Guest Experience Lead - Pre-Flight Hospitality - London City Airport

Overview

Do you want to be at the forefront of one of the most exciting and fastest growing sectors in Travel & Hospitality? If you have a passion for delivering world class guest experience, leading guest experience colleagues and enjoy meeting new faces every day, then this is the role for you.

Operating since 1987, Aspire Lounges are an award-winning hospitality experience, that has grown to become Europe’s largest brand of Pre Flight Hospitality and second by scale globally. We serve over 6m+ customers worldwide within 100 + lounges and over 18,000 guests per day.

We deliver outstanding customer experiences, bringing sophistication to everyday travel, delivering our refreshed brand promise of ‘time well spent’.

We are seeking candidates for an exciting opportunity to join a high-flying team of hospitality professionals and to continually improve the Aspire Pre Flight Hospitality Lounge offering to meet our ambition of being the Best Lounge provider globally.

Job Summary:

As a Guest Experience Lead you will report to the Hospitality Lead and be the shift leader of the front of house team focusing on lobby duties including capacity management, Hosting guests to their allocated seat and bartending alongside all other aspects of front of house hygiene to ensure guest expectations are met and exceeded, ensuring we consistently deliver Aspire’s People, Place and Provender hallmarks.

Your role is to maintain and ensure the front of house team are maintaining service excellence on the lounge floor, and ensuring a consistent, high-quality guest experience. You will amplify our people behaviours of Empathy, Efficiency and Discretion, ensuring every guest interaction reflects Aspire’s service standards and leaves guests feeling their time has been well spent.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities:

All colleagues will operate throughout the lounge across multiple disciplines:

Lobby:

•Being remembered by our guests for the right reasons by offering a warm and friendly welcome, efficient check in process and setting the scene for their re-energising experience.•Processing of eligible guests entering the lounge via our reception system.•Managing capacity at peak times to and maximising arrivals via the deployment of digital capacity management system as the need arises.•Cross-Checking reception reports to ensure revenue generation is maximised•Answer any questions efficiently and directing them to the most applicable area of the lounge for their needs.•Hosting Guests to their allocated seat and giving a detailed overview of the lounge facilities.•Optimising upselling and upgrading revenues and processing payments.•Helping FOH colleagues working on the Bar or Floor.•Bid farewell to guests on their departure to optimise the chance of return custom. Hosting & Engagement:•Responsible for clearing and cleaning of tables when guests vacate.•Maintain high levels of organisation and cleanliness within the lounge at all times.•Be available to respond to guest questions or comments using high levels of customer service.•Engaging with guests within the lounge - ‘touching the table’ ethos.

Culinary & Beverage:

•Working with the back of house team to ensure all food and beverage offerings are continually available and well presented.•Ensure the pantry and bar areas are presented in a professional and clean manner.•Engage with guests while serving a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.•Guide guests to food and drink options available including knowledge of dietary and allergen information across a variety of meat vegetarian and vegan dishes.•Replenish stock levels when required.•Serving a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to guests as per preparation guides.•Providing guests information on beverage contents and applying our ‘fit to fly’ policy consistently.•Maximising upselling revenues by offering and processing payments for available F&B products. Preparations of specialist beverages including signature cocktails and barista style coffee.

Adhoc reasonable requests by local leadership team will form part of your role. The list above is not exhaustive and is not intended to restrict the scope of the job but clearly define a starting point and may vary depending on location and local customer requirements.

Qualifications

Essential Skills:

•Good numerical skills with a keen eye for attention to detail.•Ability to work as part of a team or be self-motivated to complete tasks.•Ability to follow processes and procedures and to apply flexibility when required.•Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.•Ability to build positive and trusting relationships with colleagues and guests•Flexible approach to working hours (including early mornings, evenings and weekends).• Flexible to work shifts covering 04:00 to 22:30, Mon-Fri / 04:00 to 14:00 Sat / 10:30 to 22:30 Sun

Desirable Skills:

•Experience in hospitality or customer services with high levels of customer interaction•Computer literate, including use of payment systems and Microsoft Office.•Additional languages.

Benefits:

• Free parking whilst at work.
• Industry recognised food safety training and qualifications to FSA L2.
• Industry recognised CPD opportunities with the Aspire Hospitality Academy.
• Comprehensive Employee Recognition scheme.
• Free meals and soft drinks during shifts.
• Swissport pension scheme with ability to self-contribute.
• 24-hour employee assistance programme.
• Full Wardrobe Provided.
• Discounted retail – Varies by Airport Outlet.
• Discounted access to Aspire Pre Flight Hospitality lounge network for family and friends.
• Potential for placements to other Lounges within the network.