We test for hospitality, not for experience
20 February 2025
A CV tells you where someone has worked. It cannot tell you how they will make a stranger feel.
Experience is not the same as hospitality
Ten years in the industry can mean ten years of skill. It can also mean ten years of habits nobody corrected. A newer candidate with real warmth and sharp instincts will often outshine a veteran who stopped paying attention. We want both. When we must choose, we choose the instinct.
- How they greet someone they have just met
- How they handle a request they did not expect
- Whether they notice the details in the room
- How they work alongside others when the pace picks up
What we look for
Our selection looks at professionalism, communication, adaptability and service mindset, alongside technical skill. Technique can be taught in weeks. Instinct is far harder to teach, so we look for it first.
We can teach anyone the menu. We cannot teach them to care whether the guest is happy.
Then we train the rest
Selection is where it starts. Before deployment, each person is briefed on the client's standards and the role itself. Experience then builds on a foundation of hospitality, rather than standing in for it.
