Peter Stafford; hotelier
Hyfler/Rosner
Peter Stafford
Hotelier
1925-2004
The inhabitants of the grand hotels must be the most
pampered creatures on earth. When not being cosseted at
home, many of them move from one grand hotel to another
where their every need and whim is anticipated and
gratified.
For four decades, at the Savoy, the Mandarin and the
Dorchester, Peter Stafford, who has died in Sydney at the
age of 79, worked to ensure this was so. He was, in short,
the greatest hotelier of his generation. To Sir Robert
Menzies, whose London home was the Savoy, Stafford was
"Australia's best ambassador".
Born in Brisbane, Peter Stafford was the second of six
children of Mick Stafford, a veteran of Gallipoli, and his
wife, Nell. Like his son, Mick was a great professional; in
fact, he was the golf pro at Brisbane's exclusive Royal
Queensland Golf Club.
He was a Catholic at a time when "Roman Catholics" were
rarely permitted near the greens, except perhaps to tend
them. And yet for half a century, with courtesy and good
humour, he improved the handicaps of generations of wealthy
WASPS. Peter Stafford attributed any success he had to the
values imbued in him by his parents.
After an education by the Christian Brothers at St James's
and St Laurence's in Brisbane, the will to instruct in him
led young Stafford to teachers college.
The war intervened and, in September 1943, Stafford joined
the RAAF as a trainee navigator. He reached England not long
before VE Day and so did not see any action, although after
the war he took part in rescue operations for prisoners of
war from camps in Germany and brought them home.
On his return to Queensland he taught a dozen pupils in the
one-teacher school at Bromelton, near Beaudesert in the
state's south-east, staying with a widow on her dairy farm.
In 1948, Stafford, with his elder brother, Michael, left for
England. A chance meeting in a pub in 1950 led the brothers
to a hotel in North Berwick in Scotland, managed by Peter
Hillier, brother of the actress, Dame Wendy Hillier.
Hillier arranged an exchange for Stafford in Paris with the
Palais D'Orsay, a grand hotel near Gare D'Orsay. And so his
career was launched. On his return to London in 1952 he
managed the reception desk at Claridge's where he welcomed
an invasion of crowned heads for the Queen's coronation.
Greeting royals became a specialty for Stafford - never
fawning or farouche, but a dexterous balance of dignity and
deference.
Fifty years ago this month, in June 1954, after only six
weeks at the Baur Au Lac in Zurich, Stafford was appointed
assistant manager at the Savoy. On the site of one Europe's
finest manor houses in the 13th century, in 1884 the
impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and the operettic Gilbert
and Sullivan built the finest hotel in Europe with
innovations such as air-conditioning, sound-proofing,
electricity, all-night service, private bathrooms, dancing,
and supper after the theatre. Added to this was the genius
of Ce{aac}sar Ritz and Escoffier in the kitchen.
The rich, the gifted and the famous flocked to the Savoy and
were still checking in during Stafford's time, 70 years
later.
It was at the Savoy that Stafford made his reputation. Early
in his time there, he went away for Christmas but the staff
found it so difficult without him that his Yuletide from
then on was spent in the hotel.
He had a lifelong passion for opera and Maria Callas became
a frequent guest and a great friend. Stafford went to visit
la Divina in Paris not long before she died. Regina Resnik
and Dame Joan Sutherland would also become pals. Menzies and
Sir Frank Packer were both firm patrons of the Savoy in
Stafford's day.
In 1964, Stafford arranged for the blessing of the marriage
of the widowed Packer to the beautiful Florence Vincent in
the hotel's chapel. Lord Beaverbrook had just died and at
the press conference, also arranged by Stafford, after the
ceremony the irrepressible Packer told reporters he wished
he had known that (the octogenarian) Lady Beaverbrook had
become available.
After 15 years, Stafford left the Savoy, fearing he would
become the oldest assistant general manager in the world. In
February 1970, the charismatic chairman of City Hotels,
Harold Lee, invited Stafford to become general manager of
the Mandarin in Hong Kong. This was perhaps the apogee of
his career. During his five years in Hong Kong, the hotel
was regarded - by the industry and by popular acclaim - as
the best hotel in the world. Its service, style, its comfort
and cuisine were unparalleled.
At times the hotel enjoyed incredibly high occupancy and
Stafford overheard one of his staff say, "Oh, you're lucky
to get a room." He said he shrank with shame and exhorted
his managers to say to guests, "Thank you for staying with
us", even when they were 100 per cent occupied.
And yet he took some risks. On the first night of Barry
Humphries's cabaret at the hotel, when a toothy, flushed
priapic figure in an ugly suit stumbled into the room
spraying slurs and saliva in equal measure, many thought an
Australian guest had wandered out of the bar, until Les
Patterson in all his ghastly glory revealed himself, more or
less, to a vastly amused audience. The gulf between two
expatriate Australians could not have been greater.
In early 1976 Stafford returned for six months as a director
at the Savoy until the equally illustrious 360-room
Dorchester Hotel made him managing director. He continued to
instruct and inspire his staff. As a former waiter, cook,
receptionist, cashier and manager, he was an ideal mentor to
another generation of hotel employees.
In 1979 Stafford theoretically retired and moved to Venice,
where he spent the next 20 years. His genius as a host,
though on a smaller scale, continued. At any time the
sitting room of his apartment on the island of Giudecca
would be full of visiting family and friends from Australia,
contessas, marchesi or the odd Austrian archduke or English
duchess.
Although his Italian was never fluent, he got to know the
city and its people, its churches, treasures, markets, and
shops as thoroughly as he had known his hotels. He delighted
in sharing it with his friends. He also assumed a number of
consultancies over the years, most notably a memorably
stylish opening of Sydney's Hotel Inter-Continental for Lord
McAlpine in 1985. Only when his health declined at the end
of the '90s did he return to Australia to live.
And the secret to his success? A profusion of qualities are
required of the best hotelier. He needs the discretion of a
confessor, the manners of a duke, the tact of a diplomat,
the leadership of a field marshal, and the temperament of a
saint. And while Stafford seemed to possess these traits,
his philosophy was a simple one. "If one has a happy staff,
one has a happy guest."
He was an inspirational leader, exacting like most
perfectionists but fair. To get to know his staff of 1200 at
the Mandarin, he hired a ferry every Saturday afternoon for
six weeks and asked them to join him with their families for
a picnic.
He was never afraid of confronting difficult guests. After
Zsa Zsa Gabor reduced two housemaids to tears, Stafford
suggested Miss Gabor might be happier in another hotel. He
was known to take the side of the staff and put up a robust
defence if the cause of a guest's complaint was unjustified.
When he moved to The Dorchester many of the old guard among
the staff were concerned about their jobs. He called a
meeting and told them, "I need you much more than you need
me."
This attitude was a constant throughout his working life and
inspired respect, even affection, from those he worked with.
Process and protocol were important, the history of the
hotel was recognised and its traditions respected. Stafford
would say, "If anything is working, think 20 times before
you change it."
His care of his hotel guests was legendary. Anton Mosimann,
a protege of Stafford's from the Dorchester, recalled guests
saying, "We're not staying at the Dorchester; we're staying
with Peter."
He was never an ebullient, backslapping host but guests
found him to be supremely good company - sympathetic,
intuitive, and witty. Many became lifelong friends. To keep
in step with his guests and yet block the path to oblivion,
he would, when ordering a drink, ask waiters and bar staff
for "the usual", a concoction that merely looked alcoholic.
To ensure that staff knew their guests, he would display for
them photographs of imminent arrivals so they could be
addressed by name. The names of guests were also inscribed
on hotel writing paper in their rooms ("Sir John and Lady
Pagan at the Mandarin"). Today, it's not the guests' but the
manager's name that is invariably splashed across it.
He brought a humanity to the grand hotels he managed without
allowing them to lose any of their grandeur.
Peter Stafford is survived by his sister and four brothers.
His legacy is the legion of concierges, managers and chefs
whom he taught and who are now serving with distinction in
hotels around the world. He will be remembered as the
consummate professional and the quintessential host.
GRAPHIC: TWO PHOTOS: A friend to many high-profile visitors
... Peter Stafford and Prime Minister Robert Menzies at the
river entrance to the Savoy, c 1954. Below, Stafford at
Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel in 1985. Photo: main photo
courtesy The Savoy Archive.
ronkr...@att.net
When I first traveled with my wife to London, Peter Stafford was the General Manager of the Dorchester. He provided us with a complimentary suite, with a wood burning fireplace, and had a lovely flower arrangement for Rose. We both respected him as a hotelier and genuinely liked him as a person. He will be missed by all who knew him.