Two General Managers
One: big business
Our turnover is about £30 million. Occupancy of an airport hotel here is high – 97%. 80% of our business is rooms, 20% food and beverage and meetings. I guess the secret of a successful management team is to know how to generate that revenue, where it comes form, who your customers are and how you can entice them to come into the hotel.
Two: the maestro
Well the exciting part is that you’re a little bit like a maestro directing an orchestra, and you have to make sure that everyone finds his place and makes his instrument sound whenever it is needed.
Three: famous faces
I guess I’ve met a few celebrities in my time, like the Dalai Lama here. I’ve met Pavarotti, I’ve met Shirley Bassey, Princess Diana. It’s just fun to be with them and it adds excitement to the team. And that’s what I like about this business, it’s all about people really.
Four: improvisation
The most important attribute was improvisation. There’s so many things, so many unplanned things happening during the day that if you cannot improvise then you are lost. Improvisation can mean that a group people come in and say ‘we have a reserved a lunch for 50 people’ and yet there has not been a reservation. Making sure that these things are not a disruption of business but a source of business.
Five: strange requests
The most popular request has been to repair high heels on ladies’ shoes or replace the little screws in a pair of glasses. A Brazilian musician asked us one evening if we could repair a set of pan pipes – he was on his way to a concert in Brazil!
Six: bigger personalities
You are a character and you need to be present and you need to want to work within the hospitality industry, and you need to be the person going to your team, the person opening the door of a limousine for a guest. You need to go places so you should be a little bit outgoing.
Seven: communication
One of the most important components is communication. We have about 300 employees working here every day, about 600-800 guests walking through here. So how do you make sure things actually happen? Through communication. I enjoy talking to the staff I get a lot of feedback from the people directly, from the people on the floor because they see things and they talk to the customers. So it interests me what feedback we’re getting as a hotel. But you need to like people, you need to be able to connect to people and I think that’s the most important ingredient to being successful in this profession.
Eight: roses
That reminds me of a guest who wanted to surprise his fiancé and he ordered 1001 roses in his suite. It was like a sea of love at the end. The funny thing was he ended up paying more for the roses than he did for the suite!
Nine: apples
The reason why we have these apples? It’s a healthy welcome to Hilton!
Ten: internationality
Being international means that you have the opportunity to work and live in great cities, experience different cultures learn different languages, and all that goes with it. This property for me gives me a special pride because it is a special property in every sense. Rome is a cultural heritage to the world not only to Italy and as they say all roads lead to Rome and my road has led me here and hopefully I will be here for a long time.
Source
Search for Jobs with Hilton>