So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager...: April 2008

Last week I told you about my sales manager booking a group with a clause in their contract that allows for a discount of 50-100% off the price of any meal period. Well the group has finally come and gone.

All in all it went pretty well with a few exceptions. Here we go:

The group was not supposed to arrive until late Sunday night so they weren’t expected to want access to any of the meeting rooms until early Monday morning. I knew better, so I scheduled my houseman supervisor and 2 other housemen to be there until 11pm “just in case”.

Well what do you think happened?

Of course 6 “meeting planners” for a 70 person group arrived around 8:30pm and wanted to inspect the rooms (1 general session and 5 breakout rooms). One person was the main contact, 2 people where there for the F&B, 2 for the sleeping rooms and the last was here just to supervise the transportation.

Just another day in paradise!

All the meeting rooms & a/v were fully setup as per the BEO and spotless in condition. All should be fine, right? WRONG!

We set the room crescent rounds of 6 people each facing the long wall (since there were 2 screens & 2 projectors) but they wanted it facing the short wall. Also, they wanted a stage with a panel seating for 6 people in between the screens. My supervisor told them that this would make the room too long for 12 tables with the front tables around 16 ft from the screen and the rear tables too far back.

But what do we know I guess? So my staff changed the setup to accommodate their wishes and got ready for Monday.

Guess what happened? The last row of tables complained all morning that they were too far from the screen and couldn’t see the bottom information. So during their lunch break, we removed some tables, made the others crescents of 7 people each and tightened them up closer to the screen. As a matter of fact, this setup is exactly what I recommended to the sales manager & contact during the pre-con meeting the week before!

But again, what do we know!

The other screw-ups:

The kitchen didn’t schedule 2 people for the carving & pasta stations for their Tuesday night dinner so I needed to scramble to get extra waiters in to handle this. I charged it off to the kitchen of course.
Our purchasing manager never ordered the 3 kosher meals for Monday’s lunch. So guess who made a mad dash out to the store around 10:30am that day?
The usual problem with a few sleeping rooms not being the type that was requested (Jr suite vs. dbl). This drove their rooms planner bonkers!
We had the same starch & veggies for Thursday & Friday’s lunch. As usual, the kitchen couldn’t keep it straight for 5 days in a row!
A few late deliveries, some a/v problems, banquet checks having to be redone a thousand times, a thousand and one time changes, and a couple of dirty bathrooms rounded out the week.

But guess what? Banquets ROCKED!

Well I kind of cheated. I learned from the past that you need to take extra precautions when you have a group that is looking for an excuse to get a discount. This makes the meeting planners look good when they can get the clients bill reduced. How else can they justify their existence?

I brought all my waiters in a little early the entire week, had extra housemen on to refresh the rooms and I was on top of the kitchen all week.

I refuse to fail…

P.S. I priced-out the extra labor cost I incurred to make sure the group went off as planned and gave a copy to the Dir of Sales, Dir of F&B, & the GM. If Sales wants to book events like this then all involved must know that it costs extra and this takes away from out bottom line. I’ll try to get it charged back to Sales but I know it won’t happen.

Other than that, I’m very happy with my staff. They did all that was expected of them and more. Another day in paradise.

I guess my job is safe for another day…

*** Add a comment to this post and tell me what you think.

Until next time, bye.

Friday, April 18, 2008

You'll Never Believe This One

…another reason I can’t stand sales people!

Let me tell you about my day today…

It started off pretty good. All the morning groups started-off fine with no issues. The waiters even seemed to be in a good mood (you never know with them). Then around 9:45am we were told that that was a pre-con (pre convention) meeting scheduled for today at 10:30am. Well, better hearing this late than never I guess.

I got the waiters setup for lunch then went to the pre-con meeting. All the usual suspects were there; the GM, Directors of Sales, F&B, Housekeeping, Security and me. The meeting was officiated by the Conference Services Manager (CSM) with help from the Sales Manager that booked the event. Only one (1) person from the group (a new booking of a pharmaceutical company) was there.

All went well until we went over the resume when I noticed a little detail that read; “if any meal period; breakfast, am & pm break, or lunch, is not fully displayed and ready 15 minutes prior to scheduled times (an industry standard), there will be a 50% reduction of the cost of that meal period. Upon a second occurrence of being late, a second reduction of 50% of the cost of that meal period will also be given. Any and all further infractions will incur a reduction of 100% of the cost of that meal period. These reductions are inclusive of all service charges and state sales taxes.”

Who in their right mind will allow this into the sales contract! Especially for a group that is here for a 5 day meeting.

At the end of the pre-con, and when the group contact left, we all sat around and spoke about how important this new group is to us and that we must “be on our toes” throughout their entire stay. On our toes! The sales manager needs a few toes up where the sun don’t shine for this.

Now, we usually do a great job at food presentation, and having it ready 15 minutes early as usual but there are a few things I forgot to mention to you:

Each meal period there will be additions to the menus for various “dietary needs”; vegans, lactose-intolerant folks, people that are ugly, etc…
Special “protein-rich” snacks will be ordered for the pm breaks
A few Kosher meals thrown in for good measure of course
Menu signs for all meal periods
The contact wants to have the buffet left out longer so she can eat breakfast/lunch after the group has finished (don’t you hate this)

Now, I know that this stuff is usual for meeting planners working for pharmaceutical groups and we deal with it on a regular basis. What is not normal is that we are never contracted with giving a discount in case the food is late.

Well, the Chef & the purchasing manager have a lot to do with ordering all the specialty foods & energy drinks and stuff. They said it’ll be fine. I know better than that because they are usually late on a regular day let along under these conditions.

I’ll keep you informed next week when the group comes in. Until then, take care.

P.S. the dopey sales babe (as Rush Limbaugh would say) sat through the entire pre-con and wouldn’t even look at me & the banquet chef. She knew we have it out for her.

I need a REAL job…

(post a comment if this has happened to you too).

Friday, April 11, 2008

Say Hello To a New Friend in The Business

I had the opportunity to meet Amy. She's the founder of Fete Perfection.com http://www.feteperfection.com/home.htm

As one of the industry's best and most celebrated wedding planners (she has tons of awards & certifications), I just had to tell you about her (as if you didn't already know!)

Anyway, you can learn a lot about what wedding planners look for in picking:

the property
the menu
the floorplan
the timing
the staff

In other words, these are the people that usually drive us banquet managers NUTS! But, knowing what planners look for actually makes our job easier if we know the "secrets". Plus, you couldn't get a better person to learn this from than Amy.

Please visit her website and also check out her blog as well http://www.feteperfection.com/blog
You get another prospective on the crazy business we're in.

I still need a REAL job.
P.S. I may go to work for her...

Visit her site & blog then post a comment for review. We appreciate your feedback.

Until next time, bye.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Why Can’t We Have an Executive Steward?

Ever wonder why most hotels don’t have an executive steward position? It’s because the “big shots”, the F&B Director & General Manager, are usually so removed from the day-to-day operations of the hotel that they don’t really know what’s going on in their own property.

Sure, you’ll see them walk the property each morning with a cup of coffee in their hand and ask you “how’s everything going today?” But, when you tell them the sh*^#’s hit the fan because you don’t have enough clean silverware or coffee cups available; all of a sudden they are “late for a meeting”!

I can’t tell you how many times, or at how many hotels, it’s the same story. The kitchen, and Executive Chef, are usually in charge of the stewards/dishwashers but they rarely even give them a look (well, that unless they need a pot or sauté pan cleaned).

Nobody bothers to do a quarterly Big 3 inventory let alone a monthly for the most important items (teaspoons, champagne glasses, B&B’s). No PO’s are submitted on a regular basis to keep your “pars” up. Next thing you know is that you can’t set a room for a lousy 300 person event!

And, if you have a late dinner the night before and need clean equipment for the next day’s breakfast, the hell with you. You and your waiters will need to either wait until around 10 minutes before you must open the doors for the breakfast to get clean silver or wash it yourself! You can bitch and moan all you want to your boss that again the kitchen didn’t get your equipment ready but nothing will happen.

Why? Usually because they never really want to mess with the chef! I can understand if he/she is one of those “high-profile celebrity chefs” with his own TV show but most hotel chefs are nothing more than glorified cooks! If the F&B Director will hold your butt to the fire just because you over-stocked white server gloves or didn’t get a banquet check signed, he damm well better rip the chef a new one because his “other department” didn’t do their job either.

I’ve been at properties where we made only $2 million a year in banquet F&B that had an executive steward and the world was good. But I’ve also been at 2 properties that made over $8 million a year that had nothing more than a few 60 year old men to wash equipment for 1000 people everyday! What a nightmare!!!

You can give them all the equipment requisitions you want or try to hide teaspoons or tongs for the next event but you’ll still “suck wind”.

My recommendation, beg or plead with the big shots as to why you need an Executive Steward or at least a person solely in charge of maintaining the BIG 3 items (watch-out, they might stick you with it). Even though it will add to the payroll, the hotel will save enough the first 1 year to pay his salary. That’s enough for me.

I need a REAL job!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Are You Nuts?

What do you mean you want to be a banquet manager?

Do you have any idea what that really means?

Oh sure, you think wearing a tuxedo is cool & it makes you look like James Bond or something. But it only makes you look like a damm penguin!

The term "the grass is always greener on the other side" really applies here.

This job is great for you if you like the following:

never getting paid what you’re worth
working 70-80 hour weeks without any set days off
always having to deal with cranky chefs & dopey sales people
never having weekends or holidays off to spend with your family
dealing with union waiters that make more money than you do
and worst of all, absolutely NO job security

Other than that, it’s a great job.

Some of your main job responsibilities will be:

pleading with the waiters to come in for a last minute (pop-up) event
having to explain to them why the gratuity (tip) was so low for the event (greedy bastards!)
arguing with the sales manager as to why giving you the room diagram on Saturday morning for a Saturday night event is not acceptable (duh!)
explaining to the General Manager on Monday why you “harassed” her when she “got you the diagram as quickly as she could” (that bitch!)
fighting with the chef because he didn’t give you enough food for the damm buffet (happens all the time)
explaining to your wife why you can’t go to her friends dopey birthday party tonight because you need to “do a double” because your assistant called in sick (even though you planned it that way)

And that even before you deal with any zany customers!

I think I need a real job...

For my future rants about being a Banquet Manager, stay tuned…

So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager...

More to see around this site

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

What's Coming Up Soon...

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ok, Here’s What Happened Last Week…