The President’s Welcome

Welcome to the Amicale Internationale des Chefs de Réception et Sous Directeurs des Grand Hôtels or AICR - The International Association for Front Office Managers and Assistant Hotel Managers.

The AICR was founded in 1964 on the Côte d'Azur in France by the Chefs de Réception of several famous Grand Hotels and over the past more than 40 years has developed into an international organisation represented in 12 countries and continuing to grow. It now provides Front Office Managers with an invaluable network offering:

• A friendly and professional support mechanism
• Exchange of views, information and experiences
• Warning of fraudsters or gamblers
• Forwarding of reservations making it easier for guests to move to an unknown hotel
• The best young receptionist competition
• Recruitment and ways to attract more staff into the industry
• Job search

But the Amicale means much more then just a professional organisation. The word was chosen deliberately to highlight the friendships between amicalistes which have been formed over many years.

The individual sections offer:

• Series of meetings every year including lectures by national organisations eg Tourist Boards
• Training sessions by companies specialising eg in Yield Management or the recent introduction of the Euro
• New hotel inspections
• The best young receptionist competition
• Surveys of eg laundry prices
• Product presentations
• Initiatives to attract more young people into the industry such as visits to schools or visits of hotels by schools and to support them if they have chosen a career in Front Office.

Each section votes a national committee and president who organise the local activities and who represents that section on the international committee.

There are usually 6-8 functions per year in a section including the Annual General Meeting.

The international president is voted by the general assembly every two years and chooses his committee. It meets together with the national presidents every year and as a committee about four times throughout the year.

Each section can set its own membership fee depending on local sponsors. A EUR 25 fee per active member is payable by each section once year and this money is used to support the work of the international committee.

We invite you to browse through this website and please contact us for any more details either about an application to become a member of an existing section or to set up a section of your own.

Michael Stenner
President