Project reference · Hospitality
Hiring for a five-star hotel, one person at a time.
A long-established five-star hotel in the Gulf, part of an international luxury brand, asked us to find the people its own market could not supply: a personal trainer for the health club, hostesses for its restaurants, later bar staff, a sales director and a sous chef. Nine briefs over four years, each with a fixed package and a demanding interview panel. Every profile we sent had already passed our own interview.
9 briefs, 5 departments
Scope
58 pre-interviewed profiles
Selection
3 hires at work within one month
Delivery
4 years of repeat briefs
Continuity
The busiest spring
From first CV to first day
Two hiring tracks from the same spring, drawn to scale: a fitness instructor and a group of restaurant hostesses. The interviews take days. The rest takes months.
The brief
What the client actually needed
A five-star hotel hires most of its team locally or through its group. Some roles do not fill that way: a fitness instructor who can also sell personal training, restaurant hostesses with fine-dining experience and good English, a sales director willing to relocate a family. The hotel had a clear offer for each role, housing, meals, flights and a two-year contract, and wanted candidates who would accept it and stay.
We agreed terms in a week, with a success fee only, and then worked brief by brief. For each role we asked the questions that decide whether a candidate will actually get on the plane: the exact package, working hours, commission, accommodation, medical tests, contract length.
Where it gets difficult
Six things that decide whether a hire arrives
The package is fixed before the search starts
The first hostess brief described a candidate the offered salary could not attract. We tested the market within days, showed the hotel the gap, and it widened the search instead. The hires came from two different countries.
Five gates for every hire
Our screening and interview, the hotel’s HR interview, a second interview with the department head, two or three references, pre-employment medicals, then a work visa. A candidate who drops out at gate four costs everyone two months.
A hotel hires in seasons
Briefs arrived in autumn and winter, then froze for the slow season, Ramadan or budget. More than once a shortlisted candidate was ready when the vacancy was put on hold.
Good candidates have other offers
Experienced hospitality people are hired all year round. Some finalists took better-paid offers elsewhere; one signed hire had a family emergency. Keeping people committed from offer to flight is half the work.
Three countries, one flight
Recruiters in Kyiv, hotel HR in the Gulf, candidates travelling from different countries to meet on the same connection. Visas and tickets had to reach people who had already left home.
Every CV already interviewed
The hotel’s panel is its managers’ time. We sent a profile only after our own interview, with certificates, references and, for trainers, workout videos, so the panel could decide in one call.
What we did
Four years, brief by brief
- 2015: Recruitment agreement with a one-month success fee. Adverts in English and Russian for a personal trainer; certificates, references and workout videos gathered for the hotel’s panel.
- 2016: Four offers in one month. A fitness instructor and three restaurant hostesses selected in March; references, medicals and contracts in April; three people at work in the hotel in May.
- 2016–17: Wider briefs. A sales director, a second hostess wave, a bartender and a bar manager, a spa therapist and a new fitness search. Agreement renewed at the end of 2016.
- 2018: Back again. The hotel returned for a sous chef; we sent five profiles in eight days, two from Michelin-starred kitchens.
Nine briefs, three hires, and a client that kept sending the next role. In recruitment abroad, that is the reference that counts.
In the client’s words
“Happy with our services.”
The hotel’s HR team, by phone after the first three hires arrived (as noted by our account manager, 2016).
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The hotel, its group and its people are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Hiring abroad for a hotel or restaurant?
Tell us the role and the package. Within a few days we can tell you whether the market will say yes, and where to look if it will not.
