Spring Cleaning Motel Style

I thought I would give a little insight into my "other life", you know the 3D version of life. For those that don't know or haven't figured it out yet; blogging and politics is not my primary employment. I pay the bills by working as a Maintenance Engineer at the West Gate Inn in Grand Junction. Essentially that is the manager of all the maintenance stuff for the motel, restaurant and lounge. I have 5 employees that do the real work, I get to just lead the way.

You might be asking why we would have so many employees to unplug a toilet or change a remote control battery? Unlike chain motels that do room remodels every 4 or 5 years for all the rooms, we are remodeling all the time. We paint, replace carpet, replace wallpaper, etc... when the room actually needs the work completed not on a set schedule.

We have regularly scheduled maintenance of rooms as well, where we check every item in a room make sure it functioning properly and looks good. We shampoo the carpets in the rooms regularly and yes we deal with all regular requests that pop up from time to time from the customers. We have 100 rooms at West Gate so that keeps us pretty busy.

Then comes May....

I like May in the motel business because that is when stuff starts to get a little busy for the Maintenance Department. May is the month that we spend a lot of our time getting ready for the busy summer season. There is a lot of outdoor stuff in May that we get to play with; getting the swimming pool ready, starting the irrigation for the season, grass has to be cut and all the mud of winter washed away outside. Then of course there preparing the swamp coolers (for those in wet climates that is a cooler that uses water to cool) for the season, getting the outdoor patio ready and planting flowers. During the slower winter season we shut down sections of the motel so we are not heating empty rooms, May is when we start them all up again.

During a normal year all of items we try to have wrapped up by Memorial Day. This year however, we are trying to get done by the 20th, which just so happens to be the day that Cabela's has it's grand opening...

Shameless Plug.....

If you happen to be in Grand Junction, Colorado for the opening of the Cabela's store and are looking for a nice place eat, sleep or drink, visit the West Gate Inn or Otto's Restaurant and Lounge. Only 2 miles from Cabela's and I hear they have a friendly staff as well.

End of shameless plug

I have always like doing the "behind the scenes" jobs, where you know the only thanks is knowing that a customer is happy and comfortable. I am blessed with a good crew of employees which makes all of this work a lot easier. So the next time you happen to stay at any motel and everything looks good and works right, take a second and fill out a comment card or tell the folks at the front desk about your stay, a little appreciation goes a long way in motel maintenance.

So now you know why I may not post as much or respond as fast to comments on Plumb and Square during May, but it will get back to normal soon so bear with me...