Hotel Cateys 2023: Front of House Manager of the Year, Ailsa Le Poidevin, the Ritz London

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The Ritz London’s Ailsa Le Poidevin impressed the judges with her exceptional commitment to guest experience as well as her dedication to leading and developing her team and nurturing the industry’s future talent.

Le Poidevin heads up a team of 22 people who are responsible for the entire guest experience at the Ritz London, from arrival to departure, ensuring each guest’s stay is nothing short of perfect. Anticipating guests’ needs starts days before arrival and she ensures a high degree of preparation goes into each reservation. Through internet and social media searches, her team builds a profile of each guest to combine the experience of the Ritz London with their interests. The hotel is on the doorstep to some of the world’s best theatre shows, museums, galleries and shopping experiences, so Le Poidevin encourages her team to know the wider area to offer the best recommendations, and they are tasked with answering potential questions on anything from where to buy aspirin to fun facts about Fortnum & Mason.

Such dedication to the guest experience led her team to achieve 100% in both arrival and departure sections in a leading quality assurance audit, with Le Poidevin being mentioned as one of the ‘star employees’ of the mystery auditor’s experience.

Le Poidevin also encourages her people to spot opportunities to upsell, which has resulted in her team exceeding the hotel’s upsell targets by 5% in 2022, with in-room upselling revenue having doubled.

Achieving such results is the product of a collaborative and happy team, an attitude which comes from the top. Le Poidevin leads by example and encourages a two-way system whereby the team give her feedback on her performance, and she gives regular feedback on theirs. She also collates comments from guests and feeds them back to the team on a weekly basis.

Her strong interpersonal skills and empathetic nature have seen her train and develop young talent at the Ritz London, and in the past six months she has led the development, promotion and transition of a chef de brigade into an assistant reception manager, and mentored a front office management trainee into a HR and training co-ordinator role. She also attends university and college recruitment days to promote hospitality as a career path.

Her ability to inspire and coach has resulted in one employee, Jude Haddad from the front office team, winning the International Association of Receptionists’ Receptionist of the Year Award 2022, the first time a representative from the Ritz London has won the award.

What the judges said

“‘Above and beyond’ doesn’t cover everything Ailsa has done – not only for her team, but her local community.” Laura Thomason

“Ailsa is a true hospitality superstar. Clearly committed to the guest experience and her team, Ailsa is certainly something special.” Thomas Ferrante

“Her commitment to the community and hospitality on the whole was impressive.” Linda Smith

The shortlist

• Petra Cappannari, Park Plaza County Hall London
• Nicole Cechmann, Pan Pacific London
• Alexis Petratos, Hotel Café Royal
• Esther Pinedo Castresana, the Belfry Hotel & Resort
• Ailsa Le Poidevin, The Ritz London