Beginning to check into it
InterContinental program gives students a glimpse of life in the hotel industry
The parents of three freshly graduated Wayland High School seniors can't complain about their boys not doing their chores anymore - the teenagers just spent a week learning how to wash dishes, make beds, and ultimately run a AAA-designated four diamond hotel as part of a pilot program at InterContinental Boston.
The trio is taking part in LiveFire, a new seven-day internship that finishes up tomorrow. In the program, students work in all aspects of the hotel industry, from security to housekeeping to waiting tables and washing dishes.
The students, Matthew Lombardo, 18, Tyler Fisher, 18, and Jonathan Kazarian, 17, lived at the hotel for the week and spent each day with a new job title, working their way up the line to manager and learning the ins, outs, and intricacies of each tier of labor. The students worked in laundry, stewarding, cooking, housekeeping, office work, turn-down service, barback labor, security, spa service, and more.
"Every day, we start at the bottom and work our way up," said Lombardo. "With housekeeping, we started actually cleaning the rooms and worked our way up to supervisor and manager and just saw every aspect of it from the ground up."
The program is intended to give students valuable experience doing a variety of jobs in the hospitality industry.
"The whole idea is that they don't get to pick what they want to do," said Timothy Kirwan, general manager of InterContinental Boston, who came up with the idea for LiveFire. "There's a little bit of everything, a complete cross-exposure to all the different disciplines."
Kirwan's idea for LiveFire was inspired by an internship program he witnessed at Harvard University in the '70s while he was working at another hotel. The goal is to put on the program twice a year. Kirwan said the program has been well received by the company, and the program will be rolled out at more of InterContinental's 38 North American hotels.
The three students in the pilot program were recommended by Wayland High's dean of students and all plan to major in business. Kazarian is off to Bentley in the fall; Fisher to the University of Delaware; and Lombardo to the University of Vermont. For them, the week has been a way not only to hone their business skills but to gain an appreciation for the people they may one day manage.
"We went around for an hour cleaning rooms. We didn't even do a full day and I was exhausted," Fisher said. "The detail they go into with cleaning the rooms is amazing - places you would never think to clean. They dust the top of a frame in the corner of the room."
Along the way, they have learned from their mistakes - even the little things count toward the overall appearance at a luxury hotel.
"Hands in the pockets," Kazarian said. "Never put your hands in your pockets." "And leaning on the concierge desk!" added Fisher.
John Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.
