Lillian Schaefer

NEW ULM – Lillian Schaefer is a self described night owl. From a young age she would stay up until the wee hours of the morning while most were asleep. For the past few years she has made a career out of it.

Four days out of the week, she works the night shift at The Best Western Plus’s front desk from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. This is the most quiet shift at The Best Western.

“On an average night, no one checks into the hotel on my shift,” Schaefer said.

Most people who need to rent a room will have arrived before Schaefer’s shift begins. However, someone traveling through the night or someone who was delayed might stop to rent a room.

“On a busy night, between five and eight people check in at most,” she said. “The ones who do check in are usually semi drivers who want get off the road.”

Since her shift is slow compared to other front desk shifts, Schaefer usually spends the first few hours helping the hotel reconcile paperwork for the day.

She explained one of the main duties of night shift was to take care of the paperwork that could not be completed during the busier day shift. The extra paperwork is usually enough to keep Schaefer busy for the first few hours of her shift. The last part of her shift is planning for the next day.

Schaefer said the hotel serves a breakfast every morning. The breakfast crew will come into the hotel around 5 a.m. but she begins the setup for the breakfast around 2:30 a.m.

“It is important to make sure everything is ready to go earlier in the morning for the guests who need to be on the move early,” Schaefer said. “It is the semi drivers mostly who are up early and they need their coffee or they will not be happy campers.”

It is also Schaefer’s duty to help guests with anything else that might come up during the night. Any type of emergency, it is her job to respond. If a smoke detector battery needs to be changed in a room, she is the one to do it. Another common problem is a lock out. People often misplace keys. Sometimes she needs to escort guests back to their rooms if they cannot find it on their own.

Schaefer said guests are for the most part well behaved. She said even during New Ulm’s larger festivals, such as Oktoberfest and Bock Fest, she has not seen many problems. Guest are generally responsible at the hotel.

Schaefer said she has to occasionally ask guests to leave the pool area after it was closed, but it is usually not a problem. She said there was an incident in which a group of men became hostile when asked to leave the pool. She was forced to call law enforcement and the men were eventually banned from the premises.

“I’ve never had a worse problem,” she said. “The most common issue is a guest will be in a bad mood, but that’s nothing to worry about.”

Schaefer is a recent transplant to New Ulm. She moved to New Ulm in 2020 with her husband Dominic Schaefer, who is a New Ulm native. Lillian Schaefer said in early life she was an army brat, moving to different locations, but her family settled in Olivia, MN. She was raised on a hog farm.

Before coming to New Ulm to work the night shift at The Best Western, Schaefer said she worked at a series of Casey Stores. Initially she worked the morning shift, but later transferred to the night shift and learned the night life. After moving to New Ulm she wanted to work the night shift at the local Casey’s Store, but then learned the hotel was hiring.

Schaefer said one of the great benefits of working the night shift is it works around her kids’ schedule. She works while they are asleep and comes off work as they waking up to start the day. Schaefer credited her in-laws for helping fill-in when needed.

Schaefer said on a typical day she gets to sleep around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. and only for a few hours.

“I’ve always been a night owl,” she said. “I usually only get four hours of sleep.”

Schaefer said she usually works three to four night shifts a week, but she often picks up extra shifts as a substitute.

Schaefer said she does have a lot of support at work.

“The management is great,” she said. “We have a lot of support as staff. I can go to my supervisor with anything.”

Outside of work, Schaefer said she is a homebody. She likes to spend time with the kids and because she works while they are asleep, she does get to see them a lot.

Schaefer said the late shift does not agree with everyone and it can be a challenge to change in new people, but she has come to enjoy the quiet ness and flexibility of working non-traditional hours.