Practical Training 1 at Scandic Laajavuori

I did my first practical training in Scandic Laajavuori during summer 2021. It lasted 11 weeks and I worked four shifts per week by average. Scandic Laajavuori is part of a national Scandic hotel chain which is the largest hotel operator in the Nordic region. Scandic chain has about 280 hotels in six different countries. Scandic Laajavuori is located in Jyväskylä in Central Finland and it’s surrounded by the nature. The hotel building was built in year 1969 so it’s quite an old building but also well known in the area. It used to be hotel Rantasipi, then later on Cumulus and from the year 2018 it has been under the Scandic hotel chain. Laajavuori is a rather large hotel with 196 rooms in four floors. Scandic Laajavuori has something for everyone. It offers multiple services such as spa, restaurant, cafeteria, conference- and meeting rooms, bowling, minigolf and hairdresser- and massage services for example. It’s also a pet-friendly and a family hotel which have been taking into consideration in hotel’s services.  

My practical training consisted of receptionist’s work. My mainly focus was to do the check ins when the guests arrive to the hotel, check outs when they leave, sell tickets to the spa, sell products from the cafeteria, lobby bar and hotel’s shop and taking care of the current matters such as making extra beds for the rooms for example. Naturally we were also answering any questions the guests had and also replying the emails and phone calls which came to the reception. As said before Scandic Laajavuori had multiple services offered so sometimes we were also helping in the kitchen doing the dishes for example or taking care of the cleanliness of the cafeteria next to the reception.

As an experience Scandic Laajavuori offered a lot and was very instructive. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the employees were nice. I learned the basics of the receptionist’s work from doing the check ins and -outs to making a new reservation. I also learned that working in a reception of a busy hotel requires many kinds of skills. It’s not only providing a good customer service and smiling behind the desk but you need to be able to find solutions for different kind of issues and be able to work confidently under the pressure. It was a good opportunity and experience where I became more self-confident as a customer servant. Later on I would be interested to deepen my knowledge towards reception work and possibly get to know some managerial positions better as well in the future. I would recommend a hotel receptionist’s work for anyone who’s considering of trying that. Especially doing an internship for school is a safe environment to try new experiences and working places.

Written by: Lotta Laurikainen

Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Tourism Management