Chris Pickard

Experience

• 

  Leigh Park Hotel

  Jul 2012 - Dec 2014

  • Running and managing the hotel in the absence of the general manager and providing updates to the Managing Director as to the performance of the hotel.• Producing weekly work rota’s for the front of house staff and ensuring we are adequately staffed for all eventualities.• Running weddings and acting as the Master of Ceremonies. This includes constant communication with the head chef and kitchen team as well as liaising with the wedding party throughout the day to ensure that everything is running to their expectations, and taking any necessary steps in ensure that they will remember the day for the rest of their lives.• Managing the reception team, carrying out all the day to day duties which include check in and check outs, dealing with any escalations and resolving the guest concerns and training the reception team to enhance the guest experience. Show less • Monitoring and ordering stock for the hotel and ensuring they had all the necessary stock for the coming week. • Reviewing the current trends in the market and ensuring the hotel had a selection which met this demand.• Working with suppliers to help increase the gross profit margin to in excess of 70%. Through introducing new products and maximising any existing stock that the hotel was holding.• Training team members on any new products that the hotel will be holding and ensuring they have knowledge of products we were selling such as cocktails, craft ales and speciality coffees. Show less

  • Senior Duty Manager

    Mar 2014 - Dec 2014

  • Food and Beverage Manager

    Jul 2012 - Mar 2014
• 

  Event exchange

  Jan 2015 - Apr 2015

  Account/Event Executive

  • Organising events and conferences of all sizes for different clients such as Estée Lauder in the United Kingdom and worldwide.• Researching new venues around the world and making fellow team members and clients aware of new event space as they open. • Communicating all the information required for the clients event and ensuring the venue has all the information needed for the up and coming event.

• 

  Leigh Park Hotel

  Apr 2015 - Apr 2017

  Assistant Hotel Manager

  • Coaching and guiding staff from all departments of the hotel to help increase the level of service in the hotel and holding weekly training sessions where are any changes or improvements will be shared.• Running and managing the hotel in the absence of the general manager and sitting in on weekly meetings with the Managing Director to discuss the financial forecasts for the hotel.• Producing weekly work rota’s for the front of house staff and ensuring we are adequately staffed for all eventualities.• Overseeing all events at the hotel such as weddings and conferences and ensuring all departments have all the information required to perform their duties. Providing constant communication with the guests who's event it is and taking any necessary action to ensure the event is going as the guest planned. • Working with the general manager and marketing team to work on areas of the hotel where we can increase revenue. Coming up with new marketing materials and strategies to further increase the footfall of the hotel. This includes organising a wedding fayre with over 500 people in attendance. Show less

• 

  Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa

  Apr 2017 - Sept 2017

  Head Waiter

  • Leading the team and running the restaurant in the absence of the restaurant and assistant restaurant manager, ensuring all standards are met during service.• Monitoring the revenue management and analysing why the revenue per person may fall below the budget. Working on strategies to improve this such as a liquor trolley at the end of the meal which helped to increase revenue by a minimum of £300 per day.• Enhancing the guest experience through going above and beyond their expectations. Facilitating weekly meetings to discuss guest feedback and areas in which we can improve the guest experience.• Managing private functions/dinners. Constantly communicating with all departments involved and liaising with the main contact during the function to ensure all guest needs are met. Show less

• 

  Celebrity Cruises, Inc.

  Feb 2018 - Nov 2024

  • Resolving escalated guest complaints and ensuring their issues are resolved to their satisfaction and return to cruise with Celebrity.• Responsible for overseeing over 1000 staterooms onboard and resolving concerns as efficiently as possible and to the guest satisfaction and beyond.• Managing a team of 20 people with continuous training to ensure the best customer service is given to the guest. Providing constant feedback and communicating any changes coming from the head office. • Working within budgets and monitoring how much is spent to ensure we stay within the financial budget. • Preparing schedules for the team to ensure all the business needs are met. • Working and communicating with heads of departments and hotel director to improve on guest feedback and resolve any continual guest issues. • Continually delivered service above and beyond the targets set by the shoreside management and part of the Celebrity Summit ship of the year in 2022. • Working within the parameters of the Forbes 5 star standards, and ultimately Celebrity Cruises became the first Forbes rated cruise line. • Assisting in dealing with VIPs and ensuring all their requests are met. Communicating with all heads of departments with any guest requests prior to coming onboard and while the guest is onboard.• In constant communication with the housekeeping department for any up and coming requests, as well as addressing any issues within the rooms division. • Discussing with the shoreside leadership and head office ways in which to increase revenue, and give by weekly updates of new incentives which have been implemented to increase revenue. Show less • Launching the new position of Chief Concierge onboard Celebrity Millennium and assisting with any questions or queries that other ships may have when launching this position. • Managing and leading a team of three: Captain's Club Concierge, Event Co-ordinator and Concierge. Ensuring all loyalty guests, concierge guests and groups onboard are well taken care of, and all their requests and needs are met. • Ensuring that the team are following the company's standard of practice and if not provide coaching to the individual to ensure the correct practices are used moving forward.• Gain an understanding of the most loyal guests and their preferences and using this information to go above and beyond in delivering an excellent service. As well as sharing and communicating this information with the ships management and other ships in the fleet.• Providing ‘wow’ moments to our guests and going above and beyond to ensure the guests return to cruise with Celebrity. Show less • Ensuring all documents are prepared and correct when arriving to a port of call to ensure a smooth arrive with no delays in the operation. • Ensuring a complete understanding of all the requirements arriving into a port of call and communicating with the ships management and guests if any additional information is needed. This includes working with the local port agents and communicating prior to the arrival into port. • Working with the Captain on a daily basis to communicate if there are any requests needed to be met for operational needs in the next ports of call. • Preparing all documents for the departure from port and ensuring the port agent has all the information if a guest does not arrive back on time. Show less • Organising and communicating with the different departments and ensuring all members are aware of the up and coming events that they are eligible to attend.• Ensuring all elite, elite plus and zenith members are satisfied at all times and communicating with them throughout the voyage during the coffee morning and cocktail hour daily.• Dealing with issues which any members may have, taking ownership and acting in a swift manor, contacting the relevant departments to ensure the issue is resolved to their satisfaction.• Enrolling new members and assisting current members with any questions they may have about the Captain’s Club Program.• Speaking with loyalty members on a daily basis and finding out their preferences, to ensure these are ready for them next time they are cruising with Celebrity. Show less • Assisting with guest issues and ensuring that the issue is resolved as soon as possible and to the guest’s satisfaction.• Assisting with the embarkation and disembarkation of guests. Taking payments for guest accounts and dealing with foreign currency exchange. • Enhancing the guests experience for occasions such as birthday’s and anniversaries and communicating this with the different departments. • Assisting with service recovery when there has been an issue and ensure the guest is happy with the resolution. • Dealing with different nationalities while travelling through Alaska, Asia and the Middle East and assisting with the documentation process within these countries.• Overall improving the guest experience and working at improving the guest satisfaction rating through genuine service and finding ‘golden nuggets’ to surprise our guests.• Became a WAYS ambassador in October 2018. This involved assisting with crew members to ensure that the Celebrity WAYS philosophy for guests is met. Through having a personalised, genuine and knowledgeable service. Show less

  • Front Desk Manager/Guest Relations Manager

    Dec 2021 - Nov 2024

  • Chief Concierge

    Apr 2021 - Dec 2021

  • Documentation Officer

    Jul 2021 - Oct 2021

  • Captain’s Club Host

    Dec 2018 - Apr 2021

  • Guest relations officer

    Feb 2018 - Dec 2018
• 

  The Grand, York

  Feb 2025 - now

  Restaurant Manager