R.O.T.Y. Competition 2004

Lanesborough The Savoy Educational Trust
Competition Winner: Oliver Ormond

Last Year
It is already a year since we congratulated Martino Del Buono, from the Savoy - A Fairmont Hotel, on winning the coveted Receptionist of the Year 2004 trophy at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. Martino was the AICR UK winner out of 21 candidates and went on to represent the AICR UK in Paris for the chance to win the David Campbell Trophy at the International AICR Receptionist of the Year Awards.

This is a very tough competition and although Martino fought to end Switzerland took the title which was presented by the Singapore section who won the title in 2003. Martino however showed that the UK still was a force not to be forgotten by becoming Runner Up in this competition. Martino has since been promoted and is now Assistant Night Manager at the Savoy.

Competition 2004
This year a huge total of 29 candidates entered the prestigious competition. This is the most applicants we have received which is fantastic and shows the support and recognition there is from all our members. It was also great to see such a diversity of candidates from a variety of hotels. These candidates came from four and five hotels, both small and large – large city centre properties to country hotels and townhouses.

The First Stage interviews with the board of judges from the AICR Committee were held, with many thanks, at City Inn Westminster on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th November. Over the course of these 2 evenings the committee saw 29 very smart and able candidates who gave their very best performance which made it very difficult for the judges to chose the finalists.

Due to the high caliber of the candidates and the fact that three came in at 6th place the decision to put forward 8 candidates was an overall decision by the board of judges.

The announcements of the 8 finalists were held during an afternoon tea at the Landmark London and congratulations goes to all candidates who were entered into the competition.

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

Celine Gabriel Sabatier	Sofitel St James
Violeta Dakovic	The Dorchester
Dion Charles Cinavilakeba	The Royal Garden
Martina Clerici	The Colonnade Town House
Henrike Rode	Four Seasons Canary Wharf
Lucia Eva Herrero Carro	Mandarin Oriental
Oliver Ormond	The Savoy
Nelle Buchan	The Franklin Hotel

The finals were held on Monday 6th December at the Lanesborough The Savoy Educational Trust kindly sponsoring this annual event again this year.

The 8 candidates 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.

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

Julia Sibley	Chief Executive, Savoy Educational Trust
Graeme Wallis	General Manager, The Lansdowne Hotel, Eastbourne
Susan Craig	Operations Manager, Riverbank Park Plaza
Helen Brady	Recruitment Consultant, Portfolio
Martino Del Buono Paul Fizia Corinne Bellaby	Winner of the AICR UK Receptionist of the Year 2004 (Role play) Director, Knightbridge Green Hotel (Role play) Project Consultant, CB Associates

All the judges commented on how good each of the finalists were but one clear winner came out from a long day of judging.

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

The AICR would like to take this opportunity to thank John Scanlon and his team at The Lanesborough for organising this very successful event at such a beautiful hotel.

The results of this years RECEPTIONIST OF THE YEAR COMPETITION 2004 are as follows:

Second Runner up	Violeta Dakovic	The Dorchester
Runner up	Henrike Rode	Four Seasons Canary Wharf
Winner 2004	Oliver Ormond	The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel