The summer of love has come to an end....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

When working in an educational Institute, this moment of the year, feels like New Years Eve; a brand new academic year will start!

Before we are going to  execute hybrid education, I would like to reflect on the summer of LOVE.

Was it really a summer of love? Or was it a summer with promising events and disappointments of both weather and  non existing festival disasters? 

We gave our Hostmanship minor students the possibility to honour a host who acted extremely hospitable by giving a button with I AM A HOST on it.

During the summer I honoured 3 hosts who where extremely welcome: The first host at Boscafe 't Hijgende Hert, where the host was extremely enthousiastic and emphatic towards us. The 2nd button went to a host in  restaurant ACE, a restaurant in Amsterdam. The host gave us his tablet when the last guests were gone. We could create our own spotify list during the cheese and dessert! Great initiative! 

The 3rd button went to Jan Gerard van der Wal. The owner of a new restaurant in Leeuwarden called Bistro Aragosta. Before Aragosta, he was the owner of Le Petit Bistro in Sneek, where we were 3 years ago.

He reminded my partner very well: That he lives in Nijmegen, that he forgot his coat that evening! That shows for me genuine attention and interest in his guests! 

There was also bad news: when we booked a weekend of wellness at Fletcher hotel in Velzen Noord, there was no wellness at all: closed for the holidays it said at the door of the wellness area! No information on the site, and worst of it; we paid in advanced. No information about the wellness closure on their own website. The staff was doubtful and not empowered for service recovery. The intern was the only one who put effort in getting us in another room with a cooling  system and a better view.(The view was an iron high wall/ roof that gave us no sight on a cloud at all) The intern did Hotelschool!! Yeeahh! After too much working days there was compensation and moreover; understanding and human touch and decision making authority! Via a CODE we could have dinner in a Fletcher restaurant of our choice. Also refund of a certain amount was inluded. But no wellness that weekend...

All in all we had a great hospitality summer; all the staff was willing to make a great experience. If there was staff; in 2 restaurants in Fryslan it was clear that they could not get any staff and so, no kitchen open and the owner on the terrace to serve.

The summer of LOVE was not really Dance with Johnson (dansen met Jansen)  but nevertheless, there were enough activities and hospitality open to enjoy!

Hopefully the Autumn will be full of real interaction with human being and no risk on a lockdown anymore. STAY SAFE, CHECK AND TEST for a NEW HAPPY SCHOOLYEAR TO COME!

Brenda