after four years of preparation and four days of competition, a 22-year-old chinese girl competed with players from many countries in hotel reception services
2024-09-15
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on september 14, lyon, france, the 47th worldskills competition came to the last day of competition. among all the events, the hotel reception project was one of the last to end, and it was also one of the most interesting events for the audience.
the chinese competitor in this event is 22-year-old zhu lixuan, a recent graduate of shanghai business school, who previously won the gold medal in this event at the national competition. in this new event, which is only 5 years old, zhu lixuan faced four days of high-intensity challenges and achieved self-transcendence through gritted teeth and persistence.
the arena is like a real-life reality show
two scenes that completely simulated the hotel lobby were set up at the competition venue. in one scene, the contestant was behind the counter, a female traveler was checking in at the front desk, and another male traveler was chatting with her casually, talking about the local customs. this kind of "chatter" was performed to influence the contestant's reception process and test whether he could maintain his work rhythm.
in another scene, a traveler came to the front desk to express his dissatisfaction with the hotel service and asked for compensation. faced with such an emergency, the contestants kept smiling, patiently asked about the needs, and proposed various ways such as booking a table, upgrading the room type, and giving points, overcoming the difficulties by saying "sorry" again and again.
these are just two of many reception scenes. in this arena that is no different from a hotel lobby, contestants act as lobby receptionists to greet "guests" one by one. these "guests" played by actors appear alone or in groups. some want to check in, some seem to stay for no reason, and some even have bad attitudes.
for the audience, this is like an interesting reality show, but for the contestants, it is a huge unknown challenge. they never know what kind of guests will appear in the next second, nor what kind of needs they will put forward. it is this uncertainty that forms a 100% simulation of the actual hotel scene.
"a real hotel is like this," said hu xiao, the chinese technical guidance expert team leader of the project. in this world championship, the previous modular competition method was completely broken, and the contestants were randomly tested on different businesses in different scenarios. they had to receive guests at the front desk and constantly reply to emails at the back office. during the four-day competition, there were almost 100 emails to be processed. some emails even required a 10-page ppt to reply, and it took nearly an hour to process one email.
the pictures of the hotel reception event in this article are from the reporter jiang lelai of the paper
hu xiao believes that this competition method is completely different from the past, the design is very sophisticated, and the contestants are under great pressure. as the world's top skill contestants, they have to be competent in all roles of the entire front office department, including reception, concierge, duty manager and even salesperson. in addition to the "real-life reality show", how to increase sales and how to increase good reviews are all exam questions that the contestants have to face.
hu xiao told reporters that, in general, this world skills competition requires contestants to have more solid and comprehensive basic skills, more balanced front-end and back-end skills, and higher requirements for the ability to handle special situations. contestants must be proficient in multiple fields, which is also the current development trend of the hotel industry.
faced with such a special competition venue, chinese technical observer zhou wei has been observing and learning for several days. laymen watch the excitement, while experts watch the doorway. in addition to the eye-catching reality show, zhou wei also noticed the more open software environment, cloud-based property management system, shorter fences and better audio-visual equipment in this world championship. as the host of the next world championship, shanghai has all these experiences worth learning from. on the one hand, it can achieve a higher level of technical exchange, and on the other hand, it can provide the audience with a better viewing experience and better promote this skill.
dry your tears and continue fighting
for four days, zhu lixuan took turns to go back and forth between the front and back stages. faced with the high-intensity competition, the only thing she could do was to persevere.
jiang hong, dean of the school of hotel management at shanghai business school, saw everything and felt sorry for her. "she is a very strong child." jiang hong said that zhu lixuan was sick these days and needed painkillers to relieve her discomfort. the contestants set high standards for themselves and shed tears during the competition, but they wiped away their tears and went on the court the next day to continue the competition.
zhu lixuan in the competition
every night, the expert team and zhu lixuan would review the game until very late, and at 3 or 4 in the morning, zhu lixuan's alarm would ring, and she would "re-examine" herself. jiang hong joked that she couldn't compare with the french players in terms of relaxation. but in her opinion, this was also due to the gap between us and the higher level in the world. being able to lift heavy objects with ease is also a kind of ability.
the four-day competition is long, but for zhu lixuan, it is the result of four years of preparation. during the four years, she has been training for a long time, and has also visited many hotels for on-site learning, from more than 20 provinces in china to many countries around the world. jiang hong said that in terms of hard work, she has almost reached the extreme, but she is still on the road.
on the world stage, no matter how good chinese players are at english, there is always a gap between them and players from native-speaking countries. in addition to communication, the more important thing is the difference in cultural habits, which will cause players to ignore some details in the competition. in addition, jiang hong believes that there is still room for improvement in project proficiency, but in any case, she said that it is not easy to perform normally, "exceeding our expectations of her." keep moving forward and keep surpassing, which requires patience, confidence and resilience.
from a professional perspective, the changes in the worldskills competition have once again provided international standards. jiang hong believes that the standards of the entire hotel industry in shanghai can be further improved, and talent training should also draw on the worldskills standards and make adjustments in applied and practical courses.
hu xiao also said: "the hotel reception project has higher requirements for internationalization. other traditional projects can be practiced behind closed doors, but this one cannot. we need to open the door to see the bigger world in order to do better."
thepaper.cn reporter jiang lelai reports from lyon, france
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
