The World’s Best Receptionist for 2021 has been announced at a virtual ceremony hosted by the International Association of Front Office Managers and Hotel Managers (AICR).
Over the past eight months, a vast number of candidates competed in their respective countries (including Australia) to become national champions, with more than 1,000 hotels worldwide submitting their representatives.
Below is the list of the 12 finalists:
- Lucy McNamara – Crown Metropol Melbourne (Australia)
- Deborah Baranow – Park Hyatt Vienna (Austria)
- Jessica Lian – Shanghai Business School/Grand Hyatt Shanghai (China)
- Antoine Pettier – Hotel Aston La Scala, Nice (Côte d’Azur)
- Lara Dröge – Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten, Hamburg (Germany)
- Nicolas Zalonis – Hotel Le Massif Courmayeur (Italy)
- Clémence Mauray – Four Seasons Hotel George V (Paris)
- Iveesha Choudhary – Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel (Qatar)
- Vithya Subramaniam – Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)
- Max Vetter – Baur au Lac Zurich (Switzerland)
- Marie Therese Olaguer – Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai (UAE)
- Katharina Strasser – The Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder (UK)
The 12 national champions then battled it out for the David Campbell Trophy in the international finals, with Baur au Lac Zurich’s Max Vetter crowned the World’s Best Receptionist for 2021.
Vithya Subramaniam from Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and Lara Dröge from Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg were named the second and third runners-up respectively.
AICR councillor and chief judge Egidio Marcato said: “The AICR World’s Best Receptionist has become a global competition and receptionists from all around the world are able to show their service skills in front of a renowned jury.”
The competition format was created in 1995, and usually takes place face to face with a live role-play at the heart of the challenge. However, the competition was redesigned this year to be fully virtual due to COVID-19.
Featured image source: iStock/dogayusufdokdok
