Vienna Explorer

Placement organization

Name of organization: Vienna Explorer
Town/city: Vienna
Country: Oostenrijk
Website: http://viennaexplorer.com

Name of student: Sebastiaan van Ravenzwaaij

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: touroperator
Organization’s activities: Organizing and giving private tours to Prague, Salzburg and Budapest.
Organizing and giving private and group tours by car, bike, segway or walking in Vienna.
Organizing and giving private and group tours by car or by bike to the Wachau Valley, wine region.

Organizing transfers for clients.

Renting bikes and segways.

Target group of the organization: City trippers, bikers
Company culture: The company culture is mostly informal.
The owner is present in the office a few times a week, the rest of the week there is either no manager around or the younger brother of the owner manages office duties.

From everyone a huge degree of initiative is required,

Starting from this year there is a mandatory company shirt to be worn during tours, in the office it is not mandatory to wear this yet.
Number of employees: 11
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes.

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Tour guiding and in the (bike rental) office.
Brief description of your daily activities: Office:
Opening shift from 08.00 to 16.00
Closing shift from 08.30 to 18.00
(expect in both cases that you will have to stay half an hour or 1 hour longer!)

Tasks:
Renting bikes and segways, welcoming customers, keeping the office clean and tidy, selling tours, handling the (online)bookings, contacting guides and agents for tours, answering phone calls, responding to e-mails.

Tour guiding:
Welcoming customers in the office, taking them to the train to the Wachau Valley. Making small talk and getting to know the group while on the 1 hour train ride to Krems an der Donau.
Guiding a group (either private or individuals in a group) through the Wachau Valley on a bike.
Telling the group about the local wine history, history of a few of the monuments, take them on a 20 minute hike to the ruins of a castle and doing a wine tasting at three different wineries.

Brief description of your company assignment: Initially none.

In the last 8 weeks I was asked if I would rewrite the script for the entire tour, with the focus on all the history. I accepted this assignment, partly because I studied history and see this as a nice challenge. On the other hand I also recognized the dire need for some extra history knowledge about the region for current and new guides.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I am being supervised by Max, my company supervisor at Vienna Explorer. He and his younger brother fulfill the role as supervisor when present in the office. Al tough it will happen often enough that you are alone in the office or without supervision.

In the first few weeks of the internship the supervisor will tell you what to do and when to do it. After a while it becomes expected of you to be initiative and know what to do and when.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Teamplayer, sociable, excell in small talk, flexible, knowing how to bike, basic knowledge of German, good English speaking and writing skills, service oriented,result oriented.
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, MS excel, Facebook.
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German: Intermediate
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Car

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company provided a free hotel room for the first week. Found my accommodation online on a website recommended by my company in Vienna.
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle. Sometimes I walked or took the tram or metro.

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? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Basic understanding of German is enough, almost all the guides, hotels and agents speak English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 300
Accommodation (monthly): € 330
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 250
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? First week of staying in Vienna, they arranged a free of charge hotel room.

I loaned a bicycle free of charge for 5 months.

Meals and drinks during the tours are paid for, also the transportation during the tours is paid for.

Financial compensation was 250 euro per month.

Any tips made during the tours you may keep. Also during the tours you will get roughly 1 euro per client that you convince to lunch in the restaurant with the group as commission. Both the commission and the tips will be approximately 200 euros a month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read the book ‘Culture shock Austria’.

I was already well traveled in Germany and Austria so I already knew the culture and language enough to prepare me.
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: kyledanva89@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Either arrange a bike or buy a monthly transport ticket at one of the ticket machines at one of the metro or train stations. Don’t buy those tickets in tobacco shops or in the tram/metro themselves!

Read up on the local (wine)history.
For the tours it is very important to have or aqcuire a basic knowledge about the Austrian history in general, focus on the Holy Roman Empire history from 864-1805, and the Austrian imperial history in the 19th century (Napoleon war).

Try to get some (white) wine knowledge, watch a white wine documentary. Watch the documentary ‘Somm’.

It is not required to be fluent in German, but it will definitely help you. Prepare to have to speak to one of the locals during the tours in German sometimes. It will also help you if you have a basic understanding of German while living in Vienna. In the office it is not required, but German speaking customers do come in the office daily!

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: River beach
Bars, restaurants
(international) cinema
Multiple parks
Prater (mix between a theme park and carnival, free admission)
Sport gyms
Bowling, golfing
Wachau Valley, wine region
Grinzing, city hills and wine region
Museums
Biking
City day trip to Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg
River cruise

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link