CAMINO STORM AHEAD.... AND THEY SCORE!

1^st place in the football Hotel Cup 2012 in Stuttgart

Sunday 18th March, 4pm. Not a particularly sunny day, in fact quite cool weather with a hint of drizzle in the air … luckily that didn’t matter because the football Hotel Cup 2012 in Stuttgart was to be held indoors and what an atmosphere there was inside the "Soccer Olymp" in Fellbach! When Assistant General Manager Peter Leidig first suggested the idea of a "Hotelcup" a few weeks ago to colleagues at the ARCOTEL Camino, everyone immediately got really excited and it wasn’t long before a team was selected. As everybody knows, football is more than just a sport – it’s all about passion for the game and that passion was evident across all departments. The team was made up of a real mix of colleagues, with representatives from housekeeping, reception, the kitchen, serving staff and management, but all had one thing in common – the drive and the team spirit necessary to ‘get the ball rolling’ and ultimately go on and win the trophy for the ARCOTEL Camino. And without any yellow or red cards either! There was a lot of hard training to be done in the days leading up to the final, however. After all, preparing for the Hotel Match of the Year is a very serious matter!

So the big day arrived and the teams put forward by all the individual Stuttgart hotels came face to face. Sporting striking red ARCOTEL Hotels jerseys, our team not only looked the part but they also impressed everybody with their outstanding performance on the field. After beating the "NH Hotel" 1-0 in their opening match, they faced the "Mercure Hotel Stuttgart City Center". After going two goals down, they were able to turn the game around to win 3-2. Our team suffered just one defeat in the qualifying rounds, losing 2-3 to the “Maritim Hotel". Then, in the last match of the qualifiers against the "Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Airport", our lads pulled off a very convincing 6-0 victory. In the semi-final against the "Dormero Hotel Stuttgart" our players clearly dominated the proceedings, going on to win a decisive 4-1 victory, taking them through to the Final. "What really set us apart from the other eight teams taking part was our ability to work well as a team, our sheer determination and the fact that we were enjoying ourselves. In the Final we managed to trounce our opponents the "Maritim Hotel", with a very convincing 5-1 win – sweet revenge for our defeat at their hands in the qualifiers!", says Assistant General Manager Peter Leidig proudly.

We would like to offer warm congratulations to our colleagues for their incredible and thoroughly well-deserved win in the 2012 Hotel Cup in Stuttgart and our fingers are now crossed that the team will do well in the all-Germany Final in Cologne! Hotel Cup ‘Man of the Match’ was awarded to our very own footballing legend, striker Bilal Ghazi, who not only scored an amazing 11 goals, but also demonstrated that a receptionist can be ‘on the ball’ on the field as well as at his desk.

The Hotel Cup has been the competition of the hotel sector since 2009 and every year more and more people take part. Even after this year’s very first tournament, held in Hamburg, more teams have registered to take part than last year. There are Hotel Cup tournaments in several German cities and the two winning teams from each city go through to represent their area in the all-Germany final.

You can see the final match on youtube: