Key Attributes Hotel, Motel, And Resort Desk Clerks Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Sophia Miller

Monday, August 10, 2015

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks accommodate hotel, motel, and resort patrons by registering and assigning rooms to guests, issuing room keys or cards, transmitting and receiving messages, keeping records of occupied rooms and guests' accounts, making and confirming reservations, and presenting statements to and collecting payments from departing guests.

The core tasks that hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks are likely to carry out include:

Greet, register, and assign rooms to guests of hotels or motels.
Verify customers' credit, and establish how the customer will pay for the accommodation.
Contact housekeeping or maintenance staff when guests report problems.
Issue room keys and escort instructions to bellhops.
Make and confirm reservations.
Keep records of room availability and guests' accounts, manually or using computers.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 90%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.6%

Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 88.6%

Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 88.2%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 87.6%

Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 86.8%

Having a strong preference for conventional work environments. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 85.71%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 84.2%

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 84.2%