SERENATA Hotels & Resorts Group

Placement organization

Name of organization: SERENATA Hotels & Resorts Group
Town/city: Bangkok
Country: Thailand
Website: https://www.serenatahotels.com/

Student

Name of student: Beike Dallinga

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Hotels & Resorts Group
Organization’s activities: The company is the owner and stakeholder of many properties such as hotels and resorts in Thailand. At the company they arrange everything from sales, marketing, reservations, finance and much more.
Target group of the organization: All
Company culture: The company culture in quite informal and the team is easy going. Do note that communication with many colleagues can be quite hard, as many do not or only speak a bit of English. As the main language is Thai, meetings will also be held in Thai and you will not be able to understand many of the things that are going on at the office.
Number of employees: 70+
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Marketing

Brief description of your daily activities: You will be responsible for online marketing. This means managing all social media forms and writing blogs. Besides these tasks there are related tasks like translating, grammar checking and collecting data.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is not a really big one, but it is my task to find out what kind of loyalty programs a few other chain hotels implicate and compare these with each other and the company. Further analyze them and make improving suggestions.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervisor at the company is really open and will always answer any question you have. He is not always at the office, but often available via e-mail or cellphone if needed.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent
Additional company requirements for this placement? none really, writting skills would be handy
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company
How did you go to work every day? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes you do, a ED visa for internship. Papers from the company are needed. The Visa application itself is easy and can be done in 4 days
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Look at the site of the embassy which papers you need and send this to the company, they will send you all the right forms.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? at least 2 weeks to arrange everthing
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? Not

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): € 500
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 40
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € 110
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The accommodation is provided and breakfast is included as well. Do note that the accommodation is really simple just as the breakfast.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t, as I had been to Thailand and other counties in Asia before. I would recommend to read about the communication in business and behavior at the office.
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: Beikejo@live.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do: If you don’t mind working days without talking to people a lot.
Not to do: If you are not someone that easely goes out by him/herself
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Bangkok is an amazing city and there is always something to do, but the working hours are quite long so probably you will dicover most things in the weekends.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link