Ritz-Carlton DIFC director of rooms Sharad Rattan collecting the award on behalf of Mercedita Fernandez Ritz-Carlton DIFC director of rooms Sharad Rattan collecting the award on behalf of Mercedita Fernandez

Taking pride in the cleanliness of your home takes a heightened meaning when you talk to the region’s housekeeping teams. During the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2013, five hotel housekeepers went head to head in being named Housekeeper of the Year, an award sponsored by Restonic.

This year’s award was presented by Restonic’s sales manager Sameer Ahmed to The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre, director of housekeeping Mercedita Fernandez.

Unfortunately Fernandez was unable to attend the event due to being called on task force to Ritz-Carlton’s newest hotel in Kazakstan. Collecting the award on her behalf was Ritz-Carlton DIFC director of rooms Sharad Rattan.

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“We are all so proud. It has added on to an already fantastic year that she has had and this is great recognition in terms of the whole industry. It is just fantastic.

“She was nominated last year and it has been a fantastic year for her. She won the highest award in the company this year and I think this is the icing on the cake for her,” Rattan added.

In May Fernandez was awarded the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence by Marriott International. An award given to just 10 individuals per year from the company’s 325,000 associates worldwide, in recognition for their achievement, character, dedication, effort and perseverance.

This was one of the attributes observed by the award judges, who is noted to beat all benchmarks, streamline her department and scored 100% for overall employee engagement.

“Being such a multi-cultural team as we have in Dubai it is not very easy having a fully satisfied team. It is a huge achievement. I cannot be prouder.

“It is easy to get it when you have four or five people on the team, but not when you have 40 and that is a fantastic achievement,” he concluded.

Highly commended in the category was The Palace Downtown Dubai executive housekeeper Laetitia Lasry.