Field trip for hospitality students

First year International Hospitality Management BA(Hons) students experienced two contrasting areas of the hospitality industry on a recent field trip.

First stop was to Brighton where they met up with hospitality graduate Dave Berry who is the Halls Manager at the university’s Varley Park halls. Dave manages the day to day running of the site which has over 500 student rooms in addition to restaurants, social areas and South Coast Conferences venues.

Students were taken on a tour of the facilities while Dave explained how important it is to be customer focused with such a specialised market segment.

The students then met up with their peers studying at the university’s International College in Brighton ready for their afternoon visit.

Next stop was South Lodge Hotel, part of the Exclusive Hotels group. The group met with Dan, the operations manager and Kerra from guest relations who took the students on a tour of the restaurants, bars and rooms. They were also given the opportunity to ask probing questions linked to their current studies.

The group also met with final year students Imo and Danni, who spent their placement year at South Lodge, and gave a talk about their placement experiences and their future plans. After a successful placement at South Lodge, Danni will be joining the Exclusive Hotels graduate training programme in August.

The trip provided a fascinating insight into how two very different styles of enterprise manage their customer service to put their customers at the forefront of every part of the operations.