Hotel receptionists aim for the stars at world championship

CLIENT-PLEASING CONTEST | A Swiss attendant (right) takes part in the World’s Best Hotel Receptionist competition in Montreux on Oct 6. The tournament demands proficiency in dozens of vocational skills related to hotel management. (Agence France-Presse)

MONTREUX, Switzerland—Tim Oberli smiles broadly at the man across the gold-plated desk, expertly checking him in and showing him to the executive suite, while simultaneously handling a boisterous man demanding a restaurant reservation.

This is not a classy hotel, but rather a set erected on the upper floor of a red-carpeted casino in the picturesque Swiss city of Montreux, and the scene is playing out in front of dozens of spectators.

Oberli is among 16 young people from around the globe gathered here seeking to be crowned the world’s best receptionist, with their unique know-how featuring for only the second time at the WorldSkills championships.

The world championships in dozens of vocational skills, ranging from 3D digital game art to cooking, to electrical installations, are usually held simultaneously every other year in one city.

The 2021 edition, which had been scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China, was postponed and then canceled due to Covid-19 restrictions, prompting 15 different countries to step up this year to host some 1,000 participants age 22 or younger competing for world titles in 61 different skills.

Switzerland, a country renowned for its luxury hotels and world-class hotel management schools, is hosting 15 of the competitions, including four grueling days testing hotel reception skills.‘Big deal’

“I felt very nervous,” acknowledged Oberli, the Swiss contestant, after the first day.

It did not show. The tall, athletic-looking 19-year-old with his impeccable navy-blue suit and carefully combed blond hair seemed at ease in his mock reception.

Focusing fully on the client before him, he described the sights and expertly organized a wake-up call and taxi order, while appearing oblivious to the four judges seated to his right and the spectators lined behind a blue ribbon barrier to his left.

On the other side of a black cloth divider, Moe Omori of Japan stood behind her own desk, nervously handling the check-out of an unhappy client, as another guest called down to say she had fallen in her room and hit her head.

In an adjoining room, other contestants from countries like Kazakhstan, Spain and Singapore sit at desks tackling so-called back-office tasks like complex reservations.

“The competition is a big deal,” Oberli told Agence France-Presse (AFP), pointing out that he has been training for this ever since winning the national SwissSkills competition two years ago.

And he has been practicing for even longer. Oberli remembers spending many summer vacations as a child perched on a chair in a hotel lobby, taking notes.

“I was always impressed,” he said, recalling how he had dreamed of having his own hotel one day, imagining the uniforms, the name tags, the room categories … “and when I got my first computer, I designed a registration card.”

Through a vocational training program, Oberli began working at a Zurich hotel when he was just 16, and three years on, he supervises a reception team at the luxury Bergenstock Alpine resort in central Switzerland.

And now he, like the other contestants here, dreams of leaving this contest Sunday with a gold medal, and the prospects of a career boost.

‘Elevate our profession’

These competitions “very much open doors,” said Jane Stokie, global director of skills competitions at WorldSkills who herself won in the graphic design category back in the 1980s.

“Most competitors that we see come through a WorldSkills competition … escalate in their career,” she told AFP.

Oberli’s trainer Egidio Marcato said he of course would be thrilled if Switzerland could take gold.

“But we are even happier if we can contribute to … elevate our profession,” he told AFP.

Marcato, who spent 22 years working hotel front desks before moving to teaching, said there was a dire need to raise the profile of hotel reception work, which is poorly paid and respected, but requires a vast array of language and other skills.

For the past two years, he and Oberli have practiced the vital “soft skills” especially, through roleplays with Mercato often playing irate and difficult customers.

“It is about having empathy, listening skills,” Oberli said, and “it is very important to be flexible.”

“You have to be creative, to have the ability to improvise and to understand what the guests need,” he said.

“You have to go the extra mile.”

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