Alessandro Dorrucci — Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa © European Hotel Awards 2026
BOARD’S CHOICE 2026 — A General Manager gives a hotel one direction
A resort is a collection of many moving parts: rooms, restaurants, public areas, events, teams, suppliers, commercial priorities and guest expectations. The role of the General Manager is to ensure that these different elements do not feel fragmented. Leadership gives the property one direction and one culture.
Alessandro Dorrucci, General Manager of Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa in Bordighera, receives General Manager of the Year 2026 from the European Hotel Awards for leadership at the point where strategy, people and daily hospitality meet.
General Manager of the Year 2026
Alessandro Dorrucci — Bordighera, Italy
General Manager — Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa
Grand Hotel del Mare combines resort scale with a strong Mediterranean identity © Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa
Leadership beyond administration
Hotel management requires financial discipline, operational control and commercial awareness, but the strongest General Managers are not defined by administration alone. They create conditions in which teams understand the standards of the house and guests experience a consistent personality across the property.
This is especially demanding in a resort environment. The guest may move from accommodation to dining, leisure, outdoor spaces and events during the same stay. Each touchpoint has its own team and operational requirements, yet all must feel part of the same hospitality experience.
The General Manager is responsible for maintaining that coherence while keeping the organisation responsive and sustainable.
The General Manager turns strategy into a shared way of working that the guest can feel throughout the property.
The property’s gardens and sea views are part of the guest experience Alessandro Dorrucci leads © Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa
The human centre of a complex organisation
Leadership in hospitality is unusually immediate. The product is delivered in real time by people, often under changing conditions. A General Manager must therefore remain close enough to operations to understand what teams and guests are experiencing while maintaining the perspective needed to guide the business.
This creates a constant balance between detail and direction. Decisions about service standards, investment, staffing, communication and positioning ultimately converge in the guest experience.
At Grand Hotel del Mare, this leadership also carries the responsibility of representing a distinctive Mediterranean resort on the Italian Riviera — a property with its own identity, rhythm and relationship to its destination.
Leadership becomes visible through the consistency of service across every hotel environment © Grand Hotel del Mare Resort & Spa
Why General Manager of the Year is a central EHA distinction
The European Hotel Awards regard the General Manager as one of the essential guardians of hotel identity. Architecture can be designed, brands can be positioned and procedures can be written, but leadership determines whether those elements become a coherent lived experience.
The General Manager of the Year 2026 recognition given to Alessandro Dorrucci highlights that responsibility. It is not an award for visibility; it is an acknowledgment of the sustained work required to align performance, teams and hospitality around one clear standard.
In that sense, the distinction speaks to a central principle of European hospitality: the strongest hotels are not only well equipped or well located. They are well led.
Official 2026 laureate film
https://youtu.be/KV-LD5VSQes
Discover the Main Awards dedicated to excellence across European hospitality and visit the Hall of Fame to explore previous laureates.
Tags: Alessandro Dorrucci, Bordighera, European Hotel Awards, General Manager of the Year 2026, Grand Hotel del Mare Resort and Spa, hotel leadership, Italy, luxury hospitality
