Four Seasons Hotels Reviews

Pros

Locations, Hotel Benefits are awesome

Cons

Long hours, very intense, advancement is slow

Advice to Senior Management

Work hard and learn as much as possible. It will payoff yourventire career

Pros

Great experience, really good health benefits, better salary standards than any other food and beverage jobs out there. A wonderful place for the beginners and for people who is looking for a stable job in this industry.

Cons

The hours are horrible, work day and night, holidays and weekends...Too much inside politics and hard to get promoted.

Pros

Comp Nights, great benefits and work environment

Cons

Takes forever to advance, and do not feel pay is fair

Advice to Senior Management

Pay better

Pros

* prestigious company, known and loved around the world
* seasoned professionals on the job (for the most part ... of course, there's always the proverbial rotten apple)
* classy guests (for the most part ... of course, there too, you'll always find the proverbial rotten apple)
* salary and benefits not to be complained about

Cons

Rather difficult to think of genuine downsides, apart of course from the obvious ones which are to be expected in a high end luxury, highly stressful work environment in Manhattan - so:

* work/life balance (say what ???)
* the occasional rotten apples (guests and colleagues) who can make you miserable for a few minutes (which of course you don't show on the job !!!)
* too rigid when it comes to implementing standards by the letter. Of course, it is paramount that everyone represent the hotel in an absolutely flawless manner, but this should not happen at the expense of common sense and practicality (can be soooo counter-effective)

Advice to Senior Management

PLEASE keep up a very high hiring standard. With that I don't mean that you should hire hospitality management valedictorians or people with oodles of world-wide experience. On the contrary, the candidates who look perfect on their résumé are not necessarily always the best. Just as an example, they might be consumed by ambition and lacking heart. But isn't that the most important part in our business. All the rest can be learned. But passion for service? Either you got it or you don't. ... Anyhow, keep giving everyone a chance, even if they're not from Cornell or Lausanne. Keep up the good work because, to a large extent, it's the excellence of service that sets you apart from the rest!

Pros

Employee friendly.
Respects every individual
Open door policy / informal work atmosphere
good employee benefits

Cons

Slow growth. Needs more aggressive planning and implementation of projects.

Pros

Good career progression
Good benefits
Great working environment

Cons

sub standard salary and compensation for time and efforts

Advice to Senior Management

Wonderful hotel company. Extremely competent and inspirational group of GM's - amongst the most charismatic, down to earth, smart, stylish leaders in our society. The type who could go on to become CEO's of several types of multi-national companies.

Pros

Good 401K and benefits. Clean environment. Good Reputation.

Cons

They don't always promote the best candidate. They are definately looking for someone who will be a "company person". Just say yes. They have a tendency to request a lot from employees and are not willing to give back to the employees when they are in need.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote for competency, not profit.

Pros

The hotel offers great benefits and compensation is usually very good.
Sometimes opportunities arose to transfer to open positions in different cities and states.

Cons

Customers are abusive and demanding.

Advice to Senior Management

The business model is adequate, but many employees get away with slacking off.

Pros

Good benefits, good pay range for job title. Management shows respect to line workers at the particular location I work at.

Cons

Having to work almost every holiday. Too much time given to restaffing when there is a noticeable lack of employees to cover hours needed.

Advice to Senior Management

Look out for the little guy.

Pros

Respect. Education & Training. Service. Variety of positions. Travel and work in various locations for the same company. This company respects the employee and practices "The Golden Rule." As an employee of Four Seasons, we are an admired member of the business community since Four Seasons sets the bar for which the rest of the hospitality industry reach. Education and training are a given when first hired, although continuing education seems curtailed both by the economy and the hotel manager who wants to save money. If you want to be of service in any manner, if you desire to provide a high standard of service in all that you do, then, Four Seasons will give you the opportunity to do so. With many locations around the world, all employees may transfer and try another position and location - not just managers.

Cons

Time consuming. Not enough workers for the work. Lower management personnel or supervisors not as "bright" as could be. Hard to acquire in-house upgrading of job skills.

Its managers seems to expect you to be married to the Four Seasons - they want more and more of your time; that is a given, whether in an administrative position or face-to-face with guests. And, as they're always looking to save labor costs, they want one person to do the work of 1.9 employees!

They could save more money by having less managers. Some lower management or supervisors were people that may be just marking time, incapable of improving managerial skills, unwilling to use advanced technology but expected the hourly worker to do so, or were possibly "parked" in position by upper management as they are not bad enough to fire but not good enough to promote.

Once trained for your position, your time is spent on meeting standards. Formal training or upgrading your skills in a classroom setting seems to end unless your whole department is undergoing a change (say the focus of your wine list). On-line training was not as good as it could be - access to computers for training (during employee's time off) was available, but hard to find any educational programs on the computer. Had to take a night school hospitality industry class and requested days off to coincide with college day classes.

Advice to Senior Management

A. Managers make huge, costly, purchasing errors. If doing a renovation, hire an outside construction project manager. A hotel manager does not qualify. If replacing television sets in the room, make sure they work with the electricity provided in the room and with the dvd items guests commonly bring.

B. Are you considering purchasing a new software program?
Please: (1) Ask for input from the people who are going to use the program BEFORE you choose the program; (2) Have the teachers of the chosen program be polite, respectful, and speak clearly and distinctly so they can be understood by the students; and (3) Have a designated program expert on property.

Item (1) Do NOT ask a manager to send input suggestions they've received from their workers. Managers sometimes do not pass on exactly they heard. Ask the workers to send input directly to whomever needs to decide on the purchase. Most managers are managers, not workers. Although managers may understand the overall picture and the work that needs to be accomplished, it is the individual worker who can give the specifics that need to be addressed.

Item (2) Self explanatory.

Item (3) Brings to mind two programs: (a) a software program used to send maintenance to either a guest room or back of house. The program was generally understood by the hourly employees - but not management and not the supervisors. Many times managers/supervisors had to ask the hourly employee how to make an entry, where to send the request, or how run a report. Since management did not use the program, they could not understand the workers' frustration with the program's idiosyncrasies nor could management address any requests for assistance. Any questions had to wait to be sent far away and then an answer would come back - usually saying the program does not do that which we wanted it to!
  (b) When we heard that a new OPERA program was going to be installed, we requested that the registered guest, the spouse, the travel with, the room number all be displayed on ONE, LARGE, AND READABLE SCREEN that appears right away. Didn't happen. OPERA is a great program but only now, four years after it was installed, some of us are just learning how to integrate its many aspects, including running reports. One resource person for each of accounting/cashier, front desk, reservations sections would be great to have on-hand.