About The Savoy Society
The Savoy Society was founded in 1990, under the guidance of the late Sir Hugh Wontner, to be a point of contact for former employees of The Savoy Group of Hotels and Restaurants.
It was hoped that membership of The Savoy Society would enable friends and former colleagues to socialise to discuss matters of mutual interest.
The objective of The Savoy Society shall be to strive to further the achievement of excellence within the leisure, hotel and catering industry. To provide a social forum for its members to meet and exchange ideas, and to act as a pressure group in such matters as it sees fit.
A fresh new outlook
By the beginning of 2005 The Savoy Group ceased to exist, with Fairmont taking the reigns at The Savoy and the remaining Berkeley, Claridge’s and Connaught forming the new Maybourne Group. So where did that leave the Society?
It was agreed that the fate of the Society should be put to a vote and at the AGM in May five options were tabled for a ballot. These options were subsequently mailed out to all members and responses collated in preparation for the EGM in September.
The results were as follows (starting with the most favoured option):
- To continue to recruit members from all the hotels of the former Savoy Group (namely The Savoy, Berkeley, Claridge’s and Connaught).
- To become a ‘self-perpetuating’ membership society - having current members recommend colleagues in the hotel industry as future members - using a membership qualification such as two years management in a 5 star hotel property.
- To continue to recruit members from The Savoy and other hotels related to the Fairmont Group.
- To continue to recruit members from the Maybourne Group (currently Claridge’s, Berkeley and Connaught) and other hotels that may join this group.
- To allow the society to continue with its current membership, but taking on no new members - giving it a ‘life-term’ of approximately 20 years.
- To wind up the society with immediate effect.
If you have any ideas for the Society, news, special offers you wish to promote to fellow members, or friends you want to nominate, please do let us know.