selena sprout

Honestly, I never thought that I would do a job related to sales, marketing duty (haha), but now as a Main Host, I do and control expenses, revenue, and human management. Sales is an important part of my role. I found my feet in a small family business which allows myself to find meaningfulness and a lot of life lessons rather than a big cooperation with a high salary before. I will share about it later. 

(My “già” friends said: You don’t look like a manager (haha), my personality is so distracted, forgetful and cheerful. In work, I try to have a professional attitude, this is the reason why I always spend my spare time hanging out with my friends to let me be real myself).  

I planned to write details about my Host journey (what I learned to become a Host and how Host changed my perspective). I am still on the on the journey of hosting, I actually would like to look back on it after more than 1 year. However this idea is still pending due to some other tasks. Last week, my leader (my manager) required me to write a brief “Company Profile” for internal team training. It is okay to say that I am confident to write about what I sell: an accommodation service. Understanding the building, acknowledging every small detail in the room, having a high demand for room quality help me to bring the good experience to the guests. I am happy to share with you a part of my job. 

*If you find any errors in English grammar, I am happy to receive your feedback. Thank you. 

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Personel: Thảo

1. History 

Wecozy, originally is Duy Tan Apartment, was a local family-run building founded by Mrs. Lan’s Family. Duy Tan Apartment was constructed in the beginning of 2001 and opened its door to welcome the very first guests in September 2002. It was the one of the first serviced apartments built in Hanoi Food Street, located at 20 Tong Duy Tan, Hang Bong, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. After 18 years, when the tourism industry in Vietnam has been changed and developed significantly, Mrs. Thao (Mrs. Lan’s daughter) who has come back to Vietnam after many years of studying and working in France, decided to bring a breath of fresh air to Duy Tan Apartment. As an innovative accommodation model, Wecozy has been born with an ambition of creating the stay experience full of relaxation, authenticity and uniqueness specializing on great customer care.

2. Location

Wecozy – Railway Side, The Old Quarter is mainly for the traveller guests (solo, couple or family) and business guests stay from days to years in Hanoi. The building, which has its central place in Hanoi, is situated in the heart of the famous and unique Food Court with restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores and pubs open 24/7 to offer you a range of choices for your needs and demands. Behind the building is “Train street” which allows guests to have views on the railroad and see trains crossing the building. You can easily find Hanoi’s most popular landmarks such as The Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake, St. Joseph Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, Train street, Hanoi Flag Tower, Hoa Lo Prison, Museums, etc. within 5-10 minutes walking distance.  

3.  Apartment services and facilities

There are 8 floors in the Wecozy – Railway Side, The Old Quarter, in total 15 rooms and in which 7 are one-bedroom apartments, 6 are two-bedroom apartments, 1 is a three-bedroom apartment, and 1 is a studio which embraces modern minimalism style with pastel color. All of the apartments are super spacious, the smallest apartment size is 45 sq meters and the biggest is approximately 200 sq meters wide. Three apartments on the 4th and 8th floor have a huge balcony at least 15 sq meters wide in conditions of good city view as well as relaxation. Guests access your own bedroom, living room, bathroom with the full, needed equipment and utensils in the apartment.

The common area includes a motorbike parking area, a common kitchen, a laundry area, a restroom, and a green plant in-door space located at the lobby and on the first floor. From 2-8 floors are where the apartments are located, the 9th floor is the rooftop. 

You step very first steps into the building, and it’s very common for our guests to immediately express how they feel the warm, open, kind energy and welcoming atmosphere in our space from the moment you arrive. Cleaning lady team often freshens up the hallway and common space to make sure you will have a great experience during your stay with us. You will be able to have your own private space while enjoying the interaction with our hosts and other guests in the common areas. Our common space size is more than 200 sq meters in size on the lobby and 1st floor. You can lay on the sofa, gently sip a cup of hot coffee/tea at common space. You also may cook with yourself or join us for a meal at the modern, sparkling clean and full utensils kitchen. Although almost all of our rooms have a washing machine and a drying rack. Laundry area next to the kitchen has two washing machines and two drying machines that allow you to do laundry by yourself with a friendly “Honesty Laundry Box” for payment. 

Delighted to our service, our friendly local hosts are always available at our lobby from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm or 24/7 hotline to support you with anything you might need. Host Front Desk also provides offline services such as checking and booking bus tickets, booking taxi/van, airport transfer and shares other recommendations. You will have an absolutely new experience in interacting with the host, small talk will bring us together in some way. The host does not hesitate to rearrange her/his own schedule to explore Hanoi with you. 

If you are a traveller who will depart on a late flight and does not stay in the room for an extra surcharge. You can take a shower with our free towels, shampoo provided in the 1st common restroom or store your luggage in one of eight locker cabins at the lobby. 

4. Apartment specialities 

In the morning, the daily and very first task of our host do reservation system checking on the computer to write and decorate the welcome board which we write carefully every single guest’s name by hand, “welcome to wecozy” and “being at home” by telling our teammate and you know who is coming and is staying at the building. Welcome board is a socialization tool we feel happy to do. Next to the Welcome Board, there are a thousand sweet notes that record memorable moments of guests and our teammate. Leaving a note, our hosts will be happy to read your writing. 

Our happiness is contributing just a few little things to make a memorable trip for someone who travels from another place on the Earth to Hanoi, Vietnam. They planned their trip several months in advance, have expectations and assumptions about the experience they will have, and hope their trip will be as awesome as they imagined when reading reviews online and watching a ton of videos of bloggers before. It is so surprising for us if we know your birthday or your special occasion. Our hosts are pleased to support guests on these special days, for instance, we write delight words on a small blackboard at the lobby and prepare a birthday cake, a fresh local flower pot as our best gifts to you. 

Our team offers a pretty welcome basket, some Vietnamese delicacies that we selected for guests. We put this basket on the kitchen table in the room, you will easily make an instant coffee cup or teacup to enjoy the space at the very first moment. You also find a 10% discount card for juices at Juice Bazar in this basket, let use it at Juice Bazar where our partners try their best to bring the most quality of juice. 

5. Green Actions

Knowing that the tourism industry affects the local environment and local people, Wecozy – Railway Side, The Old Quarter is our good environmentally-friendly practice model. We promote greener ways for guests and us to do green actions. In your apartment, we use reusable water glass bottles, bamboo toothbrushes, reusable and refilled shampoo and shower bottles to cut our waste at the building. Minimalism decoration added some green plants, flowering plants to create a mindfulness space for relaxing for you and your loved one on the one hand, also help us make a modern space on the other hand. Moreover, all of our teammates do sorting waste every day, via small-scale collecting activities, we sell waste amounts at a low price for low-income women to raise their income just by collecting, recycling plastic bottles, and papers. You can see and join us at the waste-sorting point in “Garbage Room” at the lobby. By encouraging the host, cleaning woman team, maintenance team, and our guests (traveller, business person) to play their important part in our business’s green journey, we strongly believe that our actions are small but create a change. 

6. Juice Bazar

Juice Bazar, fresh juice store can be found on the right hand, next to the main door. Juice Bazar, Vietnamese juice brand, was also founded in 2017 by Thảo, Quân and Nghĩa. At Juice Bazar, you will see how they make your tasty juice ensures you know exactly what went into the cool-press machine and how clean, fresh, high-vitamin local fruits and vegetables are as you make your own juice at home. Sipping the Juice Bazar juice is an amazing experience because the juice has no added sugar, colour, and preservatives. You can have a seat in the store from 6 a.m to 11 p.m, and various drinks can be chosen from the beverage list, making you feel “oh” due to its cool names such as Super Veggies, Ring the Bell, Happy Green or Kale Me Maybe. All of the juice recipes were researched and created by Juice Bazar.