R.O.T.Y. Competition 2005

The Royal Garden Hotel
Competition Winner: Daniel Buirski

This year a huge total of 27 candidates entered the prestigious competition. Again a very high number of applications, which means this competition is getting bigger and more professional by the year. Equally important is that it is not just the ‘big London properties’ that are entering as this year we had a number of candidates from outside of London as well as some of the smaller properties coming through.

The First Stage interviews with the board of judges from the AICR Committee were held at The Savoy – A Fairmont Hotel on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th November. During these 2 days the judges interview each candidate for approximately 15-20 minutes based on both their application form and their role as a receptionist. In general we put 6 candidates through to the final but as with the previous year it was felt that due to the strength it was best to have 7 go though to the finals.

The announcements of the 7 finalists were held during an afternoon tea at the Landmark London and congratulations must go to all candidates who were entered into the competition.

The candidates who went through to the represent their hotel at the finals however were

Daniel Buirski	Radisson Edwardian Hampshire
Jenny Victorius Dryselius	Jumeirah Carlton Tower
Christina von Celsing	The Savoy – A Fairmont Hotel
Victoria Southgate	Rowhill Grange & Spa Hotel
Marta Jasinka	Edwardian Hampshire
Katarina Estokova	The Connaught
Natalia Arnas	Sheraton Belgravia

The Above 7 finalists made their way to The Royal Garden Hotel on Monday 13^th December where the finals were being held.

The Savoy Educational Trust kindly sponsor this annual event and Julia Sibley from the Trust, along with Susan Craig spent time together to come up with the role play scenario as well as the 5 questions being asked for the finals.

The 7 were put through a tough selection of specifically designed questions and a role play that aimed to test how each individual handled situations under pressure as well as testing them on their customer service handling skills.

The Judges who very kindly gave up their expertise and time again were as follows:

Julia Sibley	Chief Executive, Savoy Educational Trust
Paul Fizzia	Director, The Knightsbridge Green Hotel
Susan Craig	Operations Manager, Riverbank Park Plaza
Johanna Cuss	Recruitment Consultant, Quest Elite
Oliver Ormond	Winner of the AICR UK Receptionist of the Year 2004
Corinne Bellaby	(Role play) Project Consultant, CB Associates
Greame Wallace	(Role Play)

This year was a clear indication that the competition is getting stronger as for one of the first times the judges took well over an hour to come up with a decision for the winner and the runner up’s.

The decision made was announced during the cocktail award ceremony held at The Royal Garden Hotel with great support and turnout of many AICR members coming along to hear the results.