Montevideo Chic Hostel looking for staff

Montevideo Chic is a hostel located in the Old Town of Montevideo (Ciudad Vieja). You can see pictures and read about the hostel on our page Montevideo Chic Hostel

We are looking for 1 hostel manager (or couple) to start asap and stay at least until the end of March.
We are also looking for volunteers over the summer months (now until March) on a work-for-accommodation basis.

Your main duties will be reception and administration, and in general catering to any of the guests' needs.
We have a cleaner that comes every day, so cleaning will not be your main job, but you will have to do some cleaning on occasion - i.e. if the cleaner has gone for the day, don't leave it until the next day.

We have 14 rooms, about half of which are let on a monthly basis, so that the volume of short term visitors is relatively small. For the monthly guests, the workload is minimal - just receiving their payments, and making sure that house rules are observed.

HOSTEL MANAGER

Responsibilities:
* take full responsibility for the guest's comfort and the hostel's good functioning
* administrative: take payments, pay bills, buy items that are missing or damaged
* oversee other staff - namely, the cleaner and any other staff that you would help hire on a work-for-accommodation basis.
* politely ensure that the house rules are observed by all guests
* quickly answer customer emails, update the reservation system and various booking extranets (most of this is automated; this point will take about 15' a day but must be done every day).
* ideally, improve our ratings and visibility on sales channels by maintaining and improving our description, photos and guest reviews, and manage our Facebook page

Required skills (exclusive):
- ability to provide excellent customer service
- fluent English and Spanish, ideally some Portuguese
- computer literacy, willingness to use your laptop for administrative tasks
- some experience in the hostel industry or similar

Remuneration will consist of accommodation + a small salary. We cannot cover travel costs.
You are also encouraged to generate additional income streams for yourself, e.g.:
- selling drinks, breakfast & other meals (a dedicated fridge is provided).
- selling tours (you would have to partner with local agencies).
- renting out bikes to guests.
In short, you will need to be entrepreneurial if you want to boost your income.

VOLUNTEERS

Responsibilities:
* cover certain hourly shifts, during which you will welcome any guests that arrive, show them around the place, and in general be available for any help that they may need. In general there will be 3 shifts per day (morning, afternoon, evening)
* politely ensure that the house rules are observed by all guests
* possibily help out with answering customer emails, updating the reservation system, etc
* investigate night time options and occasionally take guests to shows, events, bars and other night time activities.

Required skills (exclusive):
- strong desire to please other travellers and see them happy with their trip
- fluent English and Spanish, ideally some Portuguese
- computer literacy
- some experience in the hostel industry or similar

Volunteers are required to stay for at least 1 month.

HOSTEL NAME

OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE

HOSTEL LOCATION

Job first posted: 09 October 2013