By Brent Bosker

National honour for Travelodge front desk clerk

Oct 22, 2011 | 7:11 AM

Any manager will tell you good help is hard to find and the Prince Albert Travelodge is happy to have Merle Brilz working the front desk.

She's been checking people in and out for more than a decade and the hotel chain is recognizing her efforts by naming her employee of the year for all of Canada.

“It was a surprise, a great surprise,” said Brilz, who was skeptical when she heard the good news. “Mona (my manager) called me into her office just before I was leaving and said ‘you won the award for employee of the year.’ and I said pardon, no I don’t think so and I went home.

“I got half way home and thought this could be true … so I walked back and asked again and said thank you and went on home.”

Mona Selanders, the general manager said it was appropriate award given Brilz's work ethic.

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“In my opinion (you) would be hard pressed to find anyone who consistently delivers high level customer service as Merle does every single day —and at 6:30 in the morning I might add,,” she said.

“A couple of summers ago (some fishermen) had put their fish away in the freezer and of course we didn’t realize it at all but they certainly did as they approached Saskatoon. Merle just without question, packed it up in her car and drove it to the airport.”

The Travelodge motto is “Nice rooms, Great people” and nobody embodies that more than Merle, she said.

“Merle does it all. She greets the customers, she takes reservations, she checks people in, she checks people out — she keeps everybody organized in terms of hockey teams and room blocks and all those kinds of things.”

“Front desk looks easy but it takes an incredible amount of organization and patience and a great sense of humor to do it well.”

While Merle feels honored to be recognized, she shares the award with her coworkers.

“It’s not an individual honor it reflects on the whole hotel, everyone that works here because we do work together as a group, so it’s not just me, it’s all the employees here,” she said.

Merle took up the front desk job 11 years ago when she was asked to come and work on a temporary basis.

“We’ll, I’m still here working for a while and I’ll probably be (here) for a while yet,” Brilz said.

bbosker@panow.com