Cabin Crew and Flight Purser

The advantages of being cabin crew are that you are given incomparable travel benefits all over the world (depending on your airlines' scope) and you do not need to commit yourself to a rigorous and expensive technical education to earn a lot of money.

Living in some of the best hotels, given food discounts between flights, and spending time in foreign cities, students would love inspecting a list of this job’s many benefits. And the job itself? It’s straightforward. The main function is to present a hospitable front to the passengers, which will include these tasks:
 

• To welcome them aboard, help them to their seats, and assist them with hand baggage.

• To solve their many enquiries; fulfill their requests for food, beverage, and medical aid; and instruct them thoroughly and gently about aircraft regulations.

• To check the cabin before take-off and after landing to ensure the space complies with safety, health, and cleanliness regulations.

   

• To remain calm in the event of an emergency. You are required to be capable of swimming in case of an emergency landing in a water body!

Should you get promoted to the role of a flight purser, you might have to take on a more managerial attitude over the other flight attendants, and create accurate reports concerning any significant issues on the flight. The pay will also increase accordingly!

Guest Relations Officer

This well-paid role is situated within hotels, where the influx of guests is immense, and one needs an insider understanding of their preferences, requests, and other behavioural tendencies. A guest relations officer makes sure each guest is cared for in the best possible way so that they want to return to the establishment in the future.
 

The role requires several of these tasks and functions:

• Learn detailed information about the hotel and city so that you can relay relevant tips to guests.
   

• Welcome guests during check-in and wish them well at checkout.
   

• Solve guest complaints and requests in a charming, non-combative manner; try to allocate complimentary services to make up for an error. Refrain from bias or prejudice in cases of inter-guest dispute.

• In collaboration with front desk agents, maintain guest profiles along with their preferences in room, room rates, services, and menu.

• Check returning guests’ preferences, enquire about new guests’ preferences, and strategically discuss details with the front office executive to meet room requirements and menus based on what you learn.
   

• Closely monitor VIP guest movements and complete their registration formalities for them.

The person who applies for this position should ideally have a strong interpersonal ability in order to relate well to the several sets of hotel guests and employees. Being observant of guest behaviour sets apart the good guest relations officers from the great. They also need to have far-seeing organizational skills for the allocation of tasks to housekeeping and front desk.

As a guest relations officer, you will have the opportunity for promotion to managerial roles in all of the hotel chain’s branches. The discounts and benefits you will earn within the hotel will hold you in good stead for the future!

Front Office Executive

Front office agents are the first line of contact between guests and the establishment—be it a hotel, airline, and restaurant.

Like guest relations officers, their organizational and interpersonal skills have to be on point, given that their tasks extend to these many functions: 

• They are responsible for processing all check-in and check-outs, be it walk-in bookings, or phone and online reservations. They screen the customer’s personal identity documents, inquire about their preferred payment methods, and verify their credit card data.
   

• They collaborate with guest relations managers to create guest profiles, based on room, travel, and menu preferences. They then help curate the guest’s experience according to these guest profiles.
   

• They are also required to tactfully sell additional facilities, services, and upgrades, when appropriate, to improve the hotel’s profit margins. For example, if the profile of a guest seems to suggest they could upgrade to a sea-view suite, the agent can suggest the same before payment.
   

• They provide guests with all the relevant information of the hotel and customer experience, which could include everything from room rates to directions to nearby attraction spots. They also will need to answer the phone, take messages, and redirect calls to the respective offices, should anyone enquire.
   

• They must stay aware of the guest influx to maximize occupancy, which is one of the main factors that affects hotel profit margins. Room bookings have to be maximized in such a way that a room is utilized from the previous guest’s check-out to the next guest’s check-in, without empty slots. 
   

• They need to coordinate and delegate job duties for the housekeeping department for the maintenance of rooms and the guests’ needs.

   

• They need to update records and spreadsheets of bookings and payments, so that they can be used for marketing and sales analytics.

Front office executives have a lot of scope within the company. They can be promoted to higher managerial roles, and have access to a host of benefits and discounts in all of the hotel chain’s branches.

Tour Operators

Tour operators are responsible for preparing holiday tours for clients. They can be employed under travel agencies, websites, cruise liners, international tour companies, private touring companies, or specialist organizers within a city.

The functions of a tour operator vary according to the season and the company, one is working for, but generally include:

• Giving information on travel, accommodation, and services to tourists and travellers.
   

• Researching and shortlisting holiday destinations each season in order to create holiday packages. Understanding market trends helps create salient holiday packages for various demographics. Often, working with other travel consultants is a part of the job.
   

• Visiting and reviewing hotels and resorts to check accommodation quality.
   

• Collecting, assessing, and responding to customer feedback with tact, information, and intelligence.
   

• Sending and confirming customer names with hotels, transporters, and airlines.
   

• Networking and liaising with hoteliers, coach operators, travel agencies, airlines, and resort representatives.
   

If employed by a larger tourism company, you can train under their training programs. The advantage of this job is that you will be required to travel to several destinations to assess the accommodation and amenities in the area. Students who are interested in travel-related jobs would love this!

To qualify for these job positions typically requires having entry-level skills for the job: English proficiency, strong interpersonal and organizational skills, and a presence of mind in situations of physical emergency or customer dispute.

Students interested in these positions can initiate their careers with a 1-year training course targeted at hospitality, travel management, and customer service. The trainers and instructors in this course are industry experts who are steeped in best practices of the hospitality industry. The Amigo Academy is linked to several companies in the vicinity, and gives their graduates ample placement opportunities in the country’s best hotel chains, airlines, and travel agencies.