Receptionist Dina Gummer on a hotel culture where housekeeping, kitchen and reception are equals, and on why the app is where everyone goes to reach a colleague.
Guldsmeden Hotels is a Danish group of boutique hotels. Sandra and Marc Weinert opened the first Hotel Guldsmeden in Guldsmedgade in Aarhus in 1999, and the company still calls the two of them its soul. The group has five hotels in Copenhagen and five more around the world: in Aarhus, Oslo, Berlin and Bremen, as well as a villa to rent in Menton, France, and a resort in Ubud, Bali.
From the start the Weinerts built the hotels on luxurious simplicity, genuine hospitality, a welcoming atmosphere and a commitment to sustainability. The Danish hotels are named after people the family loves. Guldsmeden holds the Green Globe and Green Key certifications and the Golden Ø for 90 to 100 percent organic food and drink. It sits at around 98 percent, and nothing it serves is flown in. It has been a member of GoGreen Denmark since 2010.
The hotels are informal places to work, with room for humour and for people to grow, teams that look after each other, and an organic lunch together every day.
New staff are told from the start that Monotree is where colleagues reach each other.
Groups for housekeeping and other teams take each message to the people who need it.
Every shift starts with a look at the handover, emails and the app.
Dina Gummer is a receptionist at Manon Les Suites, part of Guldsmeden Hotels, and has also worked at Axel Guldsmeden, a sister hotel. The culture is special for how widely it spans. Every age group is there, there is room for everyone, and nobody has to look a certain way. People can be themselves.
Everyone has to be able to talk to everyone. Housekeeping, the kitchen and reception are on the same level, and nobody is above anybody else, which probably gives a bit more of a sense of community. Guests can feel it too: staff have a kind of ownership, and they welcome guests home without the stiffness of name badges and titles. After work, people are welcome to stay, talk and have a drink.
People stay because there are many opportunities and they are seen for what they are good at. She had not expected to be training as a receptionist two and a half years after she started at Guldsmeden, but someone saw that in her. Show you are good at what you do, and it is noticed and recognized.
The cooperation within the hotel is driven a lot through Monotree and we are all part of it. It's made clear from the start that you have to be on that platform. Because that's where we get into contact with each other.
Teamwork inside the hotel runs largely through Monotree. From the start, new staff are told that they have to be on the platform, because that is where colleagues get in touch with each other.
There are groups for the people who need to work together, and staff use them to assign tasks. When someone posts, they know the right people will see it.
At the start of each shift, staff catch up on the handover and check Monotree.
The result is that everyone knows how to get hold of someone. Nobody has to hunt through email threads, or send messages and make calls that go nowhere. There is a group for housekeeping and a group for whatever else is needed, and it is all in one place, so that is where people go when they need a colleague.
Staff still talk things through in person at the start of a shift, for example to check that a conference is under control.
With both private and group chats everyone can reach each other in a quick and effective way.
Read moreA place for everyone to share information, images, videos and polls. Every department has its own.
Read moreEnsure all information is readily accessible and easily searchable for everyone.
Read moreOrganize daily operations and give managers the tools they need to run their departments.
Read moreAfter we had agreed to partner with Monotree, it became an element of how are we going to move this forward now from contract sign to being something in our team members' hands. And that was a really smooth process, probably the easiest implementation I have done in years because it was all hands-on.
I would introduce Monotree as the main body of Roseacre. It's almost the heart and soul where everything can be found in one place.
The app is not just something that is driven by us or by the head office. It is actually something that is driven by all employees in Creative Space.
Fill in your information, and we will contact you within a couple of hours.
Your information is secure with us. Read our Privacy policy for more details.
We will contact you within a couple of hours.
