SERENATA Hotels & Resorts

Placement organization

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

Student

Name of student: Jenny Rieger

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Hotel Management and Marketing group
Organization’s activities: Managing, marketing resorts all over Thailand. SERENATA currently has 14 resorts and is constantly growing.
Target group of the organization: Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, Asian, Thai (depends on the resort, as each resort attracts very different markets.)
Company culture: Everybody is very friendly with each other, although Thai is a culture of hierarchy. You need to show your respect to the superordinate and normally do not tell people in their face, if they did something wrong. As a foreigner, you have a special “status” and it rules are not so strict. However, what I did, was that in the beginning I tried to adjust completely and eventually went back to behaving in a way that was more natural for me after a while.
Number of employees: About 50
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, Accounting, Sales, Reservations, HR, Product Development. I worked in Marketing Department (mostly in digital marketing)
Brief description of your daily activities: The first few months I spent translating the websites. Eventually I started the correspondence with different media representatives or group buying sites (like groupon.com) to arrange features on their sites/in their media. Also, I posted on the company blog to improve SEO or wrote copy for the websites.
The last months of my placement we start re-branding one of the resorts and I get to help with the campaign and redesign of the website.

Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was to create more brand awareness in the German market. This meant mostly translating websites (we have 15 websites in the group) and improve SEO.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Tor, my supervisor travelled a lot, but if I emailed him, he replied immediately. Supervision was not very strict, but in case there were problems everybody in the office would go out of their way to help.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, flexible, self-motivated – the expectations were very low, and I had to take initiative to get some more demanding and fulfilling work, but it is worth asking for it. If you tell Tor, what you are interested in, he will try to provide more interesting work for you, if possible. Or at least give you some very useful information.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Outlook, Internet (SEO & HTML can be useful as well as Photoshop etc.)
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Any other language is useful

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Provided by the company in one of their hotels, office is in the same building
How did you go to work every day? In the same building

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, I got the one entry visa education visa for 90 days and went to Kuala Lumpur after to get another visa, but you save yourself a lot of trouble if you get the multiple entry visa right away!
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Getting all the necessary documents took a while, because you need your company to send them to you. Once I had them all, it took 30 mins at the embassy in Hamburg (I went early in the morning).
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 30 minutes
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes

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? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 560,00 (but can be much more expensive)
Accommodation (monthly): € 0,00
Local transport (monthly): € 25,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 200,00 (depends on yourself and how much you travel or where you eat etc. Bangkok can be cheap or very expensive)
How long in advance did you apply for visa I still got them from the fieldtrip last year
Costs of visa: € 85,00
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation and breakfast

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Reading
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, it was a very different environment and it was hard to adjust to the more indirect way of communicating. For me, as a women, it seemed to be even more challenging. People in the office speak only a little English and that can be a challenge as well.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 112434@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I think it is appropriate to cover your shoulders and not show too much leg while working. Outside the office tourist in shorts and tops are common, so it would not be a problem. Thai culture is very different and it makes sense to inform yourself before you go, on what is appropriate and what is not.

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Bangkok has many faces and a lot of places to discover. You can party, enjoy culture or just eat all day long. It really offers it all. For me it was a bit overwhelming sometimes and I used the weekends to travel outside of the city to the close beaches or the jungles. Traveling by bus or minivan is super cheap and I highly recommend discovering the other parts of Thailand. It has so much to offer! Feel free to call or email to ask about my experience or advice!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link