Working at JV’s

February 17, 2012. Written in Shanghai, China
Working at JV’s

February 3 was the hostel’s owner Vanessa’s birthday. In the evening, the whole staff was going to go out and celebrate. Vanessa came to my dorm and approached me.
“Esra, would you like a free room tonight?” she asked me.
“Well, yes, thank you.”
“I am not giving it for free though…”
Vanessa asked me if I could look after the hostel during the time that the staff would go out for dinner. I had no problems with that, and accepted. Vanessa gave me instructions on what to do. How to do the laundry, fold the fresh bedding and welcome new guests. Two guests had booked and were supposed to come during the time that I was on duty. I received the office key and some money to give the guests their change if  neccessary.
So here I was, working for the first time in 5 months, with no other staff around in the hostel. I set the washing machine, and in the meantime spent my time folding the fresh bedding that had just come out of the dryer while watching TV with Thomas and Quinn in the living room. Folding bedding was a first time in life experience, and I can’t say that I was very good at it. I hope that no one complained about strangely folded bedding the next day.
While being busy doing this, an American guest approached me.
“Where’s the bread!?” he asked me pointing at the bread corner. At JV’s, you can eat toasts for free, but apparently there was no bread left. I told him that I was sorry and that he had to wait until the next day. A bit disappointed the guy gave up on his bread and went back to his room.
A few minutes later, this time a black guy was standing in front of the bread corner with a question mark on his head. He turned his face to me and asked.
“No bread!?”

Soon, the first guest came. He was a Latin American guy that had booked a dorm room. He came in smiling, and I shook hands with him.
“Man, you really have to rewrite your route description. I searched for hours!”
I told him that I was sorry and would inform the real staff about this. But to be honest, I personally had no problems whatsoever with the route description when I first came.
When I tried to receive his money, he mentioned a discount he could get because he had booked in advance. I was not instructed about this, so told him to pay when the real staff would come back.
After having put his luggage in the dorm room, the guy came back to the living room, and said that it was cold. He wanted me to do something about it. There was an air-conditioner in the room, but it seemed to be only for cold air. He then asked me where he could take some Chinese lessons and how much the lesson fee would be. For the 3rd time I told him that I was not a real staff and didn’t know. A bit disappointed, the guy nodded and decided to concentrate on the movie that was being shown on the TV instead.
A few moments later, a Japanese girl from Hokkaido called Moe came to pay for a few more nights. I told her that the real staff was not there right now and that she could pay me instead. Because I had been joking around with her before, she first thought I was making a joke and didn’t want to pay. But when I assured her that I was really a staff at the moment by showing the office key, she decided to believe me and payed for 2 more nights.
“Don’t spend it on adult-video’s OK!?”
I was worried if I wasn’t doing too bad in my job as a staff, but when I asked Thomas he shook his head.
“Much better than the real staff!” he said.
Next, the other guest that had booked came in. The problem was though, that they were 2 guests while I had only been informed about one guest. They said that they had booked 2 rooms. I called Vanessa and she said that she would send Coke (a real staff member) to fix the problem. I made a conversation with the 2 guys to make them feel comfortable while waiting, and when Coke arrived, my job was finally over.  I was an experience and a free room richer!