CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Gary Arakaki directs a staff of 35 porters, porter clerks and valets at the Halekulani. Above, Arakaki, left, talked Thursday with Conan Kahle about his duties. It was Kahle's first day of work at the Waikiki hotel.

Frontline crew leader

Gary Arakaki ensures that
guests of the Halekulani get
a good first impression

Gary Arakaki Title: Head porter, Halekulani hotel Job: Oversees a staff of 35 porters, porter clerks and valets who work out of the hotel's porte cochere

Gary Arakaki attended college in hopes of becoming a schoolteacher, but while working on his degree at the University of Hawaii in Hilo and in Manoa, he took a job in the visitor industry and never looked back. "Two things happened," he said last week. "I started working at a hotel at a job and with people I really liked, and there were no teaching jobs at the time." Ironically, he became a teacher anyway, as supervisor of a large staff of porters, porter clerks and valets at the 455-room Halekulani. As leader of the frontline team at the hotel, Arakaki imparts his knowledge about how to make a good first -- and last -- impression on visitors to the property. Arakaki, 56, is single and lives in Hawaii Kai. He was married once, but has no children. "Maybe that's why I still have peace of mind," he quipped.

Question: How would you describe your job duties?

Answer: Well, I mostly oversee all the luggage porters and all the valets that park the cars.

Q: How many other porters do you supervise?

A: About 35 porters and valets and porter clerks.

Q: Are porters what used to be called bell captains?

A: Porters are bellmen, actually. They take the luggage to the rooms from the porte cochere area in the front of the hotel. But a lot more than just luggage is involved.

Q: Like what?

A: Actually, we're kind of like ambassadors for the hotel also. I stress to the staff that we're the first people that the guests meet when they come to the hotel. And of course, too, we make the last impression, so it's very important for us to be very good goodwill ambassadors.

Q: How long have you been working as a porter?

A: I've been working at this hotel for almost 22 years.

Q: What were you doing before that?

A: I was working as a porter at the Waikiki Beachcomber, for 11 years.

Q: How did you become a porter in the first place? Did you work your way up from some other position?

A: Yes, to head porter, yeah. Actually, I was hired here as assistant head porter when it first opened, in 1983. That's when they reopened. They had closed in '80 for renovation and then reopened in '83. That was a good opportunity for me then, so I transferred over.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Gary Arakaki has been a porter for the Halekulani since 1983. Above, Arakaki stood in the porte cochere at the hotel on Thursday, making sure his porters and valets worked efficiently to keep guests and vehicles moving through smoothly.

A: I work whenever I'm needed, which is not really any specific hours. I try to work eight hours a day, but we're open 24 hours -- we never shut down -- so I have at least two people working the graveyard shift, which is 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Q: What about yourself? Do you prefer working at night or during the day?

A: Actually, I work mostly day shifts, but my normal day starts about 6, and hopefully I can get home around 3, but not really.

Q: I guess working in the porte cochere of the hotel you get to see a lot of fancy people and fancy cars, eh?

A: Oh, we see a lot of prominent people. But like I said, we're such a service-oriented hotel that it's really simple how we look at things. I tell my people, the easiest way to see how to treat people is to put yourself in their shoes, and if you paid what they paid to stay here, you'd know how much service they'd want.

Q: Were you trained in how to be super polite and proper to the guests you greet? Is there some kind of training program?

A: Yes, there is. We have an orientation program that everybody has to go through before they start work. It's two eight-hour days of orientation. But when we first opened the new hotel, we had almost about a month of training, before it opened.

Q: Who does that training?

A: We have a training manager.

Q: What about grooming and dress? Does your employer have any guidelines about that?

A: We have everything, yes. They have all the standards, the Halekulani standards. We have a booklet, and it's stressed during our orientation program. And I think when you hire people, you have to hire the correct ones. Attitude is the most critical thing, I think. Everyone here has to work as a team. So being a team player and having a great attitude makes you fit right in.

Q: Do people tip the porters, or is that mostly for the valets and such?

A: The porters get tipped. The valets get tipped also. The valets deal mostly with the cars.

Q: What's the toughest part of your job?

A: I would think reprimanding people.

Q: What about other challenges, like when it's really raining or windy or something like that -- does that make your job more difficult, since it's sort of half in- and half outside?

A: Well, it does, but we're so used to it, it doesn't really bother us that much. We're so flexible. You have to be flexible here. Our biggest challenge is when we get really busy, when the porters help the valets and the valets help the porters, so it's really a team effort.