Teaching At Hotels

[up-country_sinclair]

have you ever taught hotel staff here in LOS? if so...

where? what city? what type of hotel?

for how long? if you're no longer working for the hotel, why did you leave?

in your opinion, what are the positive/negative aspects of teaching hotel staff?

how is the pay? contact hours? materials? dealing with management?

for international chains, is it better to contact corporate offices, or on site?

thanks in advance.

Edited March 8, 2006 by up-country_sinclair

[kenkannif]

We've sold quite a few hotel corporate contracts and they HATE paying decent money (more so than most businesses here).

[Ijustwannateach]

A Thai friend of mine who until recently worked at a major international hotel in Bangkok told me that he was getting something like 19B an hour for his full-time job, where he was required to speak English and encouraged to learn Japanese. With unrealistic labour costs like these for local staff, it can't be surprising that they don't understand the reality of foreign standards for work and pay. He's switching to the Siam Paragon because they pay 28B an hour for similar experience.

I've found that it's hard keeping private contracts at normal rates with businesses and hotels, etc., because sooner or later some agency will come along promising the world for 20% of the reasonable fees I charge... when it turns out later to be Indians and backpackers, they've already signed the contract and don't want to lose face.

In the end, I've found that few corporate English-teaching gigs are really worth it for the private teacher, as they rarely last long enough to make up for the considerable start-up pains, mainly due to management's lack of support in terms of setting aside time for their employees to study, and unreasonable expectations in terms of length of time to reach any proficiency in a foreign language. But to go further into that probably should happen on another thread.

"Steven"

[kenkannif]

^ Some good points.

Although quite a few realise they get what they pay for and are quite fussy (they'd never accept an Indian teacher). Not so much losing face as losing the money they've paid...we've had to change teachers 3 or 4 times as the 'organiser' at said company thinks they know better (which is symptamatic (sp?) of Thailand.

We just got a government contract for 250 hours at 1,200 Baht...so teaching every day pretty much which isn't a bad number.

Also a lot of these corporate jobs aren't really teaching business English as the staff's level is so low.

There's some good ones out there and some good money to be made, but it's hard to build the hours up and keep it regular IME.

Most of the business teachers I know have a full time other job, or a reasonable pension/income from elsewhere.

Saying that when I used to do sales I was often asked to come in and teach staff at companies (and they'd not even met me) and quite good companies at that. It can also (if yout Thai is reasonable generally) be a way to get a reasonably cushty (ish) full time job as a pet farang...I mean teacher/trainer/editor/whatever they can get you to do.

[up-country_sinclair]

thanks for your input kk and ijwt!

[Neeranam]

I taught at the Shangri La in Bangkok about 98.

I got about 25,000 for a 5 day week. It was impossible trying to get all the staff to come to class due to shift changes etc.

I was there for about six months and didn't do more than 40 hours teaching. Most of the time was hanging around the hotel, watching the staff and giving them tips. Hanging around some of the restaurants was great - the food there is 'aroi jung hooo'.

Best to walk into the hotel and ask for the HR department.

Often there are big openings if you are the career type of guy.

[alleykat]

I know a few guys who work, or have worked in the hotel industry here in Thailand.

One is at a resort on Samui, the other is at a major hotel in Bangkok. Another two guys worked at two different resorts in Hua Hin for over a year each.

I myself worked at a resort up in The Golden Triangle for 3 months. All of these hotels and resorts are owned by the same parent company.

As with everything there are positives and negatives. The money was okay, there were some good benefits, eg restaurant allowance, free laundry service etc. The reason that I left was because of the very remote location. But the job was okay, friendly staff, nice resort.

As another poster previously mentioned that biggest problem is getting the staff to come to lessons.

Usually they can't come during shift hours unless the hotel's very quiet. Getting them to come before their shift or after it can be a challenge. You can design a schedule to make it convenient for most staff, but then their shift gets changed, so you may have a class of 8 Front Office staff, half of whom may have been to every class, while the other half have had only one or two lessons.

Apart from regular classes, the company's idea is to encourage staff to come to the learning centre in their own time and improve their English skills, use the resources, sort of self study with help from the teacher. This may work in other countries, but it doesn't work in Thailand. Most of them are just not interested, and will try to avoid you.

Because you are part of the HR team you are administered by HR bosses in Bangkok, who have no educational background, this can be frustrating.