What our placement students say
Lisa Haslegrave
International Hospitality Management BA (Hons)
Sea Pines Resort - 2010/11
I was lucky enough to be able to work abroad for a year. I was accepted for a placement at Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Sea Pines Resort is a 5000 acre resort which boasts over 400 rental villas and homes as well as a 60 bedroom boutique hotel. My internship was as a front desk intern to the entire resort.
The main duty was customer contact. This involved checking guests in and out of the homes and villas, being a first point of call for everybody entering the resort, answering telephones, providing concierge information for both guests and non-guests. Other tasks involved dealing with guests enquiries, co-ordinating maintenance and housekeeping request, as well as co-ordinating with the property managers as well about issues within the homes and villas.
During the summer period the resort was extremely busy with 200-250 people checking in and out on Saturdays, the changeover day. This was a long shift but the managers buying pizza for us made this better! The ‘busyness’ keeps you on your toes; you have to pay attention to detail as you do not have time to do things again if you get it wrong the first time. In the winter it is a lot quieter, and gives you time to do projects for the front desk or even uni work!
There were also other opportunities to experience work in other departments. I have worked in property management which involved going to all the properties and inspecting them for guest arrivals or doing vacant checks on them. This was good seeing all of the gorgeous houses but makes you very envious! There were also opportunities to work within the events department. I shadowed the wedding organiser on several occasions and was even lucky enough to be a server for another one of the weddings which offered a different perspective on things. Shifts in Food and Beverage were required, greeting and seating guests, never serving. All of these provided a different view of how a resort works and all of the different aspects that need to go in to making a successful resort.
The main difficulty for me during the placement was getting used to the climate change. It gets to over 100°F during the summer and this was what we were met with as soon as we got off the plane! Home sickness was a problem after about 3-4 months, it feels like a holiday for so long and then it hits you that you are actually here for a year. Everybody there is in the same boat though so we all helped each other with this. The homesickness doesn’t last for long, it’s hard to want to go home when you are on such a beautiful island. The year really flies by so if you get the same opportunity, make sure you make the most of it!
