...as a Reservationist
For many guests our reservation team are the first experience of the warm and luxurious welcome that awaits them at Prestonfield
We are busy taking reservation calls seven days a week, so I might be working a variety of eight hour shifts between 9am and 11pm.
The day starts with calling tomorrow's restaurant guests to reconfirm their reservations. We often take reservations up to a year in advance so it is important that we confirm the time and numbers of guests and any special requirements so that lunch and dinner service run smoothly. We'll also work closely with reception to check room reservations for guests and make sure that any special requests, such as airport collections and dinner reservations have been attended to.
Calls come in a constant stream so you have to be focussed to work on several tasks at once. Guests know Prestonfield is a unique and individual hotel, so the questions are often quite detailed. We need to understand everything about the restaurant and the hotel to deal with all of the enquiries - from what is the style of the room to what size is the four-poster bed. Some general knowledge on Edinburgh is useful too, guests often want advice on what to do during their visit.
As well as the telephone enquiries, often hundreds a day, there is an increasing flow of email enquiries and online bookings to check. Peak times can be frenetic – August, with the Edinburgh festival is a blur, but you have to remain welcoming and cheerful all the time, especially when letting a guest know that we are fully booked.
As Prestonfield is part of James Thomson's Collection, we can also take bookings for his other restaurants, the Witchery by the Castle and the rooftop Tower. It gives us a great range of restaurants to offer our guests. Gift vouchers are increasingly popular gifts, so every day we'll arrange for people to buy gift vouchers too.
We know that staying or dining at Prestonfield is a very special experience for guests and we hope that by dealing with their bookings well, we have already started to make their visit memorable.
