Project reference · Hospitality & property
From a CV in Kyiv to a concierge desk in the Gulf.
A family-owned group in the Gulf runs luxury residential towers, resorts and a spa, and its residents expect a concierge who is at the desk, speaks their language and knows the city. In 2015 its HR team asked us for concierges urgently: the desks were empty. Over the next three years the same team, and then other parts of the group, came back with about twenty different roles, from spa therapists and hairdressers to household staff for the owners’ private residences.
Four years, one HR team
Continuity
About 20 roles briefed
Scope
100+ shortlisted profiles
Volume
About 2 months, CV to arrival
Speed
Where the time goes
Eight to ten weeks, and most of them are not recruiting
Two of the hires, drawn to scale. Our part, finding and presenting the candidate, took about two weeks. The rest was the employer’s offer letter, the medical check, police certificate and translations, the work visa and the flight. A candidate has to stay committed through all of it.
The brief
What the client needed
At first, concierges for residential towers with a round-the-clock front desk, quickly. The package was competitive for the region, with housing, transport, medical cover and flights home, and the employer wanted European candidates with hotel or residence experience and fluent English.
Then the brief widened: a head concierge, spa therapists and a spa manager, housekeeping and maintenance supervisors, an audio-visual technician, retail and laundry roles, waiters and, later, household staff for the owners’ own homes. Other companies in the group asked for our terms as well.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
Paid only when the person starts
The fee was one month’s basic salary, due only once the new hire had started work, with a six-month replacement guarantee. Everything between the interview and the first day was in the employer’s hands, and every step of it still had to be managed from our side.
Visas follow nationality, not the CV
Work visas were issued by nationality. One finalist held a Ukrainian passport but had been born abroad; some roles came with a list of countries the employer could not sponsor. We checked eligibility before a candidate reached the shortlist.
Candidates who go quiet
Two candidates with offers withdrew before travelling, one for family reasons and one who stopped answering after the visa was issued. Experienced hospitality staff are on the market for one or two weeks. We learned to keep a second finalist warm for every offer.
Pay the market will not accept
For household roles the offer was around USD 500 a month, which experienced candidates in the requested countries could earn at home. We said so with numbers, proposed a realistic range, and moved the role to passive search rather than burn candidates.
Interviews across time zones and Ramadan
Every interview ran by video call, often booked for the next morning. Hiring managers travelled, Ramadan slowed decisions, and offer letters waited for one authorised signature. Weekly updates kept candidates in the process.
Many buyers under one roof
Group HR, a resort in the portfolio, the owners’ private office and other companies of the group each came with their own brief. Some wanted a trial batch of CVs before signing anything. Each one needed its own terms.
What we did
Agree, search, mobilise, repeat
- 2015 · Set-up. Accepted the employer’s own agency terms at one month’s salary per hire, and started the search the day we signed, before the countersigned copy came back.
- 2015–16 · Search. Advertising in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe, phone and video screening, and more than a hundred shortlisted profiles with our recruiter’s notes: concierges first, then spa, technical, retail and restaurant roles.
- 2015–16 · Mobilisation. For each hire, the medical check, police certificate, translations, visa and flight, coordinated with the employer’s HR day by day until the new concierge was at the desk.
- 2017–18 · Private residences. Waiters, a butler, a residence manager and a personal trainer for the owners’ homes: confidential searches, with salary advice when the offer was below the market.
When another company in the group needed staff, it came to us on the recommendation of its colleagues in property HR. For a recruiter, that is the reference that counts.
In a new hire’s words
“I took a chance! I have changed my life, and I don’t regret it.”
A concierge we placed, writing about her first year in the job.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its owners 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
Staffing a front desk in the Gulf?
Tell us the role, the package and the nationalities you can sponsor. Thirty minutes is usually enough to say whether the market will say yes.
