Former glass cleaner clinches Fairmont Hotels’ coveted award

When John King’ori joined Fairmont Hotels and Resorts 10 years ago, he started off with cleaning glasses at the bar.

As an untrained worker, his ambition was to one day serve Fairmont patrons as a waiter. Well, a lot of surprises lay in store for him. Fairmont is a five star global chain of hotels.

Since then, Mr King’ori has risen to become the food and beverage supervisor.

And in a show of lion-hearted determination, he trounced 26,000 employees of Fairmont’s global operations to clinch the Employee of the Year award in May.

He became the first African employee of the chain to scoop the prestigious award.

“Mine has been a case of looking for a meaning and focusing on a career that I begun with no hope of growing,” says the 32-year-old King’ori.

But what exactly does it take to win the award?

Every year, guests to the Fairmont chain write recommendations about services offered by staff.

Judgement is made from the variety of visitors’ recommendations.

“Winning this year’s award was due to referrals by past hotel guests that I served. This led to curiosity among new guests to the Mara Safari Club. This was evident in their recommendations about me. More importantly, other hotel staff from various countries who visited our branch recognised my work,” says Mr King’ori.

Thanks to his hard work, he is now Sh300,000 richer.

“During nominations it is hard to tell who will emerge the winner. There were 26,000 other employees contesting for the same title, which made the process very unpredictable. All along I ensured that I maintained high performance while hoping to be chosen as winner of the prestigious award,” adds Mr King’ori.

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has operations in Europe, America, Asia and Africa — in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Locally, the chain made its entrance into the hospitality industry in 2006 by acquiring five properties.

They include Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi, Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, Mara Safari Club, The Ark, and Aberdare Country Club.

According to Mara Safari Club general manager Munene Ngotho, winning the award is a great honour not only to the group but to the entire Kenyan hospitality industry as it demonstrates the potential that lies in the country.