The real start of the Clefs d’Or was in 1951, when the owner of a famous hotel in ROUEN invited some hotel concierges to this splendid Normandy town.
As from this moment, some local section presidents of local hotel porter association started travelling and visiting friends of the same profession. In April 1952, under the work of Mr Ferdinand GILET, a unforgettable congress was organized in CANNES in the lounge of the CARLTON HOTEL and the first official association was born: UNION EUROPENNE DES PORTIERS DE GRANDS HOTELS with official address, PARIS on rue Cambon.
The credo of this wonderful association: FRIENDSHIP, SOLIDARITY and HELPFULNESS.
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland and many more countries joined the group and the name had to be changed to UNION INTERNATIONALES DES PORTIERS DE GRANDS HOTELS and is now UNION INTERNATIONALE DES CONCIERGES D'HOTELS, CLEFS D’OR.
UICH is now an association on 41 countries and about 3243 members.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1986 was first associate member of the Belgian section. On February 27th 1989, with assistance of the Belgian President Jos JOOSTENS, a new section became official member of LES CLEFS D’OR, with Mr Claude BAUER, head concierge at “Le ROYAL HOTEL”***** as Founding-President.
There were 10 members at that time in the hotels Le ROYAL, GRAND HOTEL CRAVAT and INTER-CONTINENTAL.
December 1996, Simon DELCOMMINETTE, actual head concierge at the “Le ROYAL HOTEL”***** was elected President of his national section, now assisted by Roland ALDEA.
Other hotels joined the section: HOTEL-CASINO2000, HILTON (previously INTER-CONTINENTALE) and SOFITEL GRAND DUCAL.
