Brussels Booking Desk

Placement organization

Name of organization: Brussels Booking Desk
Town/city: Brussels
Country: België
Website: http://www.visitbrussels.be/bitc/front/home/display/lg/nl/section/visiteur.do

Name of student: Nick de Bruin

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Accommodation service
Organization’s activities: The Brussels Booking Desk assists event organizers with the search for suitable accommodation for all delegates (allotments) as well as the exhibitors, the speakers and the organizing committee.
Working in a close partnership with the Brussels Hotel Association (BHA) it offers the clients, through BBD’s unique connection on a very short notice, within 24 hours, the first results(accommodation/room). A swift follow up will lead to tailor made further negotiations to satisfy their accommodation expectations.
One of BBD’s dedicated accommodation experts will continuously assist the client with his/her day to day contacts with the hotels, to familiarize him/her with the hotel network, habits and contacts : they want him/her to become part of their network. In close consultation with the event organizer, the Brussels Booking Desk will negotiate allocations and, at the end, pre-book all required rooms at the same terms & conditions.

Target group of the organization: business travellers
Company culture: Within Brussels Booking Desk there isn’t really a visible hierarchy even though you know there is one boss and 2 assistents. As the boss is Flemish it is more towards the Dutch than the French. It is more informal.
Number of employees: 3
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? There are no different departments within BBD. It has one office with 3 employees who are taking care of the accommodation for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).
Brief description of your daily activities: • Making dashboards of hotels offered to the client. We use excel to make up these dashboards, with all the categories, rates and number of rooms of hotels.

• Furthermore, I have to put options on the rooms which is kind of reserve the rooms until the client has made a decision on which hotel to pick. Or cancel the options as an event has been cancelled or the client has decided to stay elsewhere.

• Another daily activity is to call the concerned hotels for an event to make sure things are correct such as the number of rooms and rates. If rates seem to high I am allowed to call the hotels and inform them about this matter.

• When a client has made a decision concerning the hotels, agreements can be made between client and BBD and BBD and the hotel. I set up these agreements and send them out to the hotels. When signed by the hotel I print the agreement, let i sign by my company supervisor and send them countersigned back to the hotels.

• Make a hotel selection for the client’s request.

• Send reminder to hotels to send us an offer. By email or telephone.

• Make up the offer that we send to the client, detailing all hotels (distance from conference venue, rates, number of rooms available).

• Holding track of 1st and final cut off dates of events. Updating the system with the correct updated allotments.

• Set up web links for the event organizers.

• Making individual reservations for clients in our system.

Brief description of your company assignment: I was allowed to come up with a company assignment myself and I wondered why Brussels Booking Desk merely focuses on business tourism and not on leisure tourism.

I am going to find out if it is a good idea to add leisure tourism to the daily activities of this company.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You are very independent in this organization. If you have things you are uncertain about or if you have things to do for school like assignments it is your responsibility to keep on track. Your supervisor will not ask about it.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, teamplayer, sociable, stress-proof, result-oriented, organised
Additional company requirements for this placement? No
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French: Basic
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch: Intermediate

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? internet
How did you go to work every day? by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? no

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 40
Accommodation (monthly): € 450
Local transport (monthly): € 50
General costs of living (monthly): € 650
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I received a financial compensation of 275 Euros a month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read the book ‘When cultures collide’ by Richard D. Lewis which can be found in the library of NHTV at the Hopmansstraat.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? In a way it did. I can be direct and I seek that in others as well. However in Brussels people aren’t straight forward which kind of held me back.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: Nick_d_b@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do not be too direct at first and try to understand the habbits of the people living here. There are so many different cultures in Brussels that it is really difficult to know how to behave/react on certain things. Try to be polite as much as possible. Try to speak French, they will love you for it.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are a lot of attractions in Brussels such as museums, churches and other historical buildings. During the week there are a lot of students who go out for a drink so if you enjoy drinking a beer with friends, Brussels is the place to be.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link