#+ MOST INCONVENIENT SIGNATURE PLACEMENT EVER

[multifandomtower-old]

so I went off tumblr for a few days bc we went on a trip but anyways; here are some fakes I made during said trip

[ellebeebee]

7kpp Secret Santa 2017

Happy Secret Santa, ya’ll~~

I got @awayandlaughing, and I did your first option, with Ria, Sayra, and Jasper preparing before the Summit, and a good deal of all the other servants preparing for/reacting to their assignments. 8)  And also a bit of an oblique reference to your Pippa~

Thanks @7kppsecretsanta for setting all this up!

-

One piece of parchment.  Of average size and quality, the ink upon it unremarkable though the penmanship was unmistakably refined.  No clandestine messages written in invisible ink marked its surface, and no imposing noble seal was fashioned to its signature.  The author of the note had been clear in its message, without flowery epithets or poetic allusions.

And yet it had, more effectively than Head Cook’s infamous triple chocolate trifle, silenced the servants’ dining hall that morning.

In normal circumstances, of course, butlers sat at the head table and maids, valets, and all other miscellaneous inside servants sat at the next two tables.  The bottom two were given to the grounds workers.  This morning, the grounds workers still sat in their usual spots, albeit with curious looks and crooks in the necks around at the others.  Now, black uniforms and neat pale pinafores interspersed the top tables, no longer confined to the formerly rigid partitioning.  Wide eyes and chewed lips dotted expressions.

The two girls were already waiting for him in their new places at the head table, already looking a bit squirmy.  Jasper adjusting his plate and glass in his hands and moved toward them.

And Edmun skittered into his path.  The pale young man breathed sharply through his nose.

“Jasper,” his slightly strangled voice edged out. “I assume you’ve seen the assignments--”

“Yes, I do believe we have all seen them,” Jasper said.  He waited pointedly for the other to move from his obvious intention of obstructing him.  When Edmun did not, Jasper exhaled softly. “Is there a problem, Edmun?”

“A pro--” Edmun stopped before he tossed himself completely out of propriety. “Sir.  As I understand it, the Matchmaker shares some confidence with you.  And so perhaps you are able to enlighten me as to her reasoning for…” He inhaled dramatically. “My assignment.”

Jasper’s brow arched incrementally. “The Crown Prince of Revaire is a prestigious placement.  I fail to see how you could harbor any disappointment.”

“As a valet,” Edmun deadpanned while a vessel pulsed at his temple. “I am a certified butler.  While Montgomery certainly has seniority by far, there’s no sense in wasting my skills--”

“I am sure I am mistaken, but it sounds like you are implying the Matchmaker has been nonsensical,” Jasper said.

“I… I didn’t mean…”

“Yes.  I am sure what you mean to say is that you are grateful for the chance to learn from a senior staff member like Montgomery and it will be an honor to serve such a highly-esteemed member of the nobility.”

Edmun’s tongue floundered for a return.

Jasper pointedly inclined his head. “Now, if you will excuse me, my tea is getting cold.”

Edmun let him by with a somewhat churlish ‘Yes, sir.’

Jasper was not one to put too much confidence in hearsay, but the sheer amount of anecdotal evidence concerning the Crown Prince of Revaire’s character did make the Matchmaker’s choice somewhat curious.  Montgomery was an old hand, if rather lackluster in personality.  Edmun and the other valet were, frankly, arrogant little things.  Hmm.

Perhaps she did not think subservient servants suitable for-- how had he put it-- such a highly-esteemed member of the nobility.

Honestly, though, he was hard put to imagine any other staff member protesting an assignment to a Crown Prince-- not because of his character-- but because it didn’t suit their dignity.

His assigned maids, a Ria and Sayra, sat near the opposite end of the head table.  Ria’s shoulders had a stiff set to them, and her eyes darted a bit.  While Sayra waited with all due inscrutable placidity.  And both had not touched their plates in deference to his absence, as they had been instructed.  That was a relief.  He didn’t need absolute obedience, but he did need amenable characters if this Summit was to be a success for their lady.

The girls rose from their seats at his approach, but he waved them back.

“Good morning,” he said, taking his own chair.

“Good morning,” they replied, Sayra with quiet confidence and Ria just one moment behind her.  She blushed at her fumble.

Jasper ignored it.  He gave them a few introductory comments about the time they will spend together in the future, and the essential nature of their jobs.  Although it is the ruling class who steers the course of the world, they cannot do it without trustworthy and competent help.  Which was made quite difficult by the young maid a few seats down seasoning her slowly congealing cream of wheat with her noisy tears.

“Oh, do buck up,” a young butler nearby finally told her. “How bad can it be, really?”

She blinked wetly at him, her face gone ruddy and drippy. “I’ve-- I’ve-- It’s the pr-prince from Hise.”

The young butler raised a brow. “Do they have princes there?”

This did not console the girl.  She hiccuped. “I d-don’t want to be kidnapped.”

“Oh, yes, how inconvenient that would be,” the young butler agreed solemnly. “After all, I hear dying from scurvy is quite painful.”

The girl gave a quiet wail.  Another younger butler across her looked sympathetic.

“Oh, don’t please.  Listen, I have the princess from Hise and I have taken the initiative of pulling a volume of anti-kidnapping self-defenses from the library.  You can look over it as well.”

The teasing butler bit his lip around a snort.

“That’s enough,” Jasper finally raised his voice to address them.  Their seatmates around them quieted. “As Isle servants, it is not our place nor does it particularly speak well of us to judge our lords and ladies, no matter where they may hail from.  Keep your thoughts to yourself and do your work.”

A tentative chorus of ‘Yes, sir’s’ ran down the table.

Another young girl, despite her more senior companion’s glares, sort of half-raised her hand in a not-yet discarded schoolroom habit.

“But, Jasper, sir--  What if, if say, you’ve been assigned to someone you think might have unusual interests.  Such as, well-- Such as, say, p-puzzles, or piano forte, or maybe, you know,” she paused and fiddled with her braid. “Poison.”

A barely-stifled collective gasp ran down the table, worse than any penny play of the most purple prose.

Jasper eyed her.  This girl and her companion were given a position with a young man of Corval.  A country of which there was no shortage of lurid tales of evil schemers and courtly machinations.  Though there is no smoke without fire, much of these tales were idle fancy.

Jasper opened his mouth, but this girl ploughed on as if the dam on her anxieties had broken.

“I mean it doesn’t do any harm, right?  To read and prepare in case you have to handle any-- any p-poisons, right?  And practice lying, right?  I’ve heard to be a good servant in Corval you must learn to lie for your master and be deadly loyal.  I’m not-- I’m not going to have to be buried alive beside them if they die, right?”  Her voice shrilled on this last.

From the corner of his eye, Jasper could see Ria’s blush draining away to a horrified palor.  Really.  Although their future charge was also Corvali, he had hoped that the girls would be a bit more sensible than this.  Well.  Better an impressionable person with honesty than a hardened veteran with ulterior motive.  He loudly cleared his throat.

“That is absolutely enough of that, thank you,” Jasper told the panicking girl. “The practice of burying servants with their masters hasn’t been practiced in Corval in millenia.  And in any case, there will be no poison, and positively no deaths during the Summit.  What nonsense.”

He studied them all as they withered under his eye. “It seems to me that you all have much work to do in preparation before the arrivals, so I think it would be best to end breakfast early.”

He stood-- the most senior butler present-- and the others rushed to cover their surprise and stand as well.  The line of servants was dotted with sullen glares at the worriers for denying them their meal.  As they all marched sadly out of the dining hall, Jasper gestured at Ria and Sayra to keep up with him.  Sayra wore her ever-calm face, yet her counterpart noticeably still looked wan with shaking fingers wringing her pinafore’s hem.

He gave an internal sigh.  They had so much work to do.

-

In the following weeks, Jasper wondered not a few times whether the Matchmaker was specifically testing his patience.  And what, exactly, that meant about his future mistress.

Even if he were inclined to speculate on the matter, he hardly had time inbetween the hours spent prepping Ria and Sayra and the incessant pestering of those servants disinclined to just do their jobs.

Of particular annoyance was Dietr, the very newest to be qualified as a butler and given the appointment of the princess from Wellin; Jasper found himself ambushed around every corner, in every common room and parlor, with Dietr’s desperate pleas for guidance in the intricate art of etiquette.  From the proper bow of an earl to a duke on their third meeting, to the correct color of china to serve an impromptu second afternoon tea on-- the boy was near in tears over the most esoteric minutiae of proper behavior, certain that he was beyond under-qualified for his lady and that he would most certainly offend her the very moment she first laid eyes on him.

On top of that, a very petty form of hierarchy was wriggling its way into the staff.  Assignments were furtively compared, and suddenly the butler of a Revairan count thought they could order the servants of a Hisean lord to do their laundry.  The Hisean lord’s servants argued that rank was irrelevant in Hise and anyway, how dare they, etc.  A nasty feud of over-starched knickers ensued.

And of course, there was the incident wherein a maid had three of her fingers broken after she and her partner kept sneaking into the sparring practice room to clumsily whack at each other with wooden swords.  After a thorough dressing-down, they explained they were terrified their future Skaltan lady would deem them useless having never studied the blade.

Jasper was not sure where he found the time to drill his maids in the Summit schedule and etiquette, and have them practice their skills, amidst all of this chicanery, but he knew it had involved not a few cups of very stiff tea.

It was a shame that information about ladies of Corval’s inner sanctums was near impossible to obtain, else he would have had the girls work on ways to enhance their lady’s particular charms.  But with the sheer amount of different cooks and laundresses they practiced on, he had no doubt they would be ready no matter what stepped through that chamber door.  And he himself had the delegation roster down pat perfectly, and felt confident he would be able to assist her whatever her goals may be.

And with his and Sayra’s careful nudging, Ria seemed to largely divest herself of notions of being buried alive.

A success all around.

-

The door clicked softy behind Jasper and the lady’s exit, and Ria immediately slumped with a loud exhale.

Sayra patted her arm. “See?  All that worrying for nothing.”

Ria’s hand flew up to cover the sudden heat washing over her cheeks. “Oh!  I know!  When I think about how silly I’ve been-- Oh, Sayra, how did you and Jasper ever put up with me?”

Sayra knelt by the large suitcases to begin organizing and putting away the mountains of silk and beading and jewels.

“You make it easier than you think,” she said.

“So silly,” Ria repeated. “I’ve been terribly, terribly silly.  And when she is so lovely-- Oh, Sayra, promise me, please, you’ll never tell her all the awful things I was worried about.”

Sayra gave her small, soft smile. “It’s a promise.”

[gmtalksbolum2-blog]

GM Talks Bölüm 2

Hotel Desk Performance Guide

Many a times, lodge needs to ship official letters to other individuals and companies. These letters might be within the form of invitation to an occasion, thanks letters, confidential data, cost acknowledgement and many extra. If the lodge owns an e-signature of their own, they can simply dispatch electronic document with blink of an eye. Containing the official lodge seal in the type of signature, the recipient cannot deny that the letter got here from the approved personnel.

Lock confidential information

Like each enterprise, lodge enterprise also has confidential info that they want to be accessible solely to authoritative figures and business house owners. This want for confidentiality of clandestine data can be achieved very well by way of this function.

E-sign provides a set of two keys which are used to lock the smooth copy paperwork and forestall illicit access to them. The primary secret is held by the signing entity and the person retains this key with himself alone. Nevertheless the opposite key in the set, primarily referred to as public key, may be prolonged to any individual or entity with whom the signing entity desires to share the doc. In this approach, another one who does not have the first or public key of the doc would not have the ability to open it.

Affirm reservations

A lot of the instances, guests reserve their rooms in accommodations ahead of time. This saves them from inconvenience and likewise serves as an edge for resort administration who can prepare for the best hospitality of their clients.

Lodge administration can use documents protected with e-signatures to make reservations. This may prevent mismanagement and make sure that only valid entries are made to reservation data. Later the same knowledge can be used for payment purposes.

Safeguard the funds

Be it management of finances or overseeing the funds, paying the salaries or spending for gross sales and advertising and marketing, budget administration or general maintenance, resort enterprise requires loads of expenditures under varied heads. E-sign is by far probably the most protected manner of securing monetary documents. It safeguards them from unauthorized entry and makes certain that when sealed, no alteration takes place.

With the hospitality business exploding with the growth in tourism within the U.S. as the results of the newly devalued U.S. dollar, an increasing number of people at the moment are making the choice of a profitable and rewarding resort restaurant administration career when choosing a job.

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That is vital, as a result of so much of the running a tremendous restaurant or lodge is done by the workers which can be confronted with repetitive duties day in and time out. In case you have your eye on a lucrative lodge restaurant administration career then the time to begin pursuing your end purpose is now and there are really two methods to go about it.

One popular approach is to obtain your coaching on the job and work your manner up the ladder in a restaurant or hotel. The issue with this selection paylaşımda bulundular although is that it might take years and you may be exhausting pressed to obtain the proper training in areas akin to accounting and purchasing.

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Managing the lodge operations is tough to say the least. You are in control of everyday resort operations and you are ultimately the person who is liable for guaranteeing that each one the processes run smoothly. Except for that, the operations supervisor for resorts is the one who verifies that the group is worthwhile and in good condition on the entire - in seems, services, features, services and so on. With all of these items in mind, you may think that it is unimaginable so that you can keep an eye on what occurs within the constructing. Nonetheless, it is not that difficult if you have established a reliable handle the operations of hotels KPI.

The KPI or key efficiency indicator will present assist for you in conserving track of the productivity and the effectivity of your small business processes. Utilizing manage the operations of lodges KPI, it is simpler for the operations supervisor to supervise all the completely different procedures inside the resort. Since you're tasked to observe the front desk, housekeeping, food service and bellhop personnel, you generally have the power to start or end the employment of the employees members.

Lodges closely rely on manpower thereby making your employees worthwhile if they're skilled and educated concerning the job that has been assigned to them. You have to make the precise decisions at all times in the case of coping with the people who find themselves working for the hotel enterprise. Otherwise, day to day tasks won't be carried out due to poor efficiency and conduct. Bigger motels typically have quite a few managers for every division but they'll make reports obtainable to the operations manager. This way it is going to be less complicated to gather all the mandatory information to take necessary actions relating to varied occasions since you do not have the troublesome job of overseeing the whole hotel operations personally.

Apart from worker monitoring, you may make the most of hotel management indicator to keep track of the profitability of your online business. Oftentimes, that is the priority of any effort in lodge operations administration attributable to the fact that resorts rely on budgets and revenue. Since you might be liable for guaranteeing that the resort is being profitable whereas it works throughout the allotted finances, you will need to test the money circulate of your resort using manage the operations of inns KPI. You should utilize the key performance indicators as your information in making selections about repairs, upgrades and even general lodge improvement.

Handle the operations of motels KPI is just not full with out monitoring the experiences of the friends. These are the those that you have to please all the time. Using your providers, glorious accommodation options, environment friendly amenities and friendly workers, you possibly can assure their satisfaction. Nevertheless, this does not cease there; you have to search for different means of enhancing your gives to your shoppers so as to assist customer retention and loyalty for the way forward for your business. Care for them at all times together with their needs and requirements so that you'll avoid complaints and protests from them.

As a lodge proprietor/investor with maybe one or two hotel property, you have got invested your exhausting-earned capital and risked publicity to recourse on your loans in pursuit of a profitable lodging operation. Moreover, given your limited publicity to the hotel industry, you could have selected knowledgeable management agency to function your lodge. Perhaps a "first-tier" administration firm, an organization that not only franchises hotels but also provides administration services.

Alternatively, you may have selected a "second-tier" agency. That is a lodge proprietor/franchise holder with dozens, possibly even tons of of motels who manage their own belongings and those of others. Or maybe you'll have chosen a smaller, boutique agency with possibly a hotel or two of their own who're in search of to grow their administration portfolio. Irrespective of whom you've gotten selected, your expecting that they may have your greatest pursuits at heart with every resolution they make. Effectively that may not exactly be the case.

The goals of lodging property house owners and traders are sometimes philosophically or financially fully aligned with the goals their appointed management or at occasions even their model. Operators and brands often have competing goals, which are in direct battle with maximizing house owners' return. For example, brands have a stake in sustaining brand requirements and creating "brand fairness" which may not all the time be in the perfect economic interests of a person lodging asset. Sure manufacturers will argue that what's good for the brand could have some trickle down have an effect on on you, however changing your brand new wallpaper behind the entrance desk from one shade of beige to a shade the brand needs to install in any respect of its hotels (which I've been requested to do by a significant brand - who shall remain anonymous) is really just a poor use of capital that will never impression both revenues or visitor satisfaction.

Administration corporations, alternatively, have an curiosity in growing their portfolios and their revenues (often a share of yours) but will not be motivated to assist your lodging operation in attaining its particular person peek financial performance in the quick, or worse, long term. They might additionally lack expertise or the inducement to control prices, goal the best market place for an individual property, maximize a hotel's market penetration or possess the knowledge to find their means through the myriad of old and new distribution channels.

Provided that the average management fees, that are at the moment round 2.5% of a hotel's total gross revenues (including any incentive fees), are significantly under the fees of yesteryear, is it any wonder. Over the previous couple of years, in an try to grow revenues, administration companies are centered on creating incremental income by including properties to their roster at decrease charges. Many of those companies are protecting the same amount of personnel and sources in place spreading them over extra belongings.

Take the following instance. At the present charge of charges, an extra $25,000 in resort revenues represents about $500 in fees. Let's face it, $500 will not be a major enough return on the extra efforts, employees time and resource allocations that would be required by the administration firm to generate that additional $25,000. Nevertheless, as the proprietor, it might probably make the distinction between paying your mortgage from cash movement or out of your pocket.

The economic details just do not add up. Think about a typical, select-service resort with 100 guest rooms, a median day by day fee of $70 and a 70% annual occupancy. The average fees for this lodge can be around $35,000. With management companies per resort revenues at this low level, what can an proprietor actually count on of them? Whereas your lodge might profit from any buying power, it would additionally absorb any bills derived from the management firms related travel, accounting companies, co-operative advertising and marketing, and many others. This is often an space where some income misplaced in the last few years is re-gained by some less scrupulous administration companies.

When charges are at this low degree, the game turns into volume. It isn't my intention to bash any administration firm. I used to be the Chief Operating Officer of three small to mid-dimension companies operating nationwide brands as well as luxury unbiased hotels and I presently symbolize many lodge homeowners by our consulting follow. I see either side of the problem. However... there are few enterprise focused on quantity sales in any industry that come to mind as being known for excellent ranges of service to its clients.

So what is an proprietor to do? Develop into an knowledgeable owner who takes cost in monitoring their hotel's performance (or who hires somebody to do so for them). Understand that for $35,000 a 12 months in fees, your services could also be restricted to limited oversight of an on property manager; hopefully an excellent one. In the event you interact a administration firm now or are within the levels of interviewing one, ask your self some questions on your relationship and how you can be informed of your hotel's stage of success. You might not need all the steered information under but you most actually need some. Ask your self do you...

oget a report from a representative of the firm who's on-website for a day or two every month detailing their findings of the physical plant, operations and sales efforts by the personnel they supervise? Does their discovering match yours?

oreceive timely month-to-month operational statements that examine results to the finances and last year?

oreceive monthly studies on the hotel's performance as measured by third occasion companies corresponding to

1) Smith Travel Research's STAR report to assessment your REVPAR efficiency towards an accurate competitive set and market tract;

2) TravelClick's Hotelligence experiences to measure your GDS penetration;

three) Distribution channel contribution studies to evaluation your brand, internet, wholesaler, GDS and other contributions to your revenues?

oreceive monthly reserving tempo studies to review where you stand in revenues compared to the same time last year together with an motion plan for improvement?

oreceive monthly gross sales studies similar to; High Consumer Report demonstrating the resort's high 20 purchasers' productiveness and changes of their productiveness yr-over-12 months; stories on the returns generated from advertising expenditures in pay-per-click on, GDS, print and other advertising media; and Gross sales Particular person Productivity Reviews to find out who is selling and producing at your resort?