Alternative awards for unsung heroes of our industry
Earlier this month I was invited to the Cateys at the Grosvenor House hotel. The organisation of the event was very impressive, and I have decided it would be nice to win one - must hatch a plan and get cracking.
The Cateys impressed on me once again the need to keep acknowledging the efforts of both teams and individuals, and I will, eventually. But for now, I'd like to serve up the first of my "Alternative Cateys" in recognition of efforts, both good and bad, which are rarely acknowledged.
My award for Unsung Heroes goes to the kitchen, and specifically to kitchen porters everywhere. To our own - Gordon, Keith, Miguel and David, I say a heartfelt thank you for all the mopping, cleaning, clearing, emptying and scrubbing in oppressive heat while on your feet all day. We would be lost without you.
We ought, too, to have a Testing Guest of the Year award, for individuals who go out of their way to make our business more, let's say, interesting than usual.
My vote goes to a certain Miss X, a lady of somewhat eccentric ways, who recently graced our establishment for 14 days, as she does every single year.
Our efforts to ensure a lady of her solitary status felt comfortable seemed to her to be a form of harassment.
She accused us, loudly and publicly, of locking her in her room, sabotaging her TV, shower and lights, and even resorted to leaving us Post-it notes during the night, threatening to call the police if we didn't stop harassing her.
Consequently, the Guest Handler of the Year award has to be split between Andy, our guest relations officer, and Sonya, our receptionist, who bore the brunt of her insults and accusations with cheerful smiles and patient demeanour. What saints we are!
The sun has come out at last, although lamentably late for a perfect summer. July has seen us get an acceptable percentage ahead of last year, but compared to budget (no sun means no terrace use, and fewer lunches and cream teas) daytime spend has been down more than we would have liked. No sun and we feel almost overstaffed.
Hooray, finally it appears and we are running around like headless chickens, but all hands definitely on! Roll on August, we're ready.
Yvonne Scott is general manager of the Idle Rocks hotel, in St Mawes, Cornwall, a privately owned, 27-bedroom property
Next diary from Yvonne Scott: 5 September