Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, was the guest of honour at Hospitality Assured client, the Victory Services Club (VSC) earlier on this month. The purpose of the visit was two-fold. Firstly, as the Club’s Patron-in-Chief, Her Royal Highness saw many areas of the Club and event rooms which had been part of a £5.3m refurbishment programme.
The Club’s future President, General Sir Richard Barrons KCB CBE, greeted the Duchess on her arrival at the Carisbrooke Hall and then escorted her into the Club Dining Room and The Grill, and then through reception to meet the Club’s Front of House team.
Her Royal Highness then took a tour of the ‘back of house’ areas where a selection of staff were presented to her, and then was escorted into the banqueting kitchen to meet Executive Chef Paul Mattocks and his team, who discussed and demonstrated some food preparation techniques using herbs from the VSC’s own Roof Garden. Her Royal Highness then attended a reception in the Trafalgar Room at which the RAF Salon Orchestra played.
The CEO, Air Commodore Nigel Beet said: “We were greatly honoured to host the visit by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall in her capacity as our Patron-in-Chief. All of the Club’s members, staff and guests who were present at a reception in the Trafalgar Room were delighted to meet Her Royal Highness. It was a huge privilege to have her visit today. Her Royal Highness seemed very impressed by the dedication and professionalism of our team and of the recent refurbishment of the Club and our event spaces.”
The tour concluded with Her Royal Highness unveiling a plaque to commemorate the completion of the refurbishment work.
For the second part of the visit, Sir Richard then escorted Her Royal Highness to the Carisbrooke Hall to meet members and guests of the British Dance Council to attend their tea dance, in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the British Dance Council. The function was attended by former Strictly Come Dancing Judge, Len Goodman, who invited Her Royal Highness to dance, to which she agreed. The Carisbrooke Hall was the perfect room for the British Dance Council’s lunch and the demonstration ballroom dances, at which the Steve Bradford trio played live from the stage.
Hospitality Assured is the quality standard created by the Institute of Hospitality specifically for customer facing businesses. They enable businesses to reach and exceed their full potential by following world class processes, customer service standards and employee engagement.
