by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Front office managers at convention hotels have only two rules to follow.
Number 1: Keep the customer satisfied.
Number 2: Refer to Rule One.
“Being the front-line person, you talk to a lot of people,” said Vishal Chopra, the new office manager at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. “If people are not satisfied, they will come to you. It’s something that’s standard for any hotel I’ve worked for.
“The fact is, you have to take care of the problem, or the customers don’t come back.”
Chopra, who came to the Adam’s Mark just a few months after it opened in 2000, was named front office manager after only six weeks as assistant executive housekeeper. Though he has already begun performing his new duties, the change is officially effective Jan. 2.
He now oversees a staff of better than 60 employees who handle reservations, the phone system, check-in, transportation, concierge and The Concorde Club, a relaxing space for VIP guests on the 17th floor.
“I have two assistants right now, and the workload has to be divided between them,” Chopra said. “I have to greatly depend on them because you cannot be here 24-7 by yourself, taking care of everything.
“The biggest thing is you need to coordinate with them. Teamwork is a must. And there is a personal relationship. It is a must, because of the amount of hours you put into this job and how stressful it can be.”
Chopra was brought up in India and was sent to a boarding school in Mussoorie, in the Utter Pradesh state, when he was 5 years old.
”My father thought a boarding school was the best education in India,” he said. “I agree with that myself. Children, when they’re brought up by their parents, in India especially, get spoiled.”
Chopra’s first job was with Schiller International University in Switzerland, where his initial training was in food and beverage at a village of 5,000. After graduation, he went to work for Renaissance Hotels, also in Switzerland.
When his work permit expired in about six months, he came to the United States and got a crash course in American leisure habits . . . at the Las Vegas Marriott.
“We were only two blocks from the strip, next to a night club that was pretty wild,” Chopra recalled. “Single folks would come down and do wild things. They thought that since they were in Las Vegas, they could do anything.
“You’d deal with them every night. We’d probably have to call the cops twice every weekend.”
Some valuable lessons also came hand-in-hand with the culture shock that nonstop rowdiness can provide.
“I think that was my learning point who to deal with, how to deal with them, what to do,” said Chopra. “It was a great experience.
“And I moved myself from food and beverage to night audit — everything from accounts payable to accounts receivable. You learn every aspect of accounting because it was a small property, and you did it all. It was a great experience to me personally.”
Just as Chopra was graduating from college, he was recruited by the Adam’s Mark and chose to come to Jacksonville.
“I wanted to be in a property with at least 1,000 rooms,” he said. “But I didn’t want a property that was over 1,500 or 2,000 rooms. I thought that was too big. The things that attracted me to Jacksonville was having a football team, and the hotel was the right size (it’s actually a few short at 966).
“So I chose it because I thought a new property would be a great opportunity to move up the ladder.”
Summer and the Christmas seasons are the times when the number of guests sag at the hotel, but the lull can be misleading.
“Basically, the Christmas season especially is a time for you to get yourself started for the next year,” said Chopra. “You plan ahead, do the budgets and, training-wise, make sure you are ready. Because, after Christmas, we go back up with the Gator Bowl and the new year.
“We can go from low occupancy to 100 percent occupancy overnight. It doesn’t go up in stages. It goes up in a day.”