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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1976)
PAGE 2 WARM SRPINGS, OREGON MARCH 19, 1976 KAH-NEE-TA General Manager Dan Myles. Interview: (Q) J.P.: What changes would you consider top priority’ for the improvement of Kah- Nee-Ta? (A) D.M.: Mainly my aim will be to obtain week day conference business. In other words, we can realized the fact that the resort business is here and its increasing monthly. The week day business is not here, especially during the winter months. We have to work hard and concentrate on groups that will be meeting during the week., This is why we are concentrat ing on federal groups, state groups and educational groups because we find they usually meet on week days. That is, we are saturating these particular groups with letters of solicita tion. I hope we can realize a return on some of this solici tation this year, but is going to be hard. It usually takes about a year to build up a realistic back log of group business. I would like to go on record to say that by next year at this time the groups that we are contacting at present should start booking for the years to come. (Q) J.P.: Have there been appreciable improvements as a result of changes that you have instituted? In what particular areas? (A) D.M.: Well, one parti cular area which can be veri fied and that is in the expense bracket. Right now all I can do is cut down on expenses and try to control costs as much as possible. Next year I hope that in addition to cutting down expenses I will be able to in crease the income appreciably. (Q) J.P.: What major prob lems must you surmount in order to attain your goals? (A) D.M.: The largest problem we have here, and I imagine it is the same problem they have had ever since Kah- Nee-Ta has been open, and I will like to say that this prob lem is prevalent in all resort areas, and this is getting good experienced employees. This is rather unfortunate but being out in the “boondocks” as we are here, and as I was at my other resorts, there is not enough recreation or any other activities in which they can participate. Unless they are married and can socialize with other couples, most employees have a hard time adjusting to this solitude. This is one reason why Kah-Nee-Ta has built the employee recreation center/ where they will all be able to enjoy a recreation setup where . everyone can participate. We have a large building for them, we have furnished it for them, the Canteen Company is putting in a lot of recreational equip ment. They will be able to play cards, they will be able to have parties, conduct dances and many things in which everyone can enjoy. In addition to the above, they will be able to share the proceeds from the game machines and the com mission will then be placed into an employee recreation fund and they will be able to throw a party at no expense to any member with the income that is created from the game ma chines. We sincerely hope that this will solve one of our employee problems. (Q) J.P.: Ideally, that will eventually come about at Kah- Nee-Ta? In other words, what final product are you striving for? (A) D.M.: Well, in our final product here is to attempt to get an occupancy percentage of 70 percent all year round. Hopefully more but if we can reach an average of 70 percent, we will have a successful op eration. My other aim here, and I presented this to the Tribal Council from whom we are awaiting the word of approval, and that is to teach the tribal members to operate this place by themselves. To get more tribal members interested in Kah-Nee-Ta and in manage ment positions offered here. We want to establish a hotel school here. If we can get some motivated younger tribal mem bers in this hotel school, I would say that within about three years they will be oc cupying supervisory positions and within five years Kah-Nee- Ta should be operated by tribal managers. Actually, I under stand this was the aim of the Kah-Nee-Ta program when it first started and hopefully I can get the program operating if we can get some young people who are motivated in going into this particular field. We have some young tribal members here at Kah-Nee-Ta that are very good and whom I think will eventually be in management positions. There are some who just can’t under stand it and unfortunately are more interested in how much money they can make right now without having the fore sight to realize what’s in the future. The hotel business of fers a tremendous potential for young people. If we can only impress this fact' on the tribal members it may give them a goal that they should try to achieve. It must be understood that in the beginning they will not make the money that they can get some place else, but if they can realize that there is a terrific potential in this field, that they can go out and demand an average of $1,000 to $1,500 as a minimum monthly salary once they are educated, then this is something they have to look forward to, not only here but any place that they may want to go, in any part of the country. Can you realize what this will mean to the Confederated Tribes, to be able to state that they have their own tribal members hwere as managers of Kah- Nee-Ta. If we can get enough tribal members interested in forming a class, I know that the American Hotel Association will be glad to send lecturers to us, to show and make them realize what the potential in the hotel industry is to motivated people. They will be able to show them that the future is unlimited with regards to man agerial positions. Although we are trying to stimulate and motivate the younger tribal members, I think a lot of this motivation should come from the parents, who would be able to point with pride and the prestige .of hav ing their children in supervi sory and managerial positions at Kah-Nee-Ta. If you have a good reputation in this bus iness, you never have to worry about a postion being open. When I accepted the position of Manager of Kah-Nee-Ta, I had three other positions waiting for me to consider. I decided on Kah-Nee-Ta because I real ized what a terrific challenge this offered me. I would like to stress one factor to anyone that may be considering going into the hotel business. The hours are very long and the work is never ending. Weekends and holidays, when others are having a good time, hotel people have to work. The rewards are many and the results are gratifying. Another factor that they must consider — you have to enjoy the company of other people if you want to get into this bus iness. Some people are born with the ability and personality to meet the public. Others have to acquire this attribute and its a little harder. All in all, the end result and the pleasure of mixing with public is very gratifying. . (Q) J.P.: How will you go about improving the quality of service? Will it mean any turn over of present employees? Extra training? (A) D.M.: There is only one way that we can improve the quality of service, and that is by training, training and more training. The way we can do it is obtaining good, ex perienced supervisors' at pre sent and have them train the employees on proper service and proper attitudes. We have established new policy and pro cedures and to some employees this seems to be rather harsh. We are trying to change their attitude. Unfortunately, many of them resent changing the method of operation. Once they realize that what we are doing is professional and we are trying to systemize the opera tional procedures, they will ap preciate it because once they become established in a par ticular system, everyones job will be easier. In addition, it will make our guests happier. It can’t be done over night, but we feel that by the end of this year we will have a major portion of our employees well trained and working as pro fessionals. We are also going to change our style of service in the dining room during our heavy season. We will be going into buffets on Friday night and Saturday night. Serving Hunt breakfasts on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. By going the buffet service we will be able to give them variety, hot food, and they can’t complain about the ser vice because they will be serv ing themselves, with the assis tance of our waitresses and bus boys. Frankly, I hope this will be the answer to the problèm. If it is not, we’ll have to try something else. At least we will be trying to keep our guests happy at all times. (Q) J.P.: How aboi# ex penditures and deficits? Kah- Nee-Ta has been running‘ in the red. What are some of the specific ways :to improve .the situation? (A) D.M.: The only way it can be done is by « controls — very strict controls. Controlling purchases, controlling waste, controlling time, conducting time studies, controlling over time by having enough em ployees so you don’t have to have the time and a half factor. It all comes down again to what I said before, very, very tight controls. It has been observed small portion of em ployees resent controls and reg imentation and professionalism. This is what has to be in stituted here to really put Kah- Nee-Ta on a paying basis. Like that medicine you have to take to cure an illness, it may seem very harsh in the beginning. As the end result of that bitter medicine or operation, is good health. That’s what we hope the end result will be for the controls that we áre trying to establish here, Kah-Nee-Ta’s success. (Q) J,P.: What specific problem areas need attention at this time? (A) D.M.: To be perfectly honest, I would say that every area at Kah-Nee-Ta needs im mediate attention. In other words, what is involved is teamwork. It begins at the entrance of Kah-Nee-Ta, when the bell hop opens the door for the guests. It goes on to the front desk, where the front desk clerk pleasantly greets the guests. It follows through with the bell hop, taking the guests to their room. It also is im portant what the room looks like when the guests get there. It goes on into when the guest go swimming its the reception he receives from the life guards. It follows through into the dining room as to how the Matre’d greets the guests, how the waitress approaches the guests. Its the attitude of the bus help when they clear the dishes off the table. It is also the type of food that is served and how it is served. It is the time factor as to how long it takes to serve the food. It is the attitude of the cashier as she bids the guest good night, and the attitude of the bar tender when they go in the cocktail lounge to dance a few numbers before they retire. It is also the attitude of the or chestra or the combo, what kind of music they play, whether it pleases the guests. As you can see, it is not one particular area which is im portant in making our guests at Kah-Nee-Ta happy. Ninety nine percent of our personnel can do their utmost in making the guest happy. One percent can ruin all of the effrots just by being lackadaisical their at- tidue and thereby phase out all the good done by the ninety nine percent striving to make Kah-Nee-Ta a success.' This is why I say every one working at Kah-Nee-Ta has to be part of the team to make the guest happy to be abale to have him leave here and spread the word where ever he goes, that Kah- Nee-Ta is the only place to go for a vacation, a weekend, or for a visit. Reference: Questions pre sented to Dan Myles by J-.P. with regards to newspaper ar ticle. Week of March 8-12, 1976. LESLIE JOHNSON was recently appointed to fill the vacant Bar Manager position. Leslie has worked at Kah-Nee-Ta for most of the last 3, years, and was Bar Manager once before. She has worked a variety of jobs at Kah-Nee-Ta including waitress, hostess, bartender, and con vention and sales coordinator. ROBERT SMITH, new Juniper Room Maitre D’, was at the Safari Club in Estacada, before coming to Kah-Nee-Ta Lodge. His primary duty will be to train dining room personnel in proper service methods.
