A Precious Experience in Pullman Hotel Central Park, Jakarta

By  Tri Sulistiawati &  Jennyfer Laurencia

On January 6th, 2015, Tourism Students in the 5th semester of English Department had a table manner and Hotel tour in Pullman Hotel Central Park Jakarta. There are 23 students that participated in this event. The event is the embodiment of Travel, Hotel and Restaurant Management Course. The event extended some spillovers, such as apprehending the appropriate eating manner when attending monumental occasion, cognizing more about Pullman Hotel Central Park profile, and obtaining information regarding the opportunity to apply for internship in Pullman Hotel Central Park.
In Table Manner and Hotel Tour, the students were welcomed and led by Ronald Imanuel S.Pinem as the Senior Sales Manager Catering and Events Department and instructed technically by Ms. Tantriana and the team. They skimmed over and shared a lot of information about Pullman Hotel Central Park and western dining etiquette. It was commenced at 10 a.m. First session provided general information about the Hotel. It is located in sumptuous Podomoro City Super Block where has a strategic place. It takes approximately 25 minutes from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Jakarta and 15 minutes travelling-time from Sudirman Central Business District. With 195 opulent deluxe rooms, 67 imposing executive deluxe rooms, 54 plush executive suite rooms, and 1 comfortable presidential suite. This undoubtedly luxurious hotel is rendered for tourists and also indulges foreign executives on business trips.
The hotel offered top-end business center, swimming pool, fitness and spa lounge, 24- hour fitness center, and many more. Exclusively for VIP guests, the hotel has prepared an executive lounge. In this area, the guests are presented with a delightful breakfast menu that could not be found anywhere else. Provided by a famous company in France, Pullman Hotel owns some of the best amenities that could indulge its guests.

According to the writer’s opinion, Pullman Hotel Central Park maintains its uniqueness in the Bunk Lobby Lounge. Located in the Lobby of the hotel, this area serves tea, coffee and light meals. While visiting that particular area, the guests will experience a different atmosphere. Unlike many hotels in Indonesia that usually plays classical music, Pullman Hotel Central Park indulges its guests with DJ music which regularly played from Thursday to Sunday at 9.00 pm. -11.00 pm.

For Restaurants, Pullman Hotel features the Collage. In this place, the visitors is pampered with breakfast, lunch and dinner. The uniqueness in Collage are their art works. There are many art works that are presented to the guests. Apart from the restaurant Collage, this hotel also displays many art works inside the hotel building, such as in the lobby and the lift. All the artworks in the hotel were made by Yogyakarta artists who already made a name in France. Besides displaying art works, they also commercialize them to the guests who are interested to purchase. The security system in this hotel includes metal detector, and 24 hours CCTV monitors.
Pullman Hotel Central Park has the second biggest ballroom, which has already been suited for many big events such as the first Indonesian Idol and The Script Concert. After The Script concert, however Pullman Hotel had no longer accepted any concert in its ballroom. Apart from damaging the carpets, a lot of cigarette butts were left after the concert. Nowadays, the ballroom is only targeted for wedding event, fashion show, and many more. After receiving the information about Pullman Hotel, Mrs. Tantriana and her team gave a tour to the places that had already been explained.

After the students completed the tour around the hotel, they started their table manner session. There are three tables in total, all of which has one VIP member. These VIP members are chosen by the table manner instructor to become an indicator as for when they should stop eating. In this session, the students noticed that in western food sequence, they categorized it into eight steps: Canapés, Appetizer, Soup, Sorbet, Main Course, Dessert, Coffee/Tea, and Petit Four. Afterwards, there are many cutleries that the students should use. They should use the cutlery from the outer-most side of the basic plate. Moreover, there are many International Etiquette that they should practice, such as allowing the women’s and VIP members sit first; if a woman gets up from her seat, the man should stop eating and get up from his seat. If the VIP member already finish his/her food, the other members in the table should also stop eating; talking while eating is not allowed. Apart from that, the students also received information about what they should do when they got an invitation.

At the end of the course, the guide informed the students about the time and the rules to apply for internship in this hotel. Pullman Hotel Central Park cordially welcomes the students who are interested to do internship in this hotel. They divided the recruitment date for internship applicants into two periods: January and July.

This table manner and Hotel tour in Pullman Hotel Central Park finished at 3 P.M. Hopefully, this course can give a new insight about Hospitality Industries and can be beneficial to the participants in the future.