Days in the Life of a Pattaya Hotel Owner

After the Prozac kicking in at the start of the month and my feeling in an altogether more positive frame of mind, I endeavoured to take control of events rather than have them controlling me. I agreed with Mrs. Boss that having spent three years failing to attract reliable staff of the necessary calibre, we needed to change tact slightly. There are, however, very few options available to us other than endeavouring to lure potential employees with offers of larger amounts of cash. The theory here being if you pay more, you will see more applicants and from those you will surely find people with the required skills…and perhaps some sticking power. Now you see how the lunacy of my optimism continues undaunted by even my daily failures of the past three plus years!

Mrs. Boss, for once, listened to my plans and agreed to go along with my suggestions. All of this, however, was done on the basis that I took full responsibility for recruiting, interviewing and training the theoretical new team. I went off to the local employment agency and gave our requirements and new salary levels for the selected candidates — these were up around 25 percent from what we had previously been paying and we already paid better than most similar establishments! The delightful lass at the agency enthusiastically agreed that indeed we should secure better quality staff with such salary levels and I departed confidently believing 2008 was going to be a much better year.

Within 24 hours I had interviewed and taken on two new receptionists. Both spoke excellent English and were keen for the challenges that lay ahead and even keener for the money on offer. Both had various arrangements to make so a start date of three days ahead was made, they would both come in on the same day at the same time and I would be able to train them together. Another prospective employee visited a day after but nobody had informed me of her arrival and I had prior appointments. I arranged for her to return the next day but she did not show up — never mind, I still had two girls due in a couple of days and was positive several others would be visiting me in the near future.

The start date for the new receptionists arrived and I was up very early and in the car with Mrs. Boss as she took James to school. I was eager to commence the training programme I had carefully mapped out over the previous days. As we neared the hotel, I received a call from one of my new recruits. She had arrived at the hotel, however, her babysitter had not turned up and she requested the start date be moved to the following day. I agreed, but was rather upset by this as during the interview she had assured me her child would be cared for by her mother who lived with her. Oh well, not to worry, still one new girl today and I would do some light training with her before starting fully the next day.

I arrived at the hotel and even before entering I knew that the other girl had not turned up, just a feeling in the pit of my stomach, a feeling that has proved to be rather spot on over the last three years! I walked in and, yet again, was proved correct — no new girl. One bloody week into the new year and already my new found confidence was evaporating quicker than a puddle of water in the desert on a boiling hot day.

I was soon in even greater despair as the drilling and hammering in the next door premises kicked off at around 9:00AM. They are not supposed to start any noisy work until after 1:00PM and the noisy element of the works was supposed to have finished almost two bloody months ago. I called Mrs. Boss and asked her to do something before I was yet again surrounded by angry and bleary eyed guests woken from their slumbers. Mrs. Boss then called me back a few minutes later and told me to let them carry on! “What, are you mad?!?” I shouted down the phone and probably made considerably more noise than the drills and hammers from next door. Mrs. Boss then went on to explain that she had spoken to a building inspector from the Pattaya Council and he was going to be making a visit to the site today. It would be better if they were in full flow when he arrived so that our various complaints could be witnessed first hand.

Of course the hours simply passed on by and the appearance of anything remotely resembling a building inspector was sadly missing. By the evening Mrs. Boss had turned her attention to a senior police official from the area and requested his assistance. He promised most faithfully to head to the shop in question the following morning and investigate matters. As with the building inspector his promises were hollow and neither he nor any other policeman arrived on the scene.

I was now nearing desperation, my moods had started a backwards turn, made worse by Mrs. Boss believing my depression was her fault and that somehow I was blaming her for everything and anything! Of course she is Thai and depression is not something people have that much of an understanding of here, still believing in the pull-yourself-together system as they do. Men in the provinces and rural areas rarely suffer from serious depression anyway as they are either drunk all day or drunk within minutes of having finished their daily toil!

At least I have two new receptionists this week. They were both at Jasmine Mansion when I arrived and I spent the next five hours on a training scheme that had them learning the basics of the hotel and café operation. I then wrote out notes to cover our discussions and gave them these in a nice new folder for which they appeared most grateful.

The next morning I was back down to one receptionist, the younger of the two who started the day before, was not here and had made no effort to contact the hotel to advise of her absence. This was a real shame as she was an incredibly attractive lady, she spoke excellent English and she was undoubtedly very smart. She has a farang boyfriend who is back off home to England in one week’s time. I expect that the money he will be giving her to maintain her life and their house will prove to be far easier to live off than hard earned cash gained from undertaking some fruitful employment. I have now started to get very confused between rabbits and receptionists as both species appear and disappear with a similar regularity.