RECEPTIONIST JOB IN MAJORCA – WHAT TO EXPECT, HOW MUCH YOU WILL EARN AND HOW TO LOOK FOR WORK

Receptionist job in Majorca.

Receptionist job in Majorca is quite a good position. In fact, each country is governed by its own laws and work in Poland is slightly different from that in Mallorca. It is worth adding that you do not immediately become a receptionist. At the beginning, the contract usually states the position of “assistant receptionist”. Especially if you have never worked at the reception desk before. And there is nothing wrong with this, except that you earn less and your working hours will be slightly different from others.

In addition, it is worth adding at the beginning that in Mallorca, as in every other place on earth, there are better and worse types of employment contracts. I will not elaborate here on the type of contract, because I am not an expert. However, at the beginning, most new employees will get a contract for the so-called “temporada”, which is the holiday season in Mallorca. It starts differently, depending on when the hotel opens and what position you are in. Usually it is about 6 months from May to October.

Receptionist job in Majorca – when will you start working?

If you are a reception assistant, you will probably start at reception last. Directors, cleaners, technicians start first. They prepare the hotel for opening. Only then do the receptionists, cooks, etc., and finally the helpers, or ayudantes. It happens that you start earlier than other receptionists, for example because of training. This was the case for me. I was already working in the hotel from mid-April, and the girls who were a position above me started from 1 May.

A very large number of hotels open on 1 May. Some hotels in Mallorca are open all year round, while others start from February, March, April…. . You can go on and on. The fact that I started earlier had its disadvantage. I finished work earlier, in mid-September, while others finished in October or even November. The reason for this is that there was not enough occupancy (customers in the hotel) to need more workers during that period.

Front desk hours – front desk assistant/receptionist.

Here too, I can only speak for myself. I have been to several interviews and the hours depend on the hotel management. Of course, there are also legal regulations for this, but we all know what the reality is. In the hotel where I worked, a woman was not allowed to be a night receptionist. This job was only done by men, and they worked 8 hours each. Night shift work is paid extra. The same applies to holidays. In another hotel, however, women also work night shifts. Legally, too, as it turns out, my boss had to give me a minimum break of 11 hours between the end of a shift and the start of a new one. However, this law was also broken. I often ended at 11pm and started at 7am. Which makes only 8 hours between shifts, not to mention bathing, eating, chores etc….

The worst possible shift for me was the ‘partido’ shifts, or simply split shifts. I was at work twice a day for four hours each. Usually from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. This happened 2 or 3 times a week, depending on the availability of the other reception assistants. It was because it was around these times that the front desk was interrupted and guests were checking in (check-in to the hotel) and needed a back-up.

This is not a big problem if the job is located near your flat. However, if you have a 30-minute car commute to work, it often makes little sense to drive home, let alone the cost of fuel or bus tickets. In my case, the shifts were eight hours (split and full) and I worked 5 days a week. As in Poland, I sometimes worked 6 days in a row. We were billed by the hour per week (the schedule was created every week).

Receptionist job in Majorca – roster creation, roster requests.

A roster is also known as a “horario de trabajo”. It was drawn up every week and all roster requests were delivered the day before the roster was created. In most cases they were fulfilled. The most important thing was not to cause problems on the days with the most traffic in the hotel, i.e. the days of check-in and check-out of guests. In the case of the hotel where I worked, these were 3 days a week.

The type of hotel is also very important. I worked in a four-star hotel where the guests came only from the United Kingdom, from a particular travel agency. The guests were mostly British. There were Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Russians etc. who lived in the British Isles and flew with a travel agent from the UK. This was also linked to the fact that the hotel had resident care from a travel agent who worked with the hotel. This was great because it took a lot of work away from the receptionists. In other hotels there will be much more work and the clients will be of different nationalities.

Receptionist job in Mallorca – what does a reception assistant do.

I must stress here, once again, that it all depends on the type of hotel. In my case, there were VERY few duties. I had to speak Spanish to co-workers and English to hotel guests. When the guests were Poles or Russians, I was given to serve them, but sometimes it was also badly perceived by the boss. Not knowing what we were talking about, he could interject and in Spanish admonish me to finish the conversation. It was rare for this conversation to be social. Compatriots knowing that there was a Polish woman at the reception desk simply asked a million questions.

My duties were: Answering phones and redirecting them to the appropriate departments, taking notes of information from maids, technicians and other hotel departments, processing it and solving any problems, check-in and check-out, keeping the reception area clean, changing pool towels for guests (they had to change them at reception), possibly solving small problems (such as replacing a broken door card, calling a technician to fix some malfunction in the room).

Also, filling out the relevant paperwork and filing it, scanning passports, informing about RODO, general customer service, car rental (when a customer expressed a desire to rent a car I had to call the particular company that worked with the hotel and book the car), translating written complaints from English to Spanish, and opening and closing the cash registers including all documentation. Many other duties I may not remember. However, there were VERY few of them, which was very tiring at times. Nobody likes to be that bored at work.

Depending on the hotel management, your job may look very different.

In other hotels receptionists work 6 days a week. They often work night shifts, often stay overtime and have many other duties. I was simply baked, successful, lucky and lucky. A huge plus was cooperation with residents from a travel agency who had their reception desk opposite ours and we often referred guests with many problems to them. The division of responsibilities was clear.

There are tips and commissions at the reception. Tips were given to us in our hands. There was no jar on the counter that said “tips”. The tips were put in the cash drawer. They compensated for any errors in the cash register, and at the end of the month, all the extra money was settled among all the receptionists. We got commissions from newspaper sales, car hire, wheelchairs, horse rides etc. Depending on the month, it was about 150-300 euros a month. In other hotels it will look different.

Receptionist job in Majorca – what are the salaries.

Apart from the above-mentioned commissions and tips, we of course have what teddy bears like the most, namely the paycheck, the so-called “nomina”. In the hotel where I worked, I was paid over 1 400 euros per hand. I worked in a 4-star hotel. I mention this because the pay in Mallorca, in the case of, among others, hotel industry, depends on several things, which are highlighted in a special, at first somewhat complicated table. The payment depends on the number of stars in the hotel and on the position.

You will see everything in the table, where the payment depends on the number of stars of the hotel and on your position. To learn more about it, search on google for “tabla salaria (2020) convenio hosteleria” – the first results will be precisely the tables with the payouts you are entitled to. And “convenio hosteleria” sets the working conditions for the year. The number of hours, standards, regulations, holidays, holidays and much more. There you will also find out which category your position falls into. Here is a link to a PDF file with the table: file:///C:/Users/natob/Desktop/tabla-hosteleria-baleares-2020.pdf
And here is a link to the report, in which I explain step by step what and where: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17875016518562374/

What is important is that at the beginning you get of course a contract for a trial period, which in my case lasted a month. In other hotels it is different. After a month I got a “temporal” contract. Legally, only after 3 years of working in one hotel (without breaks – that means working 3 seasons in a row in one place) you have a normal, standard employment contract.

The common contract “fijo discontinuo”, which gives me more opportunities, such as taking a credit, loan, subscription or letting a flat. In my case, I made a deal and I was supposed to get a better contract for the next season, BUT the hotel was closed for the whole year due to covid-19, and I currently moved, so those plans are no longer valid. If you’re a really good worker, then you can count on your employer to help you out. And, as I am very dedicated at work, I managed to win this after several conversations with the management.

What school do you need to graduate from to work on reception at a hotel in Mallorca?

In Mallorca, in many places, many things are still done through connections. In Poland, I finished the hotel technical school and I always attached a certificate of completion to my CV in English, which was impressive. But many places didn’t pay any attention to this. To work at the reception desk, you definitely need to have a high school diploma, secondary school, technical school or university degree. They rather rarely ask about the baccalaureate, because in Mallorca education looks a bit different.

In Mallorca, CVs are definitely distributed by hand, going from hotel to hotel, handing the documents to the receptionist. In our country, if someone handed in a CV without a photo or if it was crumpled up, it was immediately thrown in the shredder. The condition in which you hand in your CV says a lot about you. Look presentable when handing in your CV, preferably wearing a T-shirt and smiling a lot. If someone asks you about your knowledge of languages, answer in the language they ask about – you will make a better impression.

It is useful to know English and German at reception in Mallorca.

German is definitely the language that prevails in job interviews. There are really a lot of Germans coming to Mallorca every year. Spanish is not a must in many places, but in my opinion it is worth knowing it. Firstly, Castilian (castellano), Catalan (catalan) and the Mallorcan dialect (mallorquin) are spoken in Mallorca. A Mallorcan will speak Mallorcan to a Mallorcan. Even if you are standing next to him and don’t understand a thing. Such is national pride. The same goes for Catalans – of course there are exceptions to the rule!

In many places, and certainly in jobs such as police, fire brigade, secretary in an office, clerk etc, Catalan is REQUIRED. If you go to work without knowing a single word of Spanish they will probably laugh at your back. At the reception desk this is very important as maids, technicians and other such positions are overrun by Spaniards who don’t speak the language. You, working at the front desk will have to communicate with them daily, repeatedly. How will you do this without knowing Spanish?

There are Spanish language courses for adult immigrants in Mallorca.

I describe this in more detail in a post about language courses in Mallorca. I will link the post at the end of the paragraph. You should look for such courses at CEPA. This is a place where courses for adults are held, and they are usually set up with grants. For the whole course, which usually runs from September to May, you pay around 30-50 euros, depending on the language you are learning. It is also worth mentioning that in some localities there is only an A1 level course. In larger, richer regions there will be many more levels. This course will certainly help you to learn enough to start working in a hotel and to understand the simplest instructions in Spanish. Link to post about the course: https://namajorce.pl/hiszpania/baleary/mallorca/majorkowe-poradniki/kurs-jezyka-hiszpanskiego-na-majorce/

Receptionist job in Majorca – how to find a job?

I wrote above that the best way is simply to spread your CV from hotel to hotel, while making a good first impression on possible future co-workers. It’s also worth looking at groups on FB, created especially for people looking for work. There are advertisements of both employers and employees. Such groups are usually called “trabajo mallorca” or “bolsa de trabajo mallorca”. Instead of the word “mallorca” it is advisable to add the name of the town you are aiming at. You can also try writing the same thing in English, for example “work mallorca”, “mallorca jobs”, etc.

You can also submit your CV online by filling in a form. It is enough to go to the official website of the hotel in question and find the “trabaja con nosotros”, or “work with us”, in the footer of the page. Another option is to go to the SOIB, which is the office that, among other things, deals with finding work for the unemployed. Usually at the entrance to the SOIB there are binders with job advertisements that you can browse through. We also have google uncle, google translator and another group on FB which is “polacy na majce”.

Receptionist job in Mallorca – supplements to your paycheck.

In Mallorca, you get allowances to your salary for working in the hottest months, for working on holidays, for travelling to work and for washing your uniform. What is important, when you go to work you get a paper with which you have to go to the nearest uniform shop and get the right uniform. Everything is of course noted down on the paper, and it is 100% paid by the company.

In small towns it happens that there is a lack of assortments, and you have to wait for delivery. At the end of the work you get what is called a finiquito. In addition to your salary, you also receive money for any holidays you have not taken and for any possible extras – this is called a finiquito. This finiquito is usually more than 1000 euros. This is often a very pleasant surprise for new employees who have no idea about it. In some cases, finiquito is charged to employees every month, together with their pay.

What do breaks look like when working on reception?

A big advantage of working in a hotel is that you can eat in the hotel. So you don’t have to take breakfast or lunch with you, because they are provided in the canteen in the hotel. Of course, the canteen where the staff eat looks completely different from the one for customers. The food depends on the cook, you know. But I rarely ate in the canteen, because despite the hotel guests praising the cook, I could not convince myself. So I ate my food in the back room or went outside. The break lasts only 15 minutes, unfortunately. Depending on who you are on shift with – the break can be longer or shorter and here it is difficult to discuss.

In Mallorca there is also such a thing as worker protection. If someone treats you badly at work, you have the possibility to report this to the UGT. This is a special office that deals with this type of problem. However, the first step should be to report the problem to your supervisor. Although Mallorca seems to be a place full of positive people, take my word for it – it can be hard. Spaniards are sometimes too open and fussy and discrimination exists everywhere. Remember, don’t give up and fight for your own. The fact that you are an immigrant does not change the fact that you work legally and pay taxes. Nobody has the right to treat anyone badly.

I hope I have given you an idea of what it is like to work at the reception desk on the island.

Reception work in Mallorca is not the same everywhere. Mallorca is a small island, but there are thousands of hotels where thousands of people work. Each hotel has a director, and he has the hotel owners above him. They mostly decide how the staff is treated. If I have to advise you – aim for hotels with 4 stars and above. Payment in such hotels is already sufficient for a decent life, and the standard of such a place should be higher. Working at the reception desk in Mallorca is not a bed of roses in every hotel. I hope you find a great place. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or write a private message!

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