Barbara Bush
THE competition for this award spanned most sectors of the hotel industry. Candidates came from five-star properties, budget hotels, guesthouses and inns.
Barbara Bush is responsible for planning and organising the high standards of care and maintenance of the 80 bedrooms and a network of conference rooms, training suites and computer rooms at the Lancaster House Hotel, which faces the University of Lancaster campus.
Despite the fact it was built just three years ago, the hotel prides itself on its "English country house" atmosphere reflected by some parts of the interior.
This contrasts with the modern conference centre where Bush's department pledges, in a customer charter-style approach, to "service every meeting room at each meal break".
The hotel and training centre is indicative of a growing trend in accommodation provision developed by university and colleges across the country. Accommodation which offers residential facilities will always pose a number of different challenges compared with properties where there is a daily turnover of guests.
However, the hotel has made efforts to attract other types of visitors and the housekeeping department has had to cope with a mixture of guests ranging from the corporate and business midweek trade to families at weekends looking for a relaxing break.
Unlike most business hotels - which benefit from high throughput during the week and an opportunity most weekends to wind down and "put the house back in order" - Bush and her team have a steady flow of discerning guests to look after, seven days a week.
She was appointed head housekeeper prior to the opening in July 1991, when department planning began from a mobile unit on a building site.
General manager Ean Scott says that housekeeping has consistently been the hotel's highest-rated area, according to the flood of customer feedback forms completed by guests. High standards have been achieved, Scott adds, while keeping costs firmly within agreed budgets.
The judges were particularly impressed to learn that Bush recently qualified as an assessor for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and that more than half of her current team in the housekeeping department had decided to follow the NVQ study route.
"Her efforts send out a loud signal for NVQs, something which the UK Housekeepers Association is struggling very hard to bring to the fore," said judge Sheila Perera, executive housekeeper at Gleneagles and chairperson of the association.
"There are not enough housekeepers involved in NVQs - there should be more," she added.
Another judge, Sheila Gill, head of hospitality, tourism and leisure studies at Highbury College of Technology, Portsmouth, was also impressed by her involvement in NVQ training at a senior level. "It's nice to see someone pioneering it," she said.
The seven judges agreed that they were looking for a clear winner who displayed excellence and was at the pinnacle of his or her career.
Barbara Bush combined sound qualities of staff motivation with a desire to learn new skills. She also coped effectively with managing a department that had ever-changing customer needs. n
