Hotel Folk Awards 2022

On 12th January 2023, we invited a number of our Folk members to attend our Hotel Folk Awards and End of Year Celebrations over at Thorpeness Country Club. It's safe to say we all had a fantastic evening, celebrating some of our outstanding and wonderful Folk, and raising a glass or two to another great year. Below you will see our various and worthy winners, many chosen by their own peers!

Enjoy!

Extraordinary Service

Martin Tasnadi

Throughout my time at The Hotel Folk, Martin has always been a feature. First at The Bru, then a short spell at The Swan and then back to The Bru. We even had the pleasure of working together every day in the summer of 2021, long, hard days that gave me an opportunity to see Martin’s work first hand.

Martin has as a real can-do attitude with our guests, often recommending drinks and delicious food from Darran’s menu. Over the past six months Martin has stepped up to become a Duty Manager and now looks after liquor ordering and stock taking. A real asset to the company, however, don’t take it from me, take from the 72 guests who mentioned him by name over the past twelve months. Congratulations Martin.

Make it Happen

Gosia Wray

Gosia has been with the company for over eight years and remained a key member of the team at The Crown. Small but perfectly formed The Crown has 10 bedrooms which Gosia and her team keep spotlessly clean with a Primary Service score on Housekeeping of 94.42%.

Congratulations to Gosia and her team for a fantastic year at The Crown.

Hospitality Expert

Jack Fryer

Perfectionist through and through. An absolute delight to work with. Every guest has been "Fryeriesd" with his charm and knowledge. No smallest detail passes him by. He asks the right question and not only does he get the job done, but; done in the way it will be remembered.

As an example, guests asked if they could take home Jack's name cards, he created for the Christmas tables with the guests surname as they thought they were the most perfect thing, they wanted to have it as a souvenir from The White lion. The thought that went into this seemingly small thing meant the world to our guests. That is what I call a Hospitality Expert. Unfortunately, Jack was unable to attend and so his General Manager, Zane, accepted on his behalf.

Unity in the Community

Sophie Deere

The winner of this year’s Unity in Community HOD of the year is Sophie Deere, The Swan at Lavenham. She has worked for us for eight and half years and started at the grass roots level within her area of expertise, and she knows every trick in the book. Working at the largest hotel in the group and also managing a large department.

Dedicated to the Details

Jake Lawrence

Jake’s menus and dishes are very creative and always well presented. His team believe him to create ‘amazing food’. Jake is very organised, from Nutritics to menu planning, he is always trying to think of the next best thing, but with the guest in mind.

Jake is always on top of everything, whatever challenges are thrown his way, always answers his phone (no matter how stupid the question) and obviously puts a lot of time and love into his job. Congratulations Jake.

Head Office Team of the Year

Central Maintenance

Now when people ask me who I work for, I always answer the leader of this departments name, I dare not say otherwise. They are probably the most organised and methodical team I have every worked with. Most jobs are never too small, and they approach everything with a can-do attitude.

I mentioned earlier we had refurbished a third of our hotel bedrooms and the power behind the button sits with this lady and her (not always) merry bunch of men.

The winner of Head Office Team of Year for 2022 with 31% of the vote is Juliet and the Central Maintenance Team.

Hotel of the Year

Thorpeness Golf Club and Hotel and Thorpeness Country Club

The moment you’ve all been waiting for, Hotel of the Year. Again, this award is spreadsheet geeks dream. The winner of this award had to win in seven criteria:

Guest Revu

Folklore

Silent Customer Reviews

Sales versus Budget

Labour % to Budget

Food Margin

Profit

Each of these elements was scored out of six meaning the winner of this award beat their sales budget by 24.65%, had the joint second most controlled labour to sales ratio and the second closet to budget on Food Margin. They beat their profit budget by 40.44%, they did, an amazing job looking after their guests and invested time in training their people. As if this wasn’t enough, they then went on to look after 25 plus weddings right here in this very building. Coping with every single challenge thrown at them and delivering a fantastic all-round performance is Thorpeness Golf Club and Hotel and Thorpeness Country Club.

Short Service, Long-term Potential

Daisy Block, The Crown and Castle

Nominated for two awards this evening, Extraordinary Service and Hospitality Expert, a true advocate if you could ever meet one

Jade Carter, The Swan at Lavenham

Jade needs to have an agreement with Jade Parsons for one of them to change their name as there are so many positive reviews for Jade’s at The Swan it is unbelievable

Madeline Emmerson, The Brudenell

Maddie is like a sponge and soaks up everything. Our guests love her and so do her team.

Jamie Day, Thorpeness

Completing his L2 Hospitality team member apprenticeship with HIT, you can always tell when Jamie is in the building as his personality speaks volumes.

Demi Fryer, The Crown at Woodbridge

At such a young age Demi is taking the kitchen at The Crown by storm. She bosses pastry and is now learning new skills every single day, keep those boys in check Demi.

William Chapple, The Brudenell

And finally, a very special young man, someone who has worked at The Brudenell for only 4 months and already getting mentioned in Guest Revu’s by name, William Chapple, come and join your colleagues on stage.

Long Service Awards, celebrating 76 years in total!

Sarah Ramsey, 20 years of service

Rob Tucker, 7 years of service

Stephen Andrews, 7 years of service

And Kerry MacKender, 20 years of service, Tracy Sharman, 15 years of service, Tracy Bryan, 7 years of service, who were unable to make the awards evening.

Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees, we look forward to going again next year!