Internship Final Report

Posted: August 26th, 2021

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Internship Final Report

Introduction

For any academic program offered by an institution of higher learning, internships play an essential role in bridging the gap between classwork and industry experience. That is, internships offer students an ample chance to put to practice the theoretical knowledge they have gathered in their classrooms. Also, they get to network practicing professionals as well as with other students who are studying the same field though they are in different institutions. Such has been my experience for the entire period I have interned at the Katara Hospitality. The organization is Qatar’s most celebrated in the hospitality space with more than 45 years of operation (Katara Hospitality Website). Specifically, the Qatar based company is involved, on a global scale, in hotel development, ownership, and operation. Katara Hospitality has made it its tradition to execute its strategic expansion plans through investing in peerless Hotels and Resorts in Qatar while at the same time grow its collection of iconic pieces of properties in selected critical international markets (Katara Hospitality Website). As such, the company’s portfolio has grown to include forty owned or managed hotels as per 2019 data. By the year 2026, the company intends to own a total of sixty hotels.

            Katara Hospitality is a criticalcontributor to gross domestic product (GDP)of the economy of Qatar. Consequently, the government has immensely supported the company’s growth over the years, thereby turning it into one of the highly profitable hotel conglomerations in the Middle East region. The success has seen Katara Hospitality establish its presence in Europe, Asia, and Africa. For example, in 2019, company data indicates that the company manages a total of over 7,000 four and five-star hotel rooms spread across the Middle East, African, European, and Asian markets. Some of the resorts and hotels that Katara Hospitality owns within the Middle East region alone include The Movenpick, Aimessila Resort, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton Grande, and SHARQ village & Spa. In Italy, the company owns Milan and The Westin Excelsior Rome Hotels. In Morocco, the Tazi Palace Hotel Tangier is owned by Katara Hospitality. Admittedly, the rapid growth of this company is impressive by any standards, which is a possible indicator that it has one of the best workforce, hospitality strategies, and management team. It is upon this basis that I chose to do my internship at the company that owns these hotelsto crown my ever-growing enthusiasm in the hospitality field. As discussed in the following partsof the report, I have learned a lot. Hence, the decision to intern at Katara Hospitality remains one of the best made.

Tasks Assigned During the Training Period

Since Katara Hospitality is significant and operates in abusy environment, I spent my training period rotating withinits vast and essential departments wherein I learned invaluable lessons of how each of these departments interrelates to bring out the company’s overall success in the hospitality realm. In each of these departments, I was assigned a supervisor who closely monitored my training progress and who stayed accessible in case I had an unfinished work-related issue. Besides, my job title throughout my internship remained to be ‘Trainee.’ Generally, there exist sufficient levels of friendliness and professionalism among the workers in each of the departments I trained in, and thus, I had an ample environment to be myself and freely inquired from any of the workers I interacted within the course of my training. The titles of the departments I have trained in and the tasks I was assigned in each one of them are as highlighted below.

Asset Management Department

The decision to be trained in this department of the company was mooted by Ms. Lena Fakhro, who is the hotel’s assistant manager, basing on my school major in Management. While undergoing training in this department, my supervisor gave me flexible working hours, which ran from 0700 hours eitherto 1500 hours or between 0800 hours to 1600 hours, an eight-hour schedule per day. Also, Sheikh Ahmed Althani, the hotel’s assistant manager under the Asset Management Section, explained to me the importance of employee rotation, especially at the beginning of their careers, and thus, he assured me that he would facilitate my seamless transfer to the other departments once I am done being trained on all the possible tasks within the asset department. The following are the tasks I got handled during my time in this department within my first week of internship:

1. Running and overseeing the hotel’s gymnasium, spa, rooms, meals, and restaurants. Necessarily, these are the services and items that enable Katara Hospitality to generate huge revenues,
2. Preparing and delivering standard market and operations reports on a weekly and monthly basis.

            After completion of these tasks at the end of my stay in this department, Sheikh Ahmed Althani accorded me the rare privilege of touring the company’s Almessila resort in which I expounded my exposure to the real-life manifestations of the above-described tasks.

General Service Department 

I had an exciting time while under training in this department. Training in this department took place in the part of my internship’s second week. I have learned the professional side of many small things within the hospitality industry that is repeatedlytaken for granted. The general service department is responsible for all of the contracts and license work to get commercial registration.Additionally, this department is in charge of Katara itself and all the hotels it owns within Qatar only. For hotels owned by the company in other parts of the world have their own worldwide offices to deal with communication issues. The following are the tasks I was assigned to handle for my training in this section of the hotel:

1. Making reservations for customers,
2. Ensuring the safe storage of guests’ luggage and mail,
3. Under the guidance of Mr. Noman, I was shown how to use E-government cards for purposes of applying for an employment visa
4. Learning the importance of CCTV in getting approval of the ministry of interior for all the cameras installed by the company in its numerous hotels.

Procurement Department

Having covered this department also within my second week of internship, I have learned that procurement is one of the essential departments in the company. It is responsible for hotels that Katara owns both within and outside of Qatar. In going about their usual departmental operations, each of the hotels sends a scope of work to the procurement department. That is, each hotel quotes precisely what they need the company to purchase for them. For instance, they might need TVs, so the hotels will specify the TV Model they want, the size, and the color. Upon receipt of these details, the procurement department communicates with their suppliers to inquire about the availability of commodities being sought, for example, Television Sets, and how soon the suppliers can deliver the required quantities. Other commonly supplied commodities to the company through the intervention of the procurement department include meat, furniture, pillow, bed linen, sheets, towels, coffee mugs, iron, and gym equipment. From the able procurement team that I interacted within the course of my training, I was involved with the following tasks:

1. Comparing price and quality on all the received bids,
2. Following the procurement process for hotel services. Specifically, the Sheraton Hotel has a shortage of housekeeping services. Therefore, after receiving details of the work from this hotel, the procurement department will be expected to act accordingly. Such details include the required number of employees for housekeeping, their level of experience, and the duration of time within which they will be required to provide the housekeeping services.
3. Placing orders for goods needed by employees since it is company policy for employees not to buy what they need by themselves.
4. Learning about the existing government regulations on procurement. For example, I have learned that the government requires that companies have at least three suppliers. Also, I have learned that the government requires procurement departments to request for information, then request for proposals, and finally request for quotations from potential suppliers.
5. Learning an e-business course in which I was taught about some of the systems that can help a company to do its work efficiently. Upon inquiring from the procurement department, I was informed that the system it has put in place for this purpose is called Birch Street for handling purchasing orders (PO). A brief working procedure of this system was explained to me. When an employee in the procurement department inputs the PO into the system, the purchasing order goes to the suppliers. After the supplier delivers the requested goods, he or she sends the purchase process to the finance department via the system. Upon receipt, the finance department pays the suppliers and then closes the PO.

Human Resource Department

The department is one of the crucial sections for the company since it is through it that the hotel gets to recruit the best talents within the hospitality industry. I also covered this department within my internship’s second week. This was the last department in which I was trained for the week. I have gotten to interact with long-serving human resource practitioners within the hospitality field. As such, the lessons I have picked will be instrumental when I decide to establish a similar business after a college education. In the course of my training in this section, these are the tasks I was assigned:

1. Learning about the various types of interviews that Katara conducts for its different job candidates. These are oral interviews for candidates from around Qatar and skype interviews for overseas candidates.
2. I learned that the company does not recruit employees who have problems within their families since such challenges have been proven to affect their performance at the workplace.
3. I learned that the company does not offer training to new employees immediately after recruitment since some of them usually leave shortly after.
4. Learning the basis upon which this company conducts the promotion of its staff. In line with what I had learned in class, I discovered that the company promotes its employees basing on their performance and as per the recommendation of the department in which he or she works.
5. For high-level positions, I learned that the company recruits through its recruitment agency.

Overall, my second week was higher than the first week, as I was introduced to each of the above departments each day. I got to apply a lot of the theoretical knowledge I had learned in management, for example, Human resources and E-business subjects.

            Marketing Department

At the university, my minor is in marketing. Therefore, this department has a significant bearing on my future career prospects. Consequently, I paid particular attention to the training I underwent in this section in my third week of interning. Interestingly, the marketing department onlyhas three employees. These are Amena Tena, the marketing and communication director, Shoa Alsemaiti who is a senior officer in the department, and Portia Lasar who is the assistant manager. Basing on this shortage, my fellow interns and I were asked to cover for the workforce, and thus, we got to be intensively involved in this department. In order to remain dynamic in my line of career. therefore, the following are tasks I directly got involved in this department:

1. Monitoring Katara Hospitality’s competition,
2. We were taught that through this department, the company aims at only investing in hotels that have established track records.
3. Learning that this department does media monitoring every morning. It includes social media and print media. That is newspapers like the Gulf Times and Qatar Tribune.

Educational Outputs

My entire three weeks training period at Katara Hospitality has been immensely useful on many fronts. I have acquired new knowledge about the hospitality industry. For example, I have learned that it is one of the most competitive business environments. Hence, to thrive, a hotel’s management team needs to be on the lookout on the emerging hospitality trends regularly.

 Secondly, I have also acquired new soft skills, which I hope to utilize in my future career endeavors as a hospitality practitioner when I graduate from university. Punctuality, Adaptability, leadership, and proper grooming are some of the skills I have honed in the course of my internship with Katara Hospitality. Thirdly, my overall competence and experience in hospitality have significantly improved. Individually, I will complete my internship while at a higher professional level around the receiving and handling of guests’ calls than the level I was at before starting the internship. Before starting the internship, I used to be generally arrogant and insensitive when conversing with guests over the phone.

A Critical Look at the Work Environment

As mentioned earlier, internships provide an essential bridge between the academic and industry sides of any given field of study. From my classwork under the faculty of Management and Economics, I have studied several academic subjects that formed the requisite foundation that enabled me to understand the training I was subjected to while interning at Katara Hospitality. As such, I was able to execute all my assigned tasks in each of the departments I rotated through with much ease and with a proper understanding of the governing principles behind the standard way of going about every one of those tasks. As an example, my classwork subjects covered the 4P’s of marketing, 3R’s or 3B’s to be followed before purchasing anything. These are the Right product, Right price and Right time, or Best product, Best price, and Best time. My classwork also covered the role of government in the creation of an enabling environment for the thriving of hotels and other businesses within an economy. Upon settling in my internship, I have come to realize that each of the academic subjects I learned in class is relevant to what is practiced in the industry. Therefore, it is essential for learners first tounderstand as much theoretical knowledge that they can about a given industry before stepping out into the field to put to practical use the theoretical knowledge they covered in class.

            Having stayed in the field for some months now, I have been able to single out tasks that can be developed further, at least, better than how they are currently being executed. For example, the company website for Katara Hospitality occasionally freezes. Such a phenomenon becomes rampant during summer holidays when hotel bookings are usually on the increase. Consequently, most clients fail to get the hotel rooms they had wished to reserve online due to the website breakdown. To circumvent this challenge going forward, I suggest the optimization of the website by a professional Search Engine Optimizer (SEO). Since I have experienced this challenge firsthand, I have taken an interest in extending my knowledge about SEO once I resume my university session. With the SEO knowledge, I will be able to optimize Katara Hospitality’s website when called upon in the future. Also, should I decide to set up my own hotel business after completing my university education, I can use the SEO knowledge to optimize the website I will create for the business so that my future clients do not experience the real challenges I have observed at my place of internship. Overall, my field training has been instrumental in shaping my outlook on the hospitality industry, and thus, at the end of it, I will walk out a better professional than when I came.

Overall Summary on Field Training

Undoubtedly, players within the hospitality industry are under a new kind of pressure to perform. The introduction of the internet and the use of social media for marketing is presenting businesses like Katara Hospitality with immense opportunities through which the company can reach out to a broad audience around the world. Besides these industry developments, I feel sufficiently satisfied with the internship opportunity that the Field Training Officer in the faculty of Management and Economics offered me at this magnanimous hotel. I have learned that in the workplace, effective communication among workers goes a long way in ensuring the smooth coordination of workflow. Also, field experience sparks in a person the urge to try and look for solutions instead of just lamenting over workplace challenges. My resolve to take up SEO training when I resume my university session perfectly illustrates this. Therefore, I urge all future students to take up their enrollment into internship opportunities seriously. The wise people once said that a stitch in time saves nine. Therefore, future students should ensure that they timely apply to large companies like Katara Hospitality when looking for their internships. Such organizations offer the best field experiences,so they are usually under very high demand by prospective student interns.

Works Cited

Katara Hospitality. 5^th January 2020, https://www.katarahospitality.com/