What my job as a Bellman has taught me about life

I was really impressed when I started working at this 600-rooms hotel in downtown Montreal. The day I started, I actually felt as if I was in one of the scenes in the movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel” where M. Gustave, the concierge, is dealing with all the guests in the hotel’s lobby.

It really looked like so, specially because it was the high season and all rooms were booked, every night. That makes a lot of people to guide the restaurant in the morning.

I suddenly felt like Zero, the lobby boy in the movie. And I remembered what he said to M. Gustave during his interview: “Who wouldn’t work at the [Grand Budapest Hotel]? It is an institution.” Well, I certainly learned a lot about customer service: how to approach people that drive Maseratis and wear Gucci shoes that look like a pair of Nike (exactly the same way you approach any other customer), being efficient, fast, and still providing great customer service and many other hotel related skills. What really struck me, is that all that magic eventually disappeared, and it wasn’t long before this job became as dull and boring as the other ones I quit before. Well, the end of the summer is the main reason to that, but there’s one other thing…

You make a lot in tips. Like, a LOT. $150 in your pocket at the end of an 8-hour day in the summer is normal. Twice my salary, in just one day. But as I said, fall and winter seasons make the hotel look like any of those crazy Ukrainian guys on Youtube wearing speedos, rolling on the snow, swimming in frozen lakes and drinking vodka. They get a lot of popularity a few months and then people start moving to something else. Back to reality, the work life. And that $150-a-day tip becomes $10, $5… So when I was alone in the lobby, wondering why I was still working here instead of doing something maybe a little less rewarding but more formative, I started to think about all the stuff I had to do and how I was doing them. I thought I could at least get a few lessons from this job. Here are a couple of them.

Stereotypes are stupid

This is how it works: The car arrives in front of the main entrance. My colleague, the doorman, gets the 22 suitcases from the 5-members latin-american family that is coming to spend the weekend. He gets the car in the lobby and tells the guests that the bellman (at your service) will get them to the room. He then proceeds to stand there, in front of the family, for what seems to all of us, a very long time. The longer he stands there, the more certain he is that he wont get any tip. (I do the same scene once I’ve unloaded the bags and am at the room’s doorstep). If one of us got nothing, we split what the other got. That makes us talk a little before returning to our work.

It’s during those conversations that I started remarking the stereotypes made by my more experimented colleagues. See, it’s hard to differentiate an US citizen from a Canadian one. Personally, I only know it when he tells me that he is “Checking ewt”. But it’s easier to spot people that comes from India, South America, Asia, etc. Physical traits and accents are too evident. So, when the fourth person coming from India in the week doesn’t give anything to the doorman nor the bellman, what do you think they tell me? Indians never give tips. And what do you think they do in that case? They are less friendly and efficient the next time they have to get the luggage of a person that seems to come from India. It’s sad and seems a little extreme but it’s true.

Not long ago, exactly that happened. The doorman even told me, when he passed me the kart full of suitcases: “He won’t give anything”. I said in my head: “Ok, I’ll just do my job, as I always do, and give him a big smile when I’ll leave the room and wish him to enjoy his stay.” “Thank you.” Responded the gentleman handing me a $20 bill. This proved me two things. The first is that stereotypes don’t work. And the second is the next thing I learned about life.

You may not be sure of the result, but you should always give everything you have

People want to start their own business. But you don’t end up a successful entrepreneur unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, the insane hours devoted to something that may earn absolutely nothing. — Mark Manson

I have to replace the doorman during his break every day. The first time I did it, a guest was leaving and needed a taxi to the airport. Instead of directing him to where taxis were waiting and wish him a safe trip, I did the deluxe version of it. I called the cab to come just in front of us, took the man’s bag and put it in the trunk, opened the back door for him, wished him a safe trip and told the driver to go to the airport. What did I get back? A $10 bill. I almost reached my pocket to get some change in case he asked for it.. I couldn’t believe it.

When the doorman came back from his break I told him what just happened and his response was something like: “Oh yeah, that happens, but most of people don’t give anything. So I just direct them to the taxis.” From then on, I decided that I would give the deluxe treatment to anyone going through that door. And sure enough, not everyone gave me tips, but for every 4 or 5 person that did not, one would give me a $5 or $10 bill.

I think that I can apply this experience to more than one facet of my life. The reward can be way more than a $10 bill. How about being nice to anyone without waiting for something in return? Helping the old lady get her groceries kart down the stairs to the metro station. It may seem that I did it hoping to get some tip at every time, but the thing is, the more I did it, the more I enjoyed when the person had nothing more to give me than a honest smile and a “thank you”.