Where my week actually goes
Writing down everything we still do by hand, so I stop forgetting how much time it eats.
Shift swaps live in a group chat
Someone can’t make Saturday, so they post in the staff WhatsApp. Three people say “I can cover.” Nobody updates the actual schedule. Saturday morning, two of them show up and the front desk is empty until 10. I find out from a guest review.
Vendor price lists don’t match across locations
Downtown is still ordering at last spring’s prices; the beach branch got this month’s sheet. Every invoice has to be checked by hand against whichever PDF someone saved last, and nobody is sure which one is current.
Inventory is hand-counted at close
A manager stays about 40 minutes after closing with a clipboard, counts shelves, then retypes everything into a spreadsheet the next morning. Typos mean we reorder things we already have and run out of things we don’t.
Deposit refunds get lost
Guest checks out, the refund sits waiting on someone remembering to send it. Two weeks later it comes back as a chargeback, with a fee, and an angry email I have to answer myself.
Rooms and vans are double-booked
The online calendar says free; the paper log at reception says taken. We only discover the conflict when the guest is already standing at the door with luggage.
Tax reports are stitched together from three tools
Every quarter: export from the POS, the bank and payroll, paste into one sheet, fix the columns, then the accountant checks it line by line. Two full days, every quarter.
Onboarding a new hire takes a full week
Logins, uniform, contract, training: all tracked in someone’s head. Something is always missing on day one, and the new person spends their first shift waiting for a password.
Rough total: 31 hours / week across the team.
