Being The Hotel’s “Owl”

How is it like working at a hotel in a nocturnal environment.

Being an Owl is the best way to describe someone working at nights. When most people are sleeping, I’m wide awake, working and observing. Yes, that’s my life in a night shift. 11 O’Clock at night and ended at 7 am. It was a tough hour, but I enjoyed it at the same time. Here’s how it started.

The first step into my nocturnal role

It all started in 2018, two weeks after my first day at work in the hotel. I ask my manager that I wanted to experience as many departments as possible, one of them is being a night auditor. My manager looked at me and he’s probably thinking “This guy has been working for two weeks, and he’s asking about moving to nights. Is he bored already?”. Not really, but I just wanted to learn new things.

A few days later, he called me to his office and said: “Yes, you will be working at nights for a month, starting next week”.

For a month? Are you serious? I thought that I will be doing it for a night or even a week only, but it’s a full month now. Maybe it’s way too long for me, but I still take it.

I wasn’t fully ready, to be honest. Working at night means that I have to sacrifice everything that I can do in days. Having lunch, hang out with my friends, calling my girlfriend, cleaning the house and more. My daily routine is officially messed up.

My first night was a nightmare

I was given training with one of the night auditor, which also my good friend until now. He said,

“Mate if you already doing night shifts, you don’t want to go back working on days anymore”.

I was confused, why’s that?. What they did on nights looks very boring too. Just printing, saving, copying and analysing reports of the hotel. If they are done, just wait for the sunrise and then go home. Almost no interaction with anyone on the desk, except the manager, night cleaners and flight crews that have early morning flights. Plus, I was so tired already and sleepy, even a cup of coffee that I bought from 7Eleven didn’t affect me at all.

When the sun rises in the morning, I was exhausted. I kept thinking if I Can manage to survive this long stint of night shifts. How these people did enjoy working at nights for years?. I am still baffled with friend’s statement, which doesn’t make sense at all.

Somehow, they were right

After a few weeks of night audit stints, I started to realise that working nights isn’t that bad at all. Working with the reports can be a little bit boring, but at the same time, I can relax a little bit after finishing my checklists. On days, everything can be a little overwhelming, as there are so many things to take care of. I still received some complaints though, like noise complaints when people decided to party and play loud music in the middle of the night. I know it’s annoying, but I’m used to it already.

If you ask me “What are your favourite nights?”. I’ll say, Saturday night. “What does it feel like working on Saturday night?” It’s like when you risk yourself inside a tiger cage. Yeah, a lot of “wild” people around the city. It what makes everything so lively. And of course, you know what to expect from these party people when they reach back home. Drunk and happy. Now you know what I mean.

How come I enjoyed it? Does it put you in a higher-risk situation? Of course, it is, but at least it makes me alert at all times. Saturday night was also the best night to have some interesting stories. Exactly, I always pull out some interesting stories to my manager at the of my night shift.

*Please excuse my self if I make you confuse between Saturday nights and Sunday morning, because…

I witness someone BROKE UP in front of me

Once, there’s a lady came to the desk at 2 am and asked me,

“Can I call my boyfriend’s room, please?”

I let her call the room and nobody’s answering. She tried calling for five times, yet still, there’s no answer at all. She decided to sit down on the lobby’s bench, and suddenly she fell asleep.

An hour later, there’s a guy and a girl went inside the hotel and went up to their room.

The lady was half-awake a few minutes later, then she asked me to borrow the phone again to call the room. Then, the phone was connected, and someone picked up the phone, which is not him, but…

IT’S THE OTHER GIRL!

So that couple that went into the hotel earlier, he’s this lady’s boyfriend. She asks her if she can talk to him. And that exact moment, I witness for the first time that someone broke up in front of me. Fascinating!

Going back to days after a full month of nights

After a month, it’s time for me to go back working in a day shift. I was a bit upset, to be honest since I had so much fun working at nights. Not only the interesting stories that I can think of but also I made a great connection with the night teams as well. We usually went out together for breakfast after the shift and keep ourself together as a team. I was even asking my manager if there’s a chance for me to back at nights, please consider me right away.

Right now, I’m still working primarily on day shifts. At the same time, my manager considered my request and I did some night shifts occasionally. I even set a goal to myself that one day I wanted to be a night manager. Even when I’m not working, I still have my nocturnal habits at home. I wrote most of my stories at midnight since that is my most productive hours.

I guess my friend was not wrong at all.

“If you already doing night shifts, you don’t want to go back working on days anymore”.

More from the author

Christopher Reno Budiman is a writer, explorer and entrepreneur-minded person. He received Bachelor of Business (Hospitality Management) and Bachelor of International Hospitality Management with Swiss Hotel Association accreditation. He’s on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn if you would like to know more about him.