Part 97: Reality check....

I was woken by a tickling sensation in my arm pit. Still half asleep I rolled over to discover it came from the biggest hairiest caterpillar I'd ever seen, perched in my under arm!!! I reacted, quickly flicking it off, plus my legs were covered in mosquito bites and were already itching like mad. On top of all that my bed was covered in insects too.
It's not like I haven't encountered places like this whilst travelling - I've slept in far worse. But the truth is I'm supposed to be working, not travelling right now.

Also to say it was like sleeping in an oven was an understatement. The ceiling fan was a complete waste of space, and I was sweating so much I don't even want to think how much water I lost in the night! My room was pretty crap to say the least! and that was being generous!!

Still I got up and had a cold shower, well actually it wasn't even that cold.
So I freshened up best I could and then went for breakfast and to look around in the daytime.
One of the first things I noticed was the vibe, or complete lack of it! Flat and pretty lifeless was how I would describe this place! even though the surroundings were really nice, the hostel was absolutely missing any real atmosphere.
I started taking down some notes on my phone, observing firstly the guests, then the staff.
Sandra from Germany who was the general manager came over to introduce her self. She was really nice too and asked me to join her for coffee. I didn't go into an amazing amount of detail at this point based on my observations and notes but she did most of the talking telling me the story behind the opening and showed me plenty of horrendously bad negative reviews on trip advisor and hostel world - they were pretty brutal. The job was looking like a big challenge to turn this around. Most of the complaints were down to bad customer service, too many rules, and yes you've guessed it - no atmosphere!

I had a good idea what it needed but my biggest concern would be if I would stick out the job. Truth is I was missing the Philippines already and the living conditions weren't the best here either.
Later in the evening the hostel was empty. The staff were texting behind the bar looking bored, like they didn't even want to be there, and there was just two of the guests sat at one of the tables.
John showed up and asked me 'Vincey how can I get my bar rockin, and how can I keep them here?'
He was due to visit his Vietnamese wife in San Francisco for a month in a few days time and asked me to get on and do whatever I thought to get the place buzzing.

Well for a start none of the staff were really smiling or engaging with the guests, there seemed to be so many rules and regulations, that it was completely suffocating the life out of place. The bar and restaurant had no music, the rooms were immaculately clean yet too clinical. But most importantly apart from Sandra, the reception staff weren't really all that welcoming to arriving guests, the first impression for them was poor and kind of set the precedent for guests experience.
So I set about the task above everything else, to just get stuck in and socialise, to greet smile and engage in conversation to anyone. Especially new arrivals.

A couple of days later, after I familiarised myself with the set up and staff, John left for the States then I started work on trying to create an atmosphere. My job became a whole lot harder the moment I realised there was no funding either - I certainly was no miracle worker but I would do my best.
One thing I did say to myself was that after a huge amount of deliberating I would give the job a go, for a month at least, then take it from there. The positives were definitely Steve and Sandra - both were great and 100 % percent behind me, plus it wasn't costing me anything to be here. The negatives I didn't even want to think about right now as there were quite a few.
John made it clear how he expected us to work and with only ONE scheduled day off a month too!

Since this is a travel blog it wasn't my intention to write a day to day diary based on my working life in Vietnam. Other than not making particular interesting reading, in the long term, it's not what I wanted to do, so fast forward a month and I'll talk about some of the improvements since making a few tweaks.
But firstly it was getting almost unbearable living in that room with no facilities or air con. I woke up soaked in sweat and covered in bugs every single morning. If it weren't for Steve and Sandra I would have been long gone.

There was already a big improvement since I first arrived. It's amazing what can be achieved just through engaging and talking with the guests. From the moment they arrived I would be straight over introducing myself as the entertainments manager. Showing them around, telling them about the area, and asking them to join me in the bar for drinks.
I upgraded the previously redundant sound system, downloaded some playlists and had music playing from breakfast to the evening. I took pictures of all the guests, uploading the images to an Instagram account I set up. Organised pool parties, pub crawls, took guests to the best nightspots, we put hammocks up to create more of a lounge area by the pool.
Credit to Sandra who relaxed a lot of the stifling rules which also made a big difference. I helped organise tours for backpackers, arranged games etc.
And that was just the initial week.
I also made friends with a traveling street artist from the UK and for a few beers and free room for a couple of nights, he sprayed up what was to be our common room.
This was just the beginning and only phase one of my plans but what a difference, especially the online reviews.
The bar was now busy in the evenings and we even ran out of beer a few times.
Sandra and Steve were 2 of the best co-workers I could wish to have and we all put in a massive effort to really get the place buzzing, even if we were all working round the clock.
They planned on pressuring John soon as he got back about my living conditions, both agreed it was really quite unacceptable.

As hard as all of us worked, we did make a great team, and occasionally we would afford our selves the odd few hours off every couple of days.
Me and Steve would play pool, or walk to the beach while Sandra would take me on a culinary tour of all the great local food joints. Even if the days were long we were really having fun and for the first time I beginning to feel settled (apart from my room).

John was due back with his wife in a couple of days and we were all quite excited to show him all the results of our hard work and to see his reaction.
We then made sure the place was clean and awaited his arrival....