TRAINING LIFE AT A PRIVATE ISLAND || NIKOI ISLAND

Nikoi Island's Beach Bar (Reception Area)

Have you ever wondered how to live in a private island for 6 months without paying anything for it?! Yes, it's insane! Plus, they even give me allowance each month! Wait... WHAT? Hello guys! It's me, Meimei! Yeah, just like what you read on the tittle, in this post I will tell you my experience as a trainee at a private island. Maybe some of you never heard about Nikoi Island, but it's okay... Before we start with my experience, I would like to explain a little bit about Nikoi. What is Nikoi Island? Nikoi actually comes from Hokkien (a chinese dialect) naming, which means papaya (this actually a little shocking for me because I'm Hokkien, lol), they named it Nikoi because before it became a private island actually there's a lot of papaya tree grow naturally there. Nikoi is located at Indonesia and really near with Singapore. Nikoi is a private island owned by a small group of expatriates who have lived in Asia for most of their working lives and share a passion for the outdoors, nature, food and wine. The owners stumbled across the island in 2001 and acquired the leasehold titles to the island in 2004. Building began in earnest in January 2005 and in May 2007 Nikoi was opened to the public. Nikoi have serve for 10 years and yes... They have won a lot of awards such as :

2018 – Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award

2017  –  Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award

2016  –  HICAP – Sustainability Communities Award

2016  –  Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award

2015  –  Wild Asia – Finalist2015  –  Green Hotelier – Winner Asia Pacific

2015  –  Sustainable Business Award – Indonesia

2015  –  Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award

2014  –  National Geographic – World Legacy Awards – Finalist

2014  –  Condé Nast – Gold Standard Award

2013  –  Condé Nast – World’s Best Private Island Resorts

2013  –  Travel + Leisure – Global Vision Award (Sustainability)

2013  –  i-Escape – Best for Kids

2013  –  Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence Award

2012  –  Wild Asia Awards – Finalist

2012  –  Treehugger – Best Resort Award

2012  –  Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award

2011  –  Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence Award

2009  –  Wild Asia Awards – Finalist

Incredible? Yes💖From the outset, building and operating Nikoi along strict sustainable principles has been at the forefront of the development plans for the island and this is the main reason that attracts me to apply my internship at Nikoi. If you want to know more about Nikoi you can click at here.Before The TrainingHow I know there's a place named Nikoi? Well, it's actually from a travel blog named Mister Aladin, in one of his post that I read 2 years ago "Liburan Impian di 5 Private Island Resort Indonesia" which Nikoi at the first place in that post, then I started to search about that and getting more interested with it. After graduate from Yos Sudarso Senior High School, I entered Batam Tourism Polytechnic with the major is Hospitality Management and focus on Room Division. Soon after my uni life get stable I need to apply my operational training in one of the hotel that cooperate with my uni and guess what? I was really happy knowing there's Nikoi Island in the option, but best thing never comes so easy, I need to wait for 4 months for the interview, passing 2 times interviews and competing with lots of candidate from other school/uni for only one place ,because they only accept one training for each department (Housekeeping, Kitchen and Front Office). I applied in Front Office, which I need to be appeal in my English (or other languages), grooming, confidence, manner and of course for the hospitality knowledge as well. I was really nervous because before Nikoi's interview, my lecturer let me do an interview with Sanchaya, which they selected me before I even got a chance to try with Nikoi. After a long war, I manage to cancel Sanchaya offer (I'm so sorry) and keep waiting and hope that Nikoi will choose me among the candidates, if not then I will be dead because the dateline of the internship placement is really near and there won't be any hotel that will be available for me or anyone else. Maybe some of you will ask why am I refused the opportunity that I got from Sanchaya and it kinda like I don't appreciate the thing that've been given to me. No, it's not like that, I've my own reasons and yes, I've to admit that Sanchaya is great, but Nikoi is my dream. Few hours after my second interview with Nikoi, I went to reunion with my high school friends, while eating, I received an email that forwarded by my lecturer which it's from Human Resource of Nikoi Island that officially announce that I'm selected as Front Office Trainee at Nikoi Island. Oh my God! My dream comes true💕 So I prepared everything from my daily necessaries till my snacks and soon, it's time for my training life to start. The Training Even I live at Batam and Nikoi is only at Bintan, but it's require like around 4 hours to get to Nikoi from my home. It's not an easy journey, trust me! But, it still fun at least. Right when I arrive at Nikoi Island, I know I will be treat like family, because they're really kind, warm and welcoming me as a new part of them. Comparing with the training drama, Nikoi is way far from bully and seniority. I learn a lot of thing, from FO, hotel system(which not really much hotel teaches to their trainee), hospitality until things like sustainability, bar, everything looks so interesting and fun. At Nikoi, everything is very flexible as long as we still on the right path, hehe. As a trainee at Nikoi, I found my schedule is a little different than my friends at other hotels, I only work on 3 shift; Morning (08.00-16.00), Afternoon (13.00-21.00) and Middle (09.00-17.00) which most of my shift are actually morning, if you've realise, yes! I don't have night shift that's requires me to stay up late till morning (and it's actually for all the staff except security), so that I manage to learn about other department when I'm not on duty (Bar is my favourite) and yes I got enough of rest because of the schedule. The operational procedure is similar to other place with some adjustment, because we are different with other city hotel or resort. Nikoi is a private island, in case you don't remember, so there's only the guest and the staff that staying at here. It's very private and we even only have 15 villas/houses for the guest to stay and the standard of maximum guest is around 50 people on island (not included the staff). A lot of Nikoi's guests are our repeater guest and some of them even asking or book for the next trip before they leave. The best thing when I training at Nikoi is not when I received tips or things from the guest, but it's when the guest compliment me, some of them say I speak a very english, and they even write a review atTripadvisor and mention my name.

Tripadvisor Guest's Comment

I remember when I was eating at the kitchen, one of the managers ask me whether if I want to place my second interview at Nikoi, actually I would love to, but I know my lecturer won't let me to because I've my first training at Nikoi and my second training should be on managerial training which Nikoi doesn't provide that program. You know what's shocked me? The manager say that I don't need to be worry for that, if I want to come back for my second internship he will talk to the owner for that. OMG! Thank you! I really appreciate that😃 Conclusion! Nikoi is a really good place to learn about hospitality and yes, if you're really into sustainability stuff Nikoi is incredible good! For the internship it's requires the school to have a MOU with Nikoi, so if you looking for any internship at Nikoi you have to make sure your school is cooperate with Nikoi for this. If you have any question feel free to leave your comment!