Imagine staring your workday with a breathtaking view of the Palm Jumeriah. This was just one of the many perks of being an intern at the Andaz Dubai The Palm, a five-star hotel located in one of Dubai’s most iconic locations. As a intern here, everday is full of surprises, learning and new experiences, but what does a typical workday look like? Hi there, my name is Faris and join me as I take you through what it is like to be an intern at Andaz Dubai The Palm.
From Feburary to May, I was presented with the opportunity to do my internship at Andaz Dubai The Palm. The hotel is part of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts which is one of the worlds top hospitality companies with over 1,300 hotels in 76 countries across the world. On top of this the hotel falls under the Andaz collection which has a very distinct message and marketing strategy compared to other Hyatt hotels. This is alongside my interest in the hospitality industry is what led me to applying for an internship at this hotel. Even so, working in the hospitality industry for a company such as Hyatt did feel a bit daunting up until my very first day at the office.
In spite of these feelings of nervousness I found myself to quickly settle in and become part of the Andaz Marketing team. A normal workday started at 9:00 am and ended at 6:00 pm, with lunch at around 12. First, I would begin the day with a morning briefing where we would do a quick rundown of the hotels current performance and share what tasks we had to complete for the day. After this I would begin by tackling some of my recurring daily responsibilities which were responding to reviews, social media community management and daily media monitoring.
Then, once these tasks were done, I would look to my other main responsibilities which were content creation and influencers. In terms of content creation, this is where my creativity was tested as I would work on developing the content calendar every month by designing stories and creating posts for both the hotel and their restaurant that fit their individual marketing style. My other responsibility of influencers involved me reviewing proposals and conducting research into the influencer by using tools that would provide me with information about their audience and performance. Then I would make my decision to either reject them or accept then and proceed with the preparation for their stay.
During my time at Andaz Dubai The Palm I learned the importance of communication and teamwork. Almost on a daily basis I had to communicate with many departments in the hotel to be able to successfully complete different projects and tasks. Whether it was communicating with the sales and rooms departments to see if we could accommodate a influencers stay, organizing with the f&b team some food and drinks we needed for a photoshoot, or even coordinating with the engineering department to get dimensions for the screen projector. It was important to communicate effectively with not only my colleagues in my department but all across the hotel and learning to work together as a team.
Overall, I have learnt a lot from my time at Andaz Dubai The Palm and I have left with new skills and a valuable network that will be of great help in the future. There were always different and new challenges that made every day exciting and greatly helped in developing my communication, problem solving abilities and teamwork skills. Based on this I would definitly recommend an internship at Andaz Dubai the Palm to anyone with an interest in marketing in the world of hospitality.