My name I Smital and I am the Front of House Manager at the Hilton London in Green Park. Everything that’s front line that the guest comes into contact with at first is my responsibility. For an organisation like Hilton the front of house department is so important because it is the first impression that we are going to create, the moment the customer walks in through the door and that is going to be one of the lasting impressions and to make the customer want to come back.

Hilton is an amazing hotel chain to work for. It’s one of the best known brands and you feel like you are the centre of it where you're making a difference. I first considered joining Hilton because of the Elevator Programme, as you get to experience all of the different departments in a hotel no other company, no other programme was offering to us at that time.

My favourite part of the Elevator Programme was when I was out in France, in Cannes, and that was during the film festival. It was an amazing time because it was one of those really fast paced events where you learnt so much and you make so many decisions and you can be passionate about what you do. You need to really enjoy what you do. You need to be customer focused, er you need to have attention to detail, attention to quality because that’s the thing that will differentiate the Hilton from other brands and make you successful.

In order to join the programme is one of the most challenging things because you have so much competition. There are hundreds and hundreds of applicants who will apply for this programme every year and to be one of the chosen ten is certainly something to be very, very proud of, so yes I am proud to be here today