Service Associate - Lead Host

Shangri-La; Toronto; On-site; CAD 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A luxury hotel in Toronto is seeking a dedicated individual to provide a 5-Star experience to guests in the Restaurant and Lobby Lounge. Responsibilities include greeting guests, maintaining high service standards, and assisting in training staff. The ideal candidate should have prior experience in upscale service, strong communication skills, and a warm, friendly demeanor. This role requires availability for nights, weekends, and holidays.

Qualifications

• Exceptional service style, warm presence, friendly and sincere nature.
• 100% fluency in English with high standards of hygiene and grooming.
• Adept at juggling multiple needs and resolving problems respectfully.

Responsibilities

• Greet and seat guests in the Lobby Lounge and Restaurant.
• Ensure compliance to all hotel policies and core practices.
• Assist in developing guest profiles and database.

Skills

Customer Service Excellence

Communication

Decision making

Problem solving

Emotional maturity

Technology proficiency

Education

Minimum 2 year previous work experience in a similar capacity

SmartServe Certification

Tools

POS systems

OpenTable

Job description

Shangri-La Toronto

With creativity, personal commitment and an emotional sense of true hospitality, make the most positive first impression on guests in the Restaurant and Lobby Lounge through consistent application of Shangri-Las core practices in all Food & Beverage (F&B) outlets; maximizing the balance between Colleague, Guest and Owner satisfaction.

• With high integrity, deliver a 5-Star experience to guests, providing Shangri-La hospitality from caring people with presence, style and personality
• Greet and seat guests in the Lobby Lounge and Restaurant, and as true service Ambassadors, meet service expectations proactively, promptly, professionally, with genuine care to attention and detail
• Actively demonstrate teamwork, safe work practices, open communication, accuracy in transactions, respect, sincerity, helpfulness, courtesy and humility
• Ensure compliance to all hotel policies, standards and core practices.
• Maintain positive internal and external relationships, familiarity with local venues, attractions, restaurants, events, and Shangri-La hospitality standards
• Assist with communication amongst the host team
• Receive guest reservations, verify in-house guests, maintain seating chart and attend to other service needs, as appropriate.
• Advise colleagues of guest special occasions, unique celebrations, concerns for allergies or other service needs which require special attention, once known
• Resolve food or beverage quality and service complaints at earliest and first point of customer contact, advising the Manager, as appropriate and ultimately providing outstanding customer service.
• Update the guest database in a complete and accurate way.
• Provide assistance to other F&B colleagues, when needed and undertake other ad hoc related responsibilities, as required.

Supervisory and lead responsibilities

• Assist in implementing service standards set for the host team and work with management on consistently monitoring and assisting in managing the host teams performance
• Assist in developing the guest profiles and database by ensuring all hosts are trained on the system used and standards set for it
• Assist in supervising colleagues during a particular shift, ensuring guest satisfaction at all times, through the provision of high quality Food and Beverage
• Through personal presence, style and personality, inspire a high level of warmth and professionalism amongst the host team, modeling a genuine personal commitment to service excellence and an emotional sense of gracious hospitality
• Assist the Department Managers in leading the day-to-day operation through hands-on personal involvement, provide input and implement strategies to effectively manage productivity and labor.
• Interact with guests to review and evaluate degree of satisfaction with the F&B outlets; recommend and implement new initiatives when necessary to keep up with demand and market changes; investigate and resolve beverage or food quality and service complaints.

Departmental Trainer

• Embody Shangri-La Core Values and Experience Standards as the Departments Shang Experience Ambassador.
• Coordinate and conduct technical skills, service and product knowledge training with all hostess Colleagues.
• Assist in identifying departmental training needs for monthly training plans
• Observe, coach and train on the floor to ensure operation standards are achieved and periodically checked to ensure standards are maintained.
• Oversee and implement new colleague training; ensuring that the new colleague is comfortable with a welcome kit materials and task competency list
• Ensure consistency of training with all new colleagues.

The following is considered mandatory for this position :

• Customer Service Excellence Exceptional service style, genuinely warm presence, friendly, sincere nature, drive for service excellence, internally proud, outwardly gracious and humble.
• Communication Excellent communication and social skills, 100% fluency in English with impeccable standards of hygiene and grooming.
• Safety Focus Demonstrates safe work practices and looks for ways to minimize workplace injuries
• Decision making- Able to prioritize, making prompt, fair and reasonable decisions.
• Problem solving Adept at juggling multiple needs, calmly, respectfully, creatively and successfully resolve problems, as required.
• Emotional maturity Interacts with others in a respectful manner, with demonstrated qualities of sincerity, helpfulness, courtesy and humility.
• Ethical and professional conduct Fulfills responsibilities with highest integrity.
• Technology proficiency Operates and maintains all departmental equipment, fully competent with POS and Reservations systems (OpenTable).

Shangri-La, Toronto is compliant with its obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, and will provide reasonable accommodation in the application and interview process for this position upon request.

Other requirements :

• Upscale lounge or luxury level service knowledge and training
• Minimum 2 year previous work experience in a similar capacity
• Required to work nights, weekends, and / or holidays on a rotational basis, with advance notice
• Current SmartServe Certification
• Must be eligible to work in Canada