people profile

people profile

people profile

people profile

open to question: Philip Skitch, Harrington Hall Hotel

profile

Job title: general manager.

Age: 40.

Born: London.

Lives: Hampstead.

Status: separated.

Education: Malvern Boys College, University of Brighton, Westminster College.

Path to career: spent 1980-1984 on The Savoy Hotel management training course. Joined The Hotel Baur au Lac Zurich as a trainee in 1984. Became assistant manager at The Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego in 1985. Joined The Copley Plaza, Boston as front-office manager in 1986. In 1987 joined TheWestbury Hotel, New York as deputy general manager. Became general manager of Blakes Hotel in 1990. Left later in 1990 to become deputy general manager of Metropole, Brighton. Joined Millennium Gloucester as resident manager in 1997. Took up current position of general manager at Harrington Hall Hotel last year.

industry talk

&#42 What was your first job in travel and how much did you get paid?

A waiter in the Causerie in Claridge’s Hotel, London. I was paid £48 a week.

&#42 What, apart from your current position, would be your ideal job in travel?

I would like to be general manager of a Shrager Hotel as it looks easy, cool and more like being curator at theTate Modern gallery than being in hotel management.

&#42 What has been your most embarrassing moment in the travel industry?

When Jamie Lee-Curtis took off her sports bra when I was in her suite in New York trying to fix her telephone. I charge for more information!

&#42 Who has been the biggest influence on your career and why?

Stefan Simkovics, now general manager of the Four Seasons in Berlin. He taught me to manage my time and write everything down.

&#42 What’s the best job you’ve had, apart from your current one?

A room service waiter at the Connaught Hotel, it was great serving famous people in their rooms and chatting away with them like real people.

&#42 Which company, apart from your own, do you most admire and why?

Ritz Carlton Group. They have managed to project an image and have a real commitment to customer service and care. I am disillusioned by big Plcs who attempt to copy its philosophy.

&#42 What single thing have you achieved at work which has given you the most satisfaction?

Winning the American Expresscustomer service award and the Investors in People award in 1994 when my then hotel was accredited to ISO9002 for service standards.

&#42 What advice would you give to someone starting out in the travel industry?

Don’t be put off by the long hours and lack of money. It does get better like all careers if you stick at it.

&#42 Make one prediction about travel in the 21st century:

We will make official contact with extra-terrestrials who will share with us technology. Air travel as now will cease to be necessary.

personal talk

&#42 What is your star sign?

Pisces.

&#42 What would you change about yourself?

Getting old.

&#42 What is your greatest regret?

Not being able to keep my mouth shut when Ishould and getting fired.

&#42 If you could be anyone for the day who would you be and why?

Gwyneth Paltrow’s boyfriend, for obvious reasons.

&#42 Who, apart from your partner, would be your ideal holiday companion and where would you go?

Michael Palin, we would go all around the world.

&#42 What is the most memorable destination you’ve visited and why?

Inside Mount Eiger in Switzerland. It was amazing to be inside the mountain ice.

&#42 What is your favourite TV programme/film/book?

I don’t have a TV but I watch Who Wants to be a Millionnaire on other peoples. My favourite film is Blade Runner and the book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

&#42 How do you relax?

Reading books on the Underground on the way home.

&#42 What would you have put on your gravestone?

I wouldn’t want a gravestone. I want my ashes spread somewhere really beautiful like Hampstead Heath or the Malvern Hills.