to oblige them and offer them some sort of support,
most likely that help would be coming from a local therapy or counseling company.
When it comes to public or customer relations I discussed with Rob Bishop the general
manager of the Holiday Inn Express of Zion National Park about this specific area. For this hotel
we had many different ways of public relations and guest service for our guests. We offered
many brochures for our property as well as the local area. We offer national park guides for all
guests as well as a map of the local area for restaurants, shopping and local activities or tours.
We had many special promotions for our guests especially if they were an IHG rewards guest.
We would offer certain amenities such as points in the IHG program so they can eventually earn
a free night’s stay at any Holiday Inn property, and we also offered snack bags for any of our
IHG members.
In terms of large groups we would offer them lower room rates in order to get them to
come back for repeat stays. Since we have many calls regarding making reservations we would
transfer many of those calls to the corporate offices, so they usually handle a lot of our guest
reservations which would give us more time to give attention to the guests that were actually on
property. We use a computer system that is required for all Holiday Inns called opera which has
specific training for all front desk and night audit employees. We also have to comply with

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cooperate rules regarding housekeeping and laundry linens. Holiday Inn has very specific rules
when it comes to certain areas of the individual hotel and complying with cooperate policies.
Customer complaints happen very often in the hospitality industry. It happens every day,
and unfortunately you cannot make every guest happy. Personally I tried to be as apologetic and
reassuring as possible with all guest complaints and do whatever I could to make the situation
better or fix the problem that the guest had. If there was any serious guest complaint or if guests
requested to see a manager on staff we would immediately direct them to the manager that was
on duty. I generally handled smaller situations myself. For example if a guest complained about
the room and wanted a room move, if possible I would move the guest to a different room or if
there was a small maintenance problem in the room that I could handle I would walk with the
guest to their room and try and fix the problem myself.
For our operations I spoke again with our general manager Rob Bishop who has a
fantastic amount of knowledge in this area. The particular property I worked for had a property
management company called Ensign Hospitality which had its own mission. Ensign Hospitality’s
mission is to provide exceptional hospitality services and unique lodging products to their valued
guest. Based around five core values, those values being; Integrity, teamwork, individual worth,
consistent standard of excellence and lastly personalized guest service. My general manager
works very close with Ensign Hospitality and I have worked at one of their properties before so
the whole process seems very familiar to me. I have met some of the owners of Ensign
Hospitality as well and as Mr. Bishop stated, it is their long term goal to Build a Marriott hotel in
Springdale and have Ensign control the three local properties that would follow the same core
values and although they would be very different properties they would all operate in much of
the same ways.

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The Holiday Inn Express in Springdale is ultimately run by Ensign Hospitality which
manages many properties in Utah. Ensign has been around for many years but the hotel I worked
at this summer was just renovated from a Best Western into a Holiday Inn Express so it is the
company’s newest property. It is a very young hotel but is already rising in popularity and has
incredible ratings on the state, regional and national level when compared to other Holiday Inn
Expresses. This property is funded by Ensign Hospitality Management and is becoming one of
their most profitable properties.
Marketing is very important in the hospitality industry. Especially for a new property
such as this one, although we have the brand name of Holiday Inn it is still very important that
we advertise and market towards new customers. To receive knowledgeable and precise facts
about this position I again talked to our sales manager Andrea Wenzel. Andrea handles all of our
local promotion as well as does promoting and marketing of local events in the area for our
guests to enjoy. She stated that since the property is still very young they do not have a
marketing plan but rather marketing goals such as, bringing in more large groups, market and
advertise more towards Europeans, Asians and foreigners in general since Europeans are such a
huge clientele of not only our hotel but all local businesses.
Marketing, advertising and promoting is crucial for any business but when a franchise or
company has branding assistance from a cooperate office it can help dramatically. That gives our
hotel a lot more business rather than individual marketing does. Since our target market are
individuals that are traveling to National Parks it is a very easy decision on where we want to
spend most of our money and time when it comes to advertising. As I said before most of the
guests we attract are foreigners so a lot of the time they are very wealthy or their currency is
stronger than ours meaning they are willing to spend the money. So if there are issues with the

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U.S. economy it often does not affect them as much as it would affect a guest from the United
States. For example if gas prices went up here in Utah although it would affect everyone
traveling to Zion it would affect U.S. citizens more than most foreigners because they either have
the money to spend or their currency is stronger.
My internship was an interesting and important experience for me. I am very interested in
the hospitality industry but from a different aspect. I would not specifically pursue a career in
any of the fields I worked in this summer but rather I would like to be involved with traveling,
being a tour guide or being involved with a youth hostel. However I think it was very important
for me to learn this side of the business and all the skills I learned will most definitely help me in
the long run, not to mention the connections I made in the process and the networking I have
created over the duration of my internship. Although it was not necessarily what I expected I had
a great time interacting with different departments as well as guests from all over the world.
After being in college for three years I have learned many skills that helped me during
my internship. Nevertheless I personally believe the best way to learn and get experience is to
actually work within the industry. There are so many behind the scene activities that go on to
take a property to function that you don’t even think about. Having all this experience will most
definitely help me in the classroom, because I can bring all my real world knowledge and my
own experiences into the discussion. It can also help me keep up to date on certain areas of the
business and how they relate to what we discuss in the classroom.
The learning outcomes that were the most beneficial in helping me succeed in this
internship were ethical behavior, applying the skill and knowledge I learned in my courses as
well as developing my career goals. These gave me things to focus on while I was working. I
really tried to enter every situation as ethically as possible which helped me in all my decisions

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and ultimately got me a lot of respect and admiration in the workplace. On top of that while I
was in my internship I tried to create career goals and ambitions that I have for myself in the
future. The courses that I took that focused mainly on hospitality management helped me
tremendously, especially when it came to working at the front desk.
I would not continue to work at The Holiday Inn Express on a permanent basis. I became
knowledgeable in many different aspects and fields during my interview process and I learned
that I have different interests when it comes to working in the hospitality industry. As I stated
before I am more interested in the traveling and tourism side of hospitality. Specifically I would
pursue jobs such as a tour guide or being involved in jobs relating youth hostels. I have a real
passion to study abroad and travel abroad which I have done a number of times. So my next plan
is to do some sort of work or have involvement in that aspect of the travel and tourism industry.
Although I am not interested in the work I did over the summer for my internship, I am very glad
I got to learn that side of the business and acquire all the skills I did. It will ultimately help me in
the long run and could possibly lead to jobs that I really am attracted to in the future.