Beehive Hospitality Ltd.

Placement organization

Name of organization: Beehive Hospitality Ltd.
Town/city: Sofia
Country: Europa
Website: https://www.beehive-hospitality.com/

Student

Name of student: Mariya Valcheva

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Outsourcing company
Organization’s activities: – Managed Reservations Office
– Managed Sentiment Positioning
– Groups Sales Management
– Revenue Management
– Brand Development Implementation and Maintenance
– Distribution And Inventory Management
Target group of the organization: Independent Hotels, Small Chains, Ownership Groups and Asset Managers
Company culture: Beehive Hospitality is looking into a future with numerous partners – defining itself as the leading outsourcing service provider for independent hotels, asset managers and hotel chains. A team led by Mr. Martinov and Ms. Brandao, eager as ever to provide its high-quality, professional and tailored services matched to hotels with individuality and flair for hospitality. Remaining to be a high quality service based in Europe while offering reasonable pricing thus delivering unbeatable value and sustained profitability.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

I worked in the reservations department of the company as a junior reservations agent.

Brief description of your daily activities: – Managing automatic reservations
– Communication with guests via email
– Learning how to work with many different hotel partners and distributors
– Encoding the reservations in the system (Amadeus)
– Learning how to work with Amadeus Reservation System
– Updating existing reservations in the system
– Checking existing reservations in the system
– Presenting once a week on the morning meeting with the colleagues on which important matters were discussed
Brief description of your company assignment: The work placement assignment that Beehive Hospitality and I discussed and decided upon is “Taking the initial steps towards a Marketing Plan”. The organization told me that they would like to do something in terms of marketing because they have never before managed a marketing campaign and since we all know that the starting point of a good and successful marketing campaign is the well-thought of marketing plan I decided that I can be of help to them by taking the initial steps towards a marketing plan and finalizing it with what Beehive Hospitality has to do in order for them to raise awareness of their organization and the services they offer. Therefore, there are some crucial steps I will have to make to regarding the completion of this assignment. I will have to start with determining the internal and external factors influencing the business and make the SWOT analysis, after that comes the target market, the analysis of the competitors and the setting of goals. After the short-term goals have been set (because long-term goals can wait, it’s better to mention things that the company would like to achieve within a year), strategies need to be outlined in terms of action items which have to made in order for the goals to be completed and also when and how they need to be made. For example, if the goal is to gain 100 new organic followers on Instagram each month, the actions will be to publish interesting and targeted content, to use hashtags, to make stories, etc. The final step is to set a budget for the marketing plan and the goals – how much does the organization plan to spend on marketing activities, how much do the aforementioned activities cost, etc.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor at the organization was constantly behind my back and helped me with anything I need. Thanks to her guidance I was able to learn so much in such a short period of time.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Team player, self-driven, flexible, communicative, independent, able to work under pressure
Additional company requirements for this placement? Understanding Word Processing, Spread Sheet use, Email communication, Team electronic communication medium, Amadeus PMS, Good typing skills
English: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: I traveled via airplane to Sofia, Bulgaria

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I arranged it myself through an agency
How did you go to work every day? I went to work by car

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? Almost 2 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

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

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 200
Accommodation (monthly): € 350
Local transport (monthly): € 100
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 50
What did the company pay for/to you? I received 500 EUR monthly.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not need to prepare for the culture since I carried out my placement at my home country – Bulgaria.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: The company is very relaxing, the supervisors are chill and you will have no trouble working for them. It is a great experience for tourism professionals who want to work in the hospitality industry. I did learn very much there.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Sofia is full of leisure possibilities and has something for each taste.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link