Sep-Oct 2016 Issue | Business View Oceania

249 Plaza management pays for these courses but employees are required to complete them on their own time. The hotel management organises weekly meetings where staff are free to bring up any issues or thoughts they have regarding their work. They are en- couraged to relate any customer ser- vice issues that arose and how they handled them. Other staff members can contribute by saying how they would have han- dled the situation. From a manage- ment perspective, employees are pro- vided guidance and advised on how the guest’s request could have been fulfilled. As a result of the renewed focus on guest service, the Cairns Plaza Hotel received the TripAdvisor Award in 2015 and achieved a rating of 4/5. Booking. com, another hotel rating website, has given Cairns Plaza a score of 8.2/10. HolidayCheck rated the hotel at 5.5/6 for July 2105. Training of hotel staff Shannon Jansz has adopted the Fish! Philosophy for training hotel staff. This methodology encourages em- ployees to enjoy their work and con- tinually learn from it. Employees are also taught to make that extra effort to smile and make the hotel’s guests’ stay as pleasant and possible. The Fish! Philosophy’s central ide- as also require staff to be fully pres- ent and focussed on the task at hand. And above all, employees are required to maintain a positive attitude at work. The management of the hotel has taken a conscious decision to consid- er its employees for internal vacancies that arise. This has resulted in the staff becoming motivated as they have the opportunity to rise within the organisa- tion. Cairns – the gateway to Queensland’s tropical north Cairns is rapidly becoming a pre- ferred tourist location as it is close to the Great Barrier Reef and the Dain- tree Rainforest. Travellers are increas- ingly attracted to the outdoor activities available, including sailing, diving and snorkelling. The weather is pleasant all year round, although it gets warm at the peak of summer. The Cairns Plaza Hotel has rapidly be- come a destination of choice for many visitors to Cairns. The recent reno- vation has added to making it an ex- tremely attractive option for both busi- ness and leisure travellers. Speaking about his goals for the ho- tel, Shannon Jansz says, “At the mo- ment it is to take Cairns Plaza to that next level and make it the number one place to stay in Cairns being your home away from home. Looking at our guest comments and our occupancy figures, I believe we are already doing that.”