The catering and convention services department at the Hyatt Downtown has been selected by Hyatt Hotels Corp. as the 2011 "Team of the Year."
The annual award recognizes all-around excellence in customer service, business performance and community involvement.
The team earned the recognition in the large hotel category, which includes more than 40 Hyatt properties in North America.
Melissa Milione, Hyatt senior director of catering and convention services, said the award was based on the performance of the department's 13 managers in the course of their duties at the hotel and their community service contributions.
The annual corporate award is based on factors such as customer service scores, revenue generation and community involvement.
The team is responsible for booking catered events and coordinating convention details for groups with as many as 2,000 or more delegates. Details vary with each group and range from special parking needs and specific hotel amenities required to arranging outside activities for guests.
"The catering and convention services staff are the communicators for the hotel. We talk to the customers, find out what they need to have happen while they are here and then we send out that information to the rest of the hotel. Any questions a group has, we have to get the answers to those questions," Milioni said.
The local team is a previous nominee for the award and a first-time recipient.
Milione said managers in the department have selected their own professional organization and community service involvements.
"We have a manager who is very active with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and does a lot of volunteering at Ronald McDonald House. Another manager is very active with Big Brothers Big Sisters. We are very active with the Wiley Foundation, which raises funds for stroke awareness and research and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation," said Milione.
She said the managers' level of involvement in community service can be remarkable given their schedules.
With 963 guest rooms and 250,000 square feet of meeting space, convention and group business accounts for about 75 percent of the Hyatt's food and beverage business and close to 70 percent of the revenue on the rooms side of the operation.
"When you work in a hotel that's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and you have customers in the house all the time, sometimes the hours can be a little crazy. They are a busy team," she said.
The Hyatt Downtown also supports the Sulzbacher Center's annual "Transformations" event. Milione said members of the hotel's culinary staff serve on advisory boards for the culinary curricula at Florida State College at Jacksonville and Terry Parker High School.
"We help students in the high school program because the program is so dramatically underfunded," Milione said.
The hotel donates leftover food prepared for banquets to the Sulzbacher Center and the Clara White Mission.
Now that the team has received the award, Milione said the next step is to earn it again.
"I think the goal would be to win it as many times as we possibly can. I try to make sure the team is nominated if we're deserving," she said.
@drmaxdowntown
(904) 356-2466