Life as a freelance

I have been working for many years in hotels, starting when I was a young boy, working slowly but surely my way into management as I grew up and accumulated more experience.
Life in hotels can be very fullfilling and rewarding, but at the same time very draining, with wages that at least at the beginning won't afford you a lot of comfort and buying power. Not to talk about the time requirments, split shifts, early mornings start and late night finishes. This can put a strain on your family life as well as on your social life.
A valid alternative to this is to work as a hospitality freelance, working for one or more catering staff agency. I have been doing it myself for quite a while and although it's hard work and you need to travel all around the place (and have good map reading skills!) it can be very rewarding both financially and in terms of being able to manage your own time. You just need to work for agencies that share your own philosophy (for example agencies that offer a very high level of service and the best waiting staff for hire in london). Because the relation with the agency is based on trust, on the agency offering you good and frequent work and on you performing well for the agency, I found that usually one ends up working with professionals, with catering staff that have got a lot of experience and because of various happenings in their life have taken the decision to work as a freelance, either for just a limited period or (very few) as a choice of life.
Before setting up my own event staffing agency (Salt&Pepper Events) I had the fortune of working for two very distinguished london agencies where I learnt a lot about outside catering and about being a hospitality freelance. I met some wonderful people and struck some good friendship. Since taking this route life has been very sweet to me and I would never go back. The time I can now spend with my family and my beloved dog is priceless.

Acknoledging our customers

A few days ago I organized some interviews and decided to hold them in a bar in Victoria Station, which I thought would be convenient both for me and the candidates, plus they had free wi-fi which is very handy when you are waiting in between interviews or when candidates just don’t show up!

At any rate on the day I walk into the bar as positive as I can be and go straight to the bar counter, where I am the only customer waiting. I see a waiter behind the counter, at the far end of the bar. He is chatting with a colleague, he notices me, moves a few steps towards me without acknowledging me and then...oh wait... he forgot to say something very exciting to his colleague, so he goes back and starts chatting again!! Thanks God there is another waitress comes out from the back and finally I get some service.

In my opinion there is no excuse for this and I consider this the equivalent of verbally abusing me. It takes a second to acknowledge your customer and let them know that you have noticed them, a quick glance and a smile are enough to tell them that you will be with them as soon as you can.

I remember many occasions where I left a place because I felt ignored, most likely to never go back. In this example I couldn’t as I told 9 people I would meet them there, but as a good friend of mine used to say “I have already been here twice: the first and the last time”.

Body Language

Last year I attended a corporate training on "suggestive up selling" and then rolled it over to my team at the hotel I was working for. One of the topic that struck me the most was "body language". According to Dr. Mehrabian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Mehrabian) in our communication process words account for 8%, tone of voice for 37% and body language for 55%. Just imagine saying "oh I can't wait" with a big final sigh, while rolling your eyes.


This is the main reason why I have decided to hand my team a brief guide on topics such as posture, smiling, first impressions and more, that are linked to body language. The problem with body language is that many times we don't realise what we are communicating, because we do it unconsciouly. For instance the most noticeable negative body language signs  are waiting for guests with your arms crossed on your chest, leaning on a wall or table or just slouching around, this obviously means that we are very bored!


So let's pay attention to what we "say" when we are not speaking!