Hotelier Awards 2011 shortlisted nominees revealed
Over the next five weeks, HotelierMiddleEast.com will reveal the shortlisted candidates for each of the 19 Hotelier Middle East Awards 2011 categories, starting today with the names of the top five nominees for Concierge of the Year.
Now in its seventh year, the Hotelier Middle East Awards are widely respected by hoteliers across the region for celebrating the very best hotel professionals working in the Middle East.
Unlike other industry awards, the Hotelier Middle East Awards are not based on rewarding the chain behind the newest, biggest or shiniest hotel, instead they are designed to celebrate the service stars and management maestros delivering top-quality guest experiences and building motivated, happy teams.
This year, the awards comprise 19 categories that recognise a range of hotel heroes, some back of house and some in the front line, as well as culinary stars, general managers and the annual favourite, Hotelier’s Unsung Hero.
Nominations for the Hotelier Middle East Awards closed on September 4 and since then, the Hospitality Group at ITP Business Publishing has shortlisted the top five candidates in each category, resulting in 95 nominees now going head to head to for the most prestigious awards in the hotel industry.
The next stage is the all-important judging process, during which the expert panel has a week to analyse the nominations before meeting to discuss and ultimately agree on one winner in each category.
The identities of the winners will then be kept a closely guarded secret, announced only on October 19 at the glamorous awards ceremony in front of 600 industry guests.
The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2011 will be held at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai and as usual, tickets are limited.
To ensure you are at the hospitality event of the year, please contact annie.chinoy@itp.com
Or for sponsorship enquiries you may contact dom@itp.com
Until then, don’t miss the daily shortlist announcements on HotelierMiddleEast.com, starting on the next page with the shortlisted candidates for: Concierge of the Year
The Concierge of the Year award
As the first people to greet your guests, your concierges truly are the face of the hotel. Not only must they make an immaculate first impression, they should also observe the guests’ reactions to experiences around the hotel, and feed these back to heads of department.
The concierge profession is taken increasingly seriously in the Middle East, with hotels seeking out head concierges that are members of Les Clefs d’Or and concierges taking it upon themselves to set up concierge societies. Indeed, among our top five shortlisted nominees, Jerome Rodrigo is now the President of the Abu Dhabi Concierge Group and Assistant General Secretary of the Les Clefs d’Or UAE Chapter and Charles Tipolo Ferrer is the President Les Clefs d'Or – UAE, a position previously held by Randy Santos, credited with securing the UAE’s recognition by Les Clef d’Or in 2009.
Santos is now in the process of submitting the Qatar Concierge Society application to the Les Clefs d’Or International to become the next recognized independent chapter.
Click through for the names of the five shortlisted candidates
Jerome Rodrigo, Chief Concierge, Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi
Mandar Naik, Chief Concierge, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina
Randy Santos, Chief Concierge, InterContinental Doha
Sheldon Chavan Roque, Concierge Manager, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray
Charles Tipolo Ferrer, Chief Concierge, Grand Millennium, Al Wahda