During your internship at Rainforest Inn, you will have a myriad of things to do. The internship isn’t limited to serving the guests breakfast and coffee and doing check-outs and check-ins. You will get more and more responsibilities during the period you’re here. Bill & Renée told me in the beginning of my internship that the main goal is getting to know all the aspects of operating and managing a bed & breakfast. So, if you don’t really know what to expect from this internship, let me tell you something about what skills you’re expected to have and what you will be doing!
The coffee station where you will practice your latte art every morning
The most important responsibility you will get here is customer service. Customer service is paramount. Every morning you will help out with the coffees and serving breakfast. Other aspects of customer service are checking out the guests in the morning and checking new guests in during the afternoon/evening. Also talking to them and helping with planing their vacation activities. As a hospitality student, it’s important that you have good social skills, chat with the guests in the morning and when checking them in. The most important part is, of course, that they feel welcome. And don’t worry when you can’t do any latte art, Bill will be happy to teach you everything about it!
During your free time, Bill & Renée will be happy to show you some places on the island, such as Luquillo Beach!
Another skill that you’re expected to have is that you know something about communication or marketing. Rainforest Inn uses all kinds of marketing tools to reach a wider audience. A variety of social media is used such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok… The website where you’re reading this blogpost right now is something that comes with lots of work. A lot of effort is put into all of the information you can find on here. Aside from this blog for interns, there’s the Innkeepers Blog, used to reach future guests! So obviously, helping out with their marketing is something you will have to do. Every day you’ll have some free hours, and some days you’ll have projects as what I’m doing right now. So, you should have some communication/marketing skills. Nowadays, almost every intern has lots of digital skills, which is very useful during this internship!
As I said before, they want to show you all the aspects of running your own Bed & Breakfast. So being open-minded, being prepared to do something extra is something that’s part of the job. You will have days where you may have to help the staff, make lunch for the guests or do some other extra things. These won’t be things you will have to do every day, but it’s important you know how everything is done so whenever there is too much work, you can help out where needed. You will learn learn all aspects of operating a boutique bed and breakfast..
