Ralph Porciani is General Manager at the iconic Trump Turnberry, a Luxury Collection Resort situated on the rugged Ayrshire coast. He was recently awarded Hotel Manager of the Year at the Scottish Hotel Awards 2018.
How does it feel being awarded Hotel Manager of the Year 2018?
“I am very grateful. I would like to say thank you to the amazing team who are so authentic and caring in the way they look after our guests, our wonderful owners who have entrusted me with this iconic property and my family who have put up with me never being around and allowing Turnberry to be such a big part my life.”
How did you get it into hotel management?
“I was encouraged by my parents to study hospitality and in doing so I very quickly developed a passion for grand hotels. I fell totally in love with food and beverage and after a 30-year culinary affair, I decided to cut the apron strings and take the reins!”
Hotel Manager of the Year (large) 2018
How would you define your leadership style?
“My approach to leadership is to hopefully be seen as honest, accountable, decisive, fair, experienced, confident and creative in every aspect of my role.”
What traits are crucial if you want to become a successful General Manager?
“Most hoteliers are experienced in one or two disciplines which is great, however I believe that it is most important to have a solid footing in all disciplines. By doing this you will gain the confidence and commitment of both your team and customers.”
Trump Turnberry Courtyard
What does a typical work day for you look like?
“Every day is totally different; being a general manager allows you to work with such variety, from going on business development appointments, to relationship management with both staff and customers, to revenue and strategy meetings, to property improvement projects, to menu tasting the list is endless, the most enjoyable though is being with our guests and team on a busy day at the resort.”
What is your favourite aspect of managing Trump Turnberry?
“There are probably two – first, leading our wonderful team as we deliver a truly memorable luxury hotel, golf and spa experience for our guests. Second, working with both our owners and senior team on transforming Trump Turnberry into an all year round sustainable business.”
Grand Tea Lounge & Bar
What would you say are the biggest challenges of being a General Manager?
“Finding highly skilled and motivated employees, that’s why we have been focused for some years now on developing our talent locally and from within.”
What advice would you give someone looking to become a General Manager?
“Whether your chosen path is as an apprentice, a graduate, a hotelier or being being developed from a line position within a hotel, ensure you spend enough quality time working in as many departments as possible. This will ensure you develop the key skills required to exceed both your guest and associates expectations.”
What are your ambitions for Trump Turnberry in the next 5 years?
“To increase the hotel occupancy and resort revenues through delivering a best in class Luxury Hotel, Golf and Spa Experience.”
To find out more about Trump Turnberry, a Luxury Collection Resort visit: https://www.trumphotels.com/turnberry
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article