Job had lots of downtime, but almost every aspect of hotel management was sloppy and careless.
Pros
The night audit position was often easy and paid a dollar per hour more than regular daytime front desk work for fewer responsibilities. Performing the night audit itself was the easiest part of the job once you got the hang of it. There was no complicated math, it was basically just printing out papers and putting them in the right order. There usually were not many check-ins. However, sometimes it would get busy during the summer months and the load of customers that came all at once could be a lot for one person to handle. Otherwise, I usually had a fair amount of time at night to just watch TV or browse the internet on my laptop. Towards the end of my shift, I would have to put out breakfast, which was pretty much just bagels, some fruit, and coffee. That generally didn't take long. I did not have to wear a uniform, but I think this varies by location.
Cons
For most of the night (10pm-6am), I was the only hotel employee there, period. In addition to being the sole employee on duty, I had to do laundry, which required being in back and monitoring a video screen for any customers at the desk. Sometimes there was an enormous amount of laundry, but it was usually manageable, albeit tedious and at times disgusting. The training provided was not sufficient to handle every problem that came up. My immediate manager often didn't answer her phone, and the one above her would only help by phone begrudgingly. Sometimes guests would have reasonable dilemmas I did not have the power to solve, and management was usually content to let me take the wrath of the customer and leave me hanging with little or no ability to make things right. The maids were sloppy and the hotel was well below adequate cleanliness, both in the halls and in the rooms. Customer parking was insufficient, costly, and in general it created a nightmare of customer complaints. Customers records were not kept in a secure fashion. Pay raises were very few and far between, with no prospect of advancement. A few times I had to call the police due to unruly or drunken guests or trespassers. At times, I genuinely feared for my safety.
