Finaliste - Professional Success
Zoe Tudela
Campaign - One&Only Palmilla, Mexico - Les Roches
Cette candidature n'est disponible qu'en anglais / This application is only available in English.
After graduating from Les Roches with Honors and Distinction in 2016, Zoé joined One&Only Palmilla in Mexico as a Rooms Management Trainee. Four years and three promotions later, she is now Front Office Manager for the ultra-luxury resort, having been awarded Manager of the Year by One&Only in 2019.
Finding a company and a workplace that trusts your potential and vision is an incredible opportunity as a young leader. As Front Office Manager at One&Only Palmilla, I not only fulfil the basic responsibilities the job requires, I am also able to create and shape a whole new experience within the guest’s journey and the ultra-luxury market.
As an ambitious and hard-working person, my different curricular activities, interests and passion for leadership led me to the hospitality industry due to its support towards diversity and its vision to create fulfillment in people’s lives. Since then, my career path has always been clear to me: “I will become Vice President of Operations for a Hotel Brand” – My daily affirmation.
After I graduated from Les Roches back in 2016, finding a company with which I shared a mission and values was by far the most fundamental decision at the beginning of my career. I wanted a company that would support my ideas and help me develop new concepts in hand with their brand identity.
Opening an entire Quality department after my MIT was my first decisive challenge. Achieving the 5-Star rating of Forbes for the very first time in the resort’s history was simply a milestone I could not miss. I worked actively around implementing a new culture within the organization and strategies to move the teams towards one goal.
After a successful year, I had the opportunity to create the concept of a brand-new telephone operator department, which today functions as the operational brain of the resort, connecting all departments together to ensure maximum efficiency. It encompasses everything from pre-arrival communication, to daily reservations, activity bookings, housekeeping and in-room dining services. Today, the Connectivity Center is being implemented globally within the brand after brilliant results combining customer satisfaction and business resources.
My impact on the guest experience and the growth of colleagues, allowed me to win Manager of the Year in 2019 and offered me visibility and credibility to our Corporate Office in Dubai.
As Front Office Manager, I coach and develop Junior Managers to focus equally on the guest experience and colleague engagement. As a major in Finance, I also strategize the team around upsell revenue. We’ve achieved, so far, close to $500K USD, a 143% increased profit from past years (2018 and 2019).
Empowerment, Empathy and Growth are the pillars I live by; including in my personal life. During the pandemic of 2020, I created a community of Women of Hospitality and Travel in Los Cabos (WHTC) to provide a safe platform for young and more established professionals to connect and share resources. This empowered community aims to develop more women to achieve executive positions within our industry through the help of mentorships and workshops.
In the future, as a leader of the hospitality industry, I want to impact the life and education of my employees, their families and their communities, while anticipating and analyzing new innovations to implement for guests around the world. This combination offers the opportunity for each individual to go after a more meaningful and fulfilled life.
