Events
Liverpool Hoteliers Association Honour Dedicated Employees
Liverpool Hoteliers Association hosted a colourful Halloween themed charity awards evening at the Hilton Hotel last night. The inaugural event was held to honour the unsung and hardworking heroes within the Liverpool Hotel industry and gave them the opportunity to be recognised and rewarded in front of their peers and hospitality experts. Eight Awards were presented on the evening including Outstanding Contribution to the City/Industry, Community Champion, Young Chef of the Year and Unsung Hero.
A drinks reception was followed by a gourmet dinner with wine and included a thrilling routine from the MD Productions dance troupe. The evening was hosted by Radio City 2’s Simon Ross and included entertainment from the Rat Pack ‘Exclusive Duo’ and girl band ‘Girls Talk’
This event was organised in association with World Class Service and allowed Hoteliers to let their hair down whilst raising valuable funds for charitable organisations, Hospitality Action and Woodlands Hospice.
Signature Living’s founder, Lawrence Kenwright was the popular winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award and said “I would not be here tonight if every single member of my team had not given an outstanding contribution to every one of our projects”
Marcus Magee, General Manager of Hilton Hotel Liverpool city centre and Chair of the Liverpool Hoteliers Association said “It was gratifying to see so many of our team members being recognised and rewarded for their commitment and excellent service delivery. The Liverpool Hotel Association and its members have a crucial role to play in the development, education and training of young people, who are the future of our industry and part of the future of the city region economy”
Please see below a full list of categories and winners:-
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – RISING STAR (sponsored by The City of Liverpool College)
James Wade-Smith – Deputy GM
Malmaison Hotel
For the past year James Wade-Smith has been Deputy General Manager at the Malmaison Hotel. Highly thought of within the hotel group, he has already been put forward to represent Liverpool on the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin Rising Stars programme and has been singled out by the Executive board as a superb General Manager of the future. He regularly helps train and develop teams across the Group, sometimes away from home for weeks at a time and is already a wonderful ambassador for Liverpool and the Malmaison brand. His passion, fun, and enthusiastic personality, twinned with his love for our ever challenging industry really does shine through in everything he does on a day to day basis. A true rising star within our city.
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – HEART OF HOUSE
Kayleigh Fox – HR Co-ordinator
Marriott Hotel
Kayleigh is an enthusiastic and highly effective HR Co-ordinator with a passion for both hospitality and the profession of Human Resources. Kayleigh has built exceptional relationships with both our associates and managers and provides high quality front line HR support to our business. Kayleigh is a role model and great ambassador for our company and the industry acting as a key coach, mentor and business partner. Kayleigh plays a pivotal role in supporting and encouraging great relationships and positive thinking within the hotel, ensuring our associate are engaged. In 2016 we have increased our Associate Engagement (as measured by our annual associate survey) by 18% points and Kayleigh plays a key part in impacting this score through her work with our associates and managers
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – FRONT OF HOUSE (Sponsored by Halewood Wines & Spirits)
Curtis Kendal – Brasserie Supervisor
The Malmaison
Curtis was a shining star at the heart of our Brasserie team simply as a waiter. The hours of commitment he’s shown and his attention to detail soon shone through and earlier this year he was promoted to Brasserie Supervisor. He has always shown he possesses the right attributes to succeed in the hotel industry by demonstrating his ability to surpass customer needs and expectations. He was regularly winning every upsell challenge or mystery dinner award and his name was the one we saw regularly on Trip Advisor for all the right reasons. He clearly loves every aspect of his role. A true asset to the hotel and to the City of Liverpool. What a guy!
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – UNSUNG HERO
Graham Donnelly – Kitchen Porter
The Liner
Graham Donnelly is a true example of an Unsung Hero. His role as a Kitchen Porter at The Liner Hotel is crucial to ensure the smooth running of the Catering operation. Working across three kitchens, his passion for a clean and safe kitchen and unrivalled level of assistance allows the Catering and Operations team to perform to their optimum level. His cheery and helpful personality and totally unassuming character make him a pleasure to work with.
EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR – YOUNG CHEF (Sponsored by Marketing Liverpool)
Tom Caldwell – Sernior Chef de Partie
Hope Street Hotel
Tom Caldwell is a hardworking and determined 21 year old. His passion for ingredients, cooking and the managing of a kitchen has taken him from commis to senior chef de partie in a remarkable two years in a 2 AA Rosette restaurant – The London Carriage Works. With the respect and trust of Executive Head Chef Dave Critchley he has grown into a mature and respected colleague with a popular reputation before and behind the pass.
SALES PERSON OF THE YEAR (Sponsored by Fisher AV)
Natalie Weston – Sales Manager
Marriott Hotel
Natalie started her career in event management and quickly rose to the position of Senior Events Manager. In September 2015, she was promoted to Sales Manager here at the Liverpool Marriott.
Natalie works tirelessly to update her knowledge of the hotel’s products whilst also keeping a keen eye on our competitors. As Sales Manager, she has been instrumental in driving both rate and occupancy, showing a 13% increase in market share in the first quarter of 2016, earning her the Hotel’s Manager of the Quarter Award.
EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR – TOP TEAM (Sponsored by Liverpool One)
Housekeeping Team – Staybridge Suites
We thought long and hard about whom to nominate for this award, and it could have been my management team, our guest services team, or our maintenance team – however when I read the award criteria we just had to choose our Housekeeping Team. Always making their job fun, by working as such a tight unit and living by their ethos of “never leaving a man behind” means they always deliver exceptionally clean suites, achieving some amazingly high cleaning scores in all available metrics.”
EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR TOP TEAM – HIGHLY COMMENDED AWARD
Front Office Team – Marriott Hotel
The first point of contact for many of our guests is our Lobby and our Front Office Team truly lead from the front and by excellent example. The team has varied and valuable customer service experience within it and the one thing that is absolutely true of every single member is the desire to serve our guests with passion and pride. Pride in the company, their hotel, the city and in themselves.
JUDGES AWARD – TODD CAMPBELL – THE RICHMOND HOTEL
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD (Sponsored by NatWest and Worldpay)
LAWRENCE KENWRIGHT – SIGNATURE LIVING
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