BotH: Chapter 1

Chapter 1
The People of The Resort

There are four types of people who stayed at The Resort. During orientation as we marveled how fancy our resort was, we were taught how to treat our guests and what working with the various types of guests would be like. The Resort did not categorize them in this way, that is purely me and how I found them to be.

First you have Regular People. They are everyday people who save money to go and enjoy themselves for a weekend. Sometimes they are uber cheap because they can barely afford to stay there, but they are usually nice people. Most Regular People tip well because they know how hard it is to make money and they realize that we, like them, are also just Regular People. In the first few months I was there I saw Regular People mainly at events like weddings and some conferences, but I didn't work with them regularly until I had been there about eight months and switched departments.

Then there are the people who Think They're Rich (TTR). The TTR were mostly local patrons, mainly real estate agents, brokers, attorneys, socialites, etc that yes, they were rich, but in the scheme of "richness" around the world they weren't that rich. I'd say they were under $500,000 a year (not that that is something to scoff at...). I worked in the banquet department when I first started so I was around The TTR a lot. Rarely were they friendly or conversational and most of the time they treated the staff (and their friends for that matter) like their crap didn't stink. They were not the most fun people to be around...and they didn't tip well. The fun ones were the socialites who showed up to every party to hang out with The TTR and booze it up, usually making fools of themselves. There was a blonde who came to so many parties and you could hear the whispers among the guests wondering why she was there or see the looks of so-and-so has had to much to drink again. As entertaining as she was, this business man, Mr. Rude, was probably one of my most memorable experiences while working with The TTR and I'll get back to him later.

Then there are The Rich. These people are rich. Richey Rich rich. Some of them were so rich that you couldn't find them on the internet, and not because there was nothing to read about them, but because they had the internet cleaned of their presence. A certain man traveled with a security team every time he was at The Resort and rarely talked to us directly...but we'll talk about him more later. The Rich were also usually famous--but not celebrity famous-- famous in their own spheres of influence: CEO's, President's & VP's, Owners, etc. These people were the Bill Gates of their companies, just not as well known publicly.

Lastly there are The Celebrities. Since we were in Park City there was a pretty large celebrity circle that would come to ski or attend Hollywood-Type events (like Sundance). We had special training on how to interact with The Celebrities, mainly remembering to use their pseudonyms instead of their real names, even if it was ridiculously obvious who they were.

The employees that I worked with had varying degrees of experience in either food service or resorts, sometimes both and unfortunately sometimes neither. A lot of them were from all over the world and some of them had the most fascinating stories to tell. I want to go ahead and introduce you to the people you will hear about the most, there is kind of a lot.

Butlers: Nigel, Mike, and Ernest
Banquet team: Ben,Candace, Remy, Me, my mom, Tia, Susie, Christie, Rob, and Lee.
Banquet Bartenders: Chris and Ryan
Private Dining: Carlos, Alex, Josef, and  Steve
Registration and Reservations: Alicia, Ron, and Lucy
Chefs: Phil, Tony, Orrin, Billy, Jake, Eric, and Chelsea
Various management people: Melissa, Mr. Great, Amanda, Carrie, and Lori