Hospitality 24/7

Open 24 hours a day all 365 days of each year, at mile post 1.5 the Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks in Kitty Hawk is the first of more than three dozen hotels that visitors from the north encounter as they cruise down NC 12.

Ready at the front desk to greet guests most nights is Monica Zafra, one of about 90 employees the hotel has on hand to provide visitors with a pleasant home away from home experience.

“I like meeting guests and talking with them,” said Zafra, who started working at the Hilton in 2006 when the hotel first opened its doors to the public.

Sometimes those talks are when guests check in and other times while checking out. Other times when they come down for coffee, or sometimes just to talk with her at the front desk. In any case, she takes time to have a friendly conversation.

Like when two guests check out at 12:48 a.m. and then again a few minutes later as another lady takes her dog out for a walk.

When talking with guests, Zafra often asks if they are Club members or want to be Club members. She directs guests to a small room just around the corner from the front desk with an assortment of personal care items, snacks and drinks. Each member earns points from their stay and can use those points at the in-house restaurant or to purchase

by Philip S. Ruckle Jr.

items from the pantry.

Although a majority of guests stopping in from all across the U.S. and Canada generally arrive earlier in the day, there is still plenty for Zafra and her night time coworkers to do during a regular 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.

In addition to welcoming late arrivals to the Hilton at the beginning of their stay, among other things Zafra confirms guest identities, matches names to room assignments and collects an extra fee along with the required paperwork if there are pets.

When not talking to people face to face, she might be found chatting over the phone when people call to check on room prices or if a guest has a question or problem in their room. In those latter cases, after talking a minute or two, Zafra may have to go upstairs to help resolve an issue for one of the guests.

Returning to the front desk, a check sheet of tasks to be completed during each shift is reviewed.

One item is to provide bags with water for Diamond Club members. There is also a tour – or several tours – of each hotel hallway to the 180 rooms to make sure everything is clean and safe.

“A lot of people want to stay here,” said Zafra. “They pay good money to stay here and they don’t want to go someplace else. So we need to make sure that everything is right for them. So they are happy and want to come back.”

Sometimes that requires a room switch if there is a problem, or if for some other reason the customer is not happy.

“It is very much like saying that the guest is always right,” explained Zafra. “And when we deal with guests we try to go beyond what is required. We try to do more than what we are supposed to do, because we care.”

It might also mean when the hotel is booked solid she might be cleaning a room after an early checkout so the room could be resold.

It’s just a quick clean, changing bed sheets and providing clean towels. Housekeeping takes care of any major cleaning of rooms and providing towels and other things.

“We don’t vacuum because we don’t want to wake up the other guests,” Zafra explained of the late night quick clean. With rooms assigned by the morning manager who checks guest requests, that helps provide a less active evening shift.

“I like working nights because they are generally more calm,” continued Zafra.

She then added that she doesn’t always sleep well at night anyway. Zafra went on to say nights were a perfect schedule fit while working another job, although she gave up the other job when she married and later had twins born in March 2022.

That doesn’t mean nothing goes on at night. Sometimes, more often in the summer months, a lot of people check in during her shift. Especially at those times when the hotel is sold out.

“Sometimes people do come in late at night,” Zafra commented. “That is more frequently in the summer months when we have weddings and groups and a lot of events.”

Overall, Zafra said, the Hilton is a nice place to work because her co-workers are more or less like family.

“And,” she continued, “if we do have an issue outside of work with problems, when we come in to work our boss will try to help us figure out how to solve it. That’s a good thing, that at the Hilton they care a lot about you.”