INTRODUCTION :

The Croisette, Festival, Stars... What city rings a bell here? Cannes, on the Mediterranean Sea, of course.

Gregor Mayoussier, a Vatel Lyon alumnus, class of 1994, has managed the Five Seas Hotel Cannes located on the French Riviera near Festival Palace, for over three years. Let’s roll out the red carpet for him! 

INTERVIEW :

Gregor, the Five Seas Hotel is the most recent five-star hotel in Cannes. Could you tell us a bit about it as well as your job as its General Manager?

I’ve managed the hotel since June, 2010. For I year I coordinated the work and prepared the grand opening of the Five Seas, which has 45 rooms including 15 Suites.

We offer a full range of services:
- a Restaurant,
- a Bar,
- a 2,700 square foot Spa,
- a pastry shop, Salon de Gourmandise [Gourmet Boutique] ‘Intuition by J’ managed by the 2009 World Pastry Champion, Jerome de Oliveria,
- and the ‘Leopard 27’ a 27 meter long yacht (29.33 feet).

We have been ranked as the best hotel in Cannes and the second best on the French Riviera, out of 41 five-star hotels from Saint Tropez to Monaco included by Online Travel Agencies and social networks.

Opening a hotel requires an enormous professional and personal investment. It’s a difficult, though rewarding experience. One of my greatest satisfactions is to have hired an ambitious, dynamic and dedicated team who are always ready and willing to go the extra mile for the comfort and well-being of our guests. Our number of ‘repeat guests’ shows us they consider our hotel as their home away from home!

What did you do after graduating from Vatel up until doing the job you now have?

After having done my military service, I enrolled in ESDES in the Catholic University of Lyon, where I obtained my Master’s in Management and Marketing.  I also was trained in creating or acquiring a company at Lyon Business School.

I started off my career by going to New York for a year, where I worked as the F&B Assistant Manager in the Old Oaks Country Club.  

When I came back to France, I joined the Management Trainee Program in the Hilton Cannes, and then I had the opportunity to create the Events Manager position in this hotel.

After having worked for three years with Hilton, I was ‘head-hunted’ by Groupe Barriere to be the Assistant Manager in the mythical Hotel Majestic, which was also a very rewarding experience for me.

All of this experience allowed me to have my first job as the General Manager of a four-star hotel with 170 rooms in Cannes, when I was only 33.

You enrolled in Vatel right after graduating from high school. Why did you choose the field of hotel management?

I guess you could say this was a true vocation. I had always been attracted by jobs in the hotel and tourism sectors, even though no one in my family ever worked in this kind of job.

For my education, I needed a strict but family-like context, one that dispensed a complete and enriching curriculum, where we had plenty of time to satisfy our curiosity while doing professional applications. Vatel, in that respect for me, was really a great professional school as well as being a school of life.

Sincerely, and without being obsequious, I was, and remain impacted by Mrs. Sebban’s professional attitude and conduct.  She embodies and conveys Vatel’s values while always supporting her professors and staff.

Whether we’re talking about teaching or luxury brand management, added value can always be found in commitment, know-how and personal skills and etiquette that each and every person has, whatever their jobs may be.

I was also very affected by the quality of courses given by Mr. Aries. In particular, I remember the demonstration he gave about the complexity of managing a company, and how he was able to globally and transversally explain how a company works.

Ever since then, without actually questioning myself every day, I’m always aware, I anticipate, inform and train myself.  That has become my motto. 

Vatel alumni all have very fond memories of their time at school.  The quality of Vatel courses does not need to be proved and each year, I’m glad I have the opportunity of hosting new Vatel interns in my hotel.